However, the recent discovery of a fourth brother who also played international football has added to the family's claim to fame, and the reason he has escaped notice until now is that John Hamilton represented Chile.
The Scottish veteran's three appearances for 'La Roja' in 1910, their first ever internationals, came at the end of a long career in the game that had seen him play on both sides of the border, most notably for Derby County in the English first division in 1894-95, in a forward line that featured greats such as Steve Bloomer and John Goodall.
A few years later, an engineering job on South America's Pacific coast gave him the opportunity to don his boots again and his solid appearances for Valparaiso earned him a selection to the Chile squad which travelled over the Andes to Buenos Aires in May 1910.
At the age of 36 he was the oldest player as Chile's national team played together for the first time. They warmed up with a friendly against the Argentinian hosts before facing Uruguay and Argentina in the Copa Centenario Revolucion de Maya. John 'Juan' Hamilton featured in all three games, and although they all ended in defeat, Chile had arrived on the international scene.
Although he did not play for the national team again, Hamilton was the referee in September that year when Argentina came to Chile for a return friendly.
Sebastián's book Duelos del Centenario is an extraordinary feat of research into Chile's ground-breaking team of 1910, with detailed biographies of all the players, and he was able to provide me with documentation and photos that proved beyond doubt the Hamilton story.
John Hamilton came from a remarkable football family. William Hamilton, a master builder in Glasgow, and his wife Isobel had nine sons, most of whom were footballers.
Two other Hamilton brothers also played football without making such an impact: David played a couple of times for Port Glasgow, while Ebenezer must have been at Queen's Park as he is mentioned on their war memorial, having been killed in action in 1915.
When John went to Chile and played for the national team, he was the fourth internationalist in the family, and remarkably they all won their caps in different decades from the 1880s to the 1910s. To my surprise, four brothers is not a record in international football.
With help from historian Cris Freddi, it appears that two sets of five brothers have been capped, both in South America. For Argentina the Brown brothers Jorge, Alfredo, Carlos, Eliseo and Ernesto played in the early years of the 20th century, while in Paraguay the five Jara Saguier brothers Angel, Alberto, Dario, Enrique and Carlos played from 1950 onwards. However, it must be said that these statistics are not easy to verify and I would welcome any clarification.
Countries which have had four brothers capped include Wales (Davies), Barbados (Foster), Greece (Adrianopoulos - it would be five brothers if Greece recognised their 1920 Olympic Games match), Honduras (Palacios), Latvia (Plade) and Malawi (Waya). Scotland can now be added to that list.
Born 12 September 1873 Glasgow
Died 27 June 1932 Glasgow
Football career:
Queen's Park Strollers
Derby County Nov 1894-95 (12 games 5 goals)
Ilkeston Town 1895-96
Abercorn Aug-Dec 1896
Queen's Park Strollers Jan 1897-1901
Airdrieonians (guest, November 1897)
Ayr Parkhouse (guest, May 1901)
Ayr FC Oct 1901-02 (5 league games)
Valparaiso FC c1908-1912
Three appearances for Chile:
Argentina 3 Chile 1, 27 May 1910
Uruguay 3 Chile 0, 29 May 1910
Argentina 5 Chile 1, 5 June 1910
Scots Football Worldwide: Scottish football influence in Chile
The Long Ball blog: the origins of the Copa America
The Men Who Made Scotland: the definitive Who's Who of Scottish internationalists