Sports History Blog - Scottish Sport History

Published on: November 28, 2012

140 years on - the world's first football international

football origins Scotland

This week is the 140th anniversary of the first international football match, Scotland v England, played in Glasgow on 30 November 1872. To mark the event, here are a few little-known facts about the game, which finished 0-0:

The Scotland team wore blue jerseys and white knickerbockers with blue and white hooped socks. These were the colours of Queen's Park FC, whose committee selected the team and made all the arrangements for the game as the Scottish FA had not yet been formed. To distinguish the jerseys, a red lion rampant was embroidered onto the chest by Marion Wotherspoon, sister of one of the Scotland players. Unfortunately, if the pictures of the game are accurate, she sewed them on back to front.
Although all of the Scotland players were members of Queen's Park, two of them had to travel from England specially for the game. They were the brothers Robert and James Smith, who were founding members of the club in 1867 but had since moved to London and were now playing for South Norwood. In fact, they turned out for their London club in the FA Cup the week before and the week after the international.
Two of the England players, Frederick Chappell and Arnold Kirke Smith, had previously played for Scotland against England in the series of unofficial internationals that preceded this match.
A photographer was asked to attend the ground but left as the players refused to commit to buy his prints. Therefore the only images of the match are the engravings which appeared in The Graphic two weeks later. They were drawn by William Ralston, a young Glasgow artist who went on to a successful career with Punch.
The attendance is often quoted as four thousand, but some contemporary newspapers gave a figure of 2,500 which seems more likely. The gate receipts were just under £103, which equates to just over two thousand admissions at a shilling each. Ladies were admitted free.
Both teams changed goalkeepers at half-time. Robert Barker started in goal for England but changed places at the break with William Maynard. For Scotland, team captain Robert Gardner moved upfield for a while with Robert Smith going between the sticks, but Gardner reverted to his original position during the second half.
After the match, the teams enjoyed dinner at Carrick's Royal Hotel in George Square, where the lengthy toast list included the Sheffield FA and the Scotland rugby team.

Read the full story of the match in my book, First Elevens. Order now for Christmas!

Published on: November 15, 2012

Scottish football's first trade unionists

football Scotland

I recently obtained this fascinating rule book from 1898, which sets out the aims of the ill-fated first attempt in Scottish football to form a trade union. It was run in line with the organisation of the same name in England, the Association Football Players' Union, which was itself established by two Scotland internationals, John Cameron and Jack Bell. With the slogan 'Defence not Defiance' the booklet lists a committee of management which comprised some major names in Scottish football at that time: secretary James Miller was a Rangers forward in their league-winning side, and the other four were all internationalists: Dan Doyle of Celtic, William Baird of St Bernard's, James Gillespie of Third Lanark and James Raeside of Clyde. Details of what happened to the Union are scant, and require further research, but this marked a landmark in players' rights.

Published on: October 29, 2012

Local derby with bite

football scandal

Ah, the good old days. This is a report on a local cup final between two of Renfrewshire's finest early sides, in April 1887:
Abercorn v Arthurlie - Disgraceful scenes. While this match was being played at Paisley on Saturday, through the violent charge of McCormick, Hamilton of the Arthurlie had to be carried unconscious off the field and play had to be stopped. As soon as play was resumed, there was a free fight between T. Johnstone and one of the Arthurlie backs, and the men had to be separated.
From a brilliant run taken part in by the Arthurlie's front lot, Seymour got a chance and put the first point for the Arthurlie. Later, McCormick scored the equalising point for the Abercorn. As soon as the ball was started, Allison rushed right along his wing, and registered the second point for the Abercorn. At this time, five of the players were limping with kicks received on the legs. Against this second goal the Arthurlie protested, claiming that the ball had not gone through. As the referee allowed the goal, the Arthurlie left the field, and scenes of great confusion followed.
The crowd broke into the field, free fights were general, and a rush made for the money boxes. Two boxes of money were carried away. Later when the policeman had got the crowd cleared away from the entrance to the main gate, it was found that not only had the greater part of the money been carried off, but that two of the money collectors - a young man from Thornliebank and a young man from Busby - had been seriously assaulted. One of them was rescued from a crowd of roughs in an exhausted condition, and had to be carried into the pavilion.
During this time free fights were taking place all over the field. The crowd refused to move until they got their money back, as the match had been stopped exactly a minute before half-time. Inside the pavilion were the two teams and a number of their supporters, and there angry words were also taking place. The principal officials and the Renfrewshire Association urged the two teams to reappear on the field to please the crowd. About six o'clock the two teams reappeared on the field the finish the game in a friendly manner, but neither would resume the cup-tie.
NB - playing in 'friendly' fashion, Abercorn scored three more goals and the final score was 5-1 for them. A few days later, the Renfrewshire FA decided that the rest of the match was, after all, going to count and promptly awarded the cup to Abercorn.

Published on: September 3, 2012

The Scot who played for England

Edinburgh England football Scotland

This is Stuart MacRae, who despite his fine Scottish name played football for England, winning five caps in 1883-84. He was a son of Duncan MacRae of Kames Castle on the Isle of Bute, and it was thought that Stuart had been born there. However, although he had indisputable Scottish ancestry, I have now found that he was in fact born on 7 December 1855 in Bengal, where his father was serving in the Indian Army. Stuart was sent back to Scotland for his education at The Edinburgh Academy, where he was captain of the school rugby team in 1872-73, and later moved south to Newark where he married into a brewing family. There, having switched to association rules, he played for Notts County and was duly capped by England. He also introduced golf to the town (this photo comes from the Newark GC) and was a decent cricketer for Gentlemen of Nottinghamshire.
This discovery of his birthplace means that the only man to have been born in Scotland and played for England was John Bain, born to English parents in Bothwell, Lanarkshire in 1854. He moved south soon afterwards, won his one cap in March 1877 against Scotland while a student at Oxford University, and three weeks later he played for the University in the FA Cup Final.

Published on: August 23, 2012

When Scotland met Canada in 1891

Canada football Scotland

I came across this photo of a Scotland team group from 1891 in an old scrapbook - except that it isn't really a Scotland team. This was the side that defeated Canada 5-1 on 3 October 1891 at Ibrox, part of a lengthy tour undertaken by the visitors in which they faced club sides and local selects from the end of August to early January, as well as national sides from all four home nations. These games are not considered official internationals.
The people in this photo are (back, from left): JK McDowall, JM Marshall, M McQueen (Leith Athletic), A McCredie (Rangers), W Maley (Celtic), H Smith (Third Lanark), G Sneddon (SFA President), J Reid (Irish FA, referee); centre: J Hector (Battlefield), W Berry (Queen's Park), W Arnott (Queen's Park), A McMahon (Celtic), J Bell (Dumbarton); front: J McLaren (Dumbarton), J Hamilton (Queen's Park).

Published on: August 14, 2012

When even the Scotland B team had star quality

football France photography Scotland

I recently bought this postcard from 1952, signed by the Scotland B footballers who faced their French counterparts in our first ever B international, played at the Municipal Stadium in Toulouse (below). It is a sad indictment of the lack of international talent at our disposal just now that Scotland would struggle to field a side at this level, but 60 years ago we could count on a number of talented men - and notably two future Scotland managers, Willie Ormond and Tommy Docherty. Thanks to the Partick Thistle archive, there is a team photo available. The match was drawn 0-0.

Published on: June 23, 2012

Cricket and football double internationals

cricket football Scotland

It is something of an achievement to play for Scotland - but only rare talents are given the honour in two sports. I was checking recently for double internationals at football and cricket, and there are a few anomalies because of the sometimes dubious status of the Scotland cricket team.
   Scot Symon won one cap for the football team, against Hungary in 1938, and famously took 5 wickets for 33 runs while bowling against the Australians earlier that year. That match against Australia was at Dundee's Forthill ground on 4-5 August, and he also played in a one-day match at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow on 6 August, taking 3 for 44.
   In an earlier era, John Macdonald (Edinburgh University and Queen's Park) won one cap at football against England in 1886, having already played cricket for Scotland against the Australians in September 1880; he also represented his country against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia in 1884.
   Moving to the modern era, Hearts striker Donald Ford played three times for Scotland in 1973-74, twice coming on as a sub for Denis Law and finally making a start against Wales. He was a member of our World Cup squad in West Germany but didn't get a game. A talented cricketer with West Lothian, his only appearance with a Scotland XI was a 40-overs trial match against Worcestershire in 1980, and although he was a member of our B&H Cup squad that year he didn't play.
   The trouble with all the above cricket matches is that none of them is formally considered a 'first class' match.
   Which brings us to the only football international to have played for Scotland in a first class cricket match. Andy Goram won 43 caps in goal for Scotland between 1985 and 1998, when he famously walked out just before the World Cup. He played five times for Scotland at cricket from 1989 to 1991, and two of those games are considered first class: they were both against Ireland, on 8-10 July 1989 and 22-24 July 1991. By then, he had signed for Rangers and Walter Smith made it clear that he had to hang up his bat and focus on the footie. He was rumoured to be contemplating a comeback with Uddingston CC this summer at the age of 48, so there is life left in the Goalie yet.

Published on: June 4, 2012

In a Glasgow cemetery, a poignant carving of a football

football Glasgow gravestones

This impressive memorial in Glasgow Necropolis (city of the dead) pays tribute to a former secretary of the Scottish Football Association, William Dick.
He died in 1880 aged just 29, after five years in post. He was quite an influential man, as founder and editor of the Scottish Football Annual in 1875; Queen's Park played Clapham Rovers in a benefit match a month after his death, representing the Scottish and English cup holders.
What is particularly interesting about the gravestone is the detailed carving, which is one of the earliest such representations of a football in existence. The grave is in the part of the Necropolis known as the quarry, at its southern edge.

Update: an earlier carving of a football is in Wardsend Cemetery, Sheffield, in memory of a footballer called George Beaumont who was killed during a match on Christmas Day 1877. Click here to read his tragic story.

Published on: May 30, 2012

Eadie Fraser - identifying a famous name

Australia football Queen's Park

A regular challenge in researching the early footballers is that published information can be wrong: a name might be spelled wrongly in an old book, and that is how it remains for ever more, without being subject to further scrutiny. One such example which I stumbled across recently was that of MJ Eadie Fraser, who won five caps for Scotland between 1880 and 1883, scoring four goals in the process. At Queen's Park (pictured above) he won two Scottish Cup medals and was club secretary in 1882/83. According to the Queen's Park history (1920): Scotland never had a better forward than Eadie Fraser, known to everybody as the "Graceful Eadie". His movements were perfect. His popularity was extraordinary. On the field and off it he was a thorough gentleman, and never descended to those tricks which tend to bring the game into disrepute.
    He is generally named as Malcolm James Eadie Fraser, but a bit of digging found that the J actually stood for John. A bit more digging turned up the fact that he was born in Canada and died in Australia, quite an unusual journey for a Scottish footballer. Here, for the first time, is a summary of his life:
    Malcolm John Eadie Fraser was born in Goderich, Ontario, on 4 March 1860, the third and youngest son of Rev John Fraser and Sarah Ann Lawrie, who also had three daughters. His father, a native of Grantown-on-Spey, trained for the ministry in Canada with the Presbyterian Church, and the boy was probably named after Dr John Eadie, professor of biblical literature, who was a leading Presbyterian. The family returned to Scotland in 1862 when his father was admitted as a probationer by the church, and in time was appointed as the first minister of the new Cumberland Street UP church in Glasgow's Gorbals.
    Young Eadie became a good footballer and was just the right kind of player for the pre-eminent club in Scotland, Queen's Park, talented and gentlemanly. However, at the peak of his powers, just before his 24th birthday he left Scotland to take up a job in West Africa (I have yet to ascertain what and where). The following year, in 1885, he became ill and to escape the climate became the sole passenger on the cargo ship Ardmore travelling to Australia. Within days of docking at Sydney, however, Eadie Fraser died in the city's Prince Alfred Hospital on 8 January 1886.
    He was buried in the vast Rookwood Cemetery, but the story does not quite end there. Later in 1886, some Australian friends launched a memorial fund [link] to erect a suitable headstone to a great footballer. Unfortunately, it seems not enough money was raised, as in May 1887 a meeting of the Southern British Football Association reported "The Chairman, Rev A Miller, referred to the proposal to erect a headstone at the grave of Eadie Fraser, the Queen’s Park club to defray the cost of the railing. No action was, however, taken in the matter."
    A final quirk to the story is that one of Eadie Fraser's Scotland team-mates in 1880 was Andrew Watson, famously the first black international player. It has been reported (but I have not found confirmation) that Watson also died in Sydney in 1902. Could it be that Watson and Fraser are both buried in the same cemetery - reunited on the other side of the world?