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The earliest known action photo of a header, believed to be in the 1887 FA Cup Final between West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa ['Athletics and Football', The Badminton Library]
This article is based on a talk I gave to the British Society of Sports History conference in Edinburgh, on 27 August 2026.
Why do footballers use their head? It might seem a daft question: in association football, the act of heading the ball is an essential part of the game, from defence to attack. Nearly one in five goals at this year's World Cup came from headers, and Spain's winning goal in the final came from a headed knock-down.
It's a universally accepted feature, but that wasn't always the case, as players didn't start heading until nearly a decade after the Laws of the Game were drawn up in 1863.
The origins of heading have had only a cursory examination in academic and sporting literature, so in this article I will outline the story of how and why this particular skill arrived on the scene.
Why do footballers use their head? It might seem a daft question: in association football, the act of heading the ball is an essential part of the game, from defence to attack. Nearly one in five goals at this year's World Cup came from headers, and Spain's winning goal in the final came from a headed knock-down.
It's a universally accepted feature, but that wasn't always the case, as players didn't start heading until nearly a decade after the Laws of the Game were drawn up in 1863.
The origins of heading have had only a cursory examination in academic and sporting literature, so in this article I will outline the story of how and why this particular skill arrived on the scene.
The use of heading in the main football codes
First, it has to be said that heading in association football is an outlier, a quirk. The head is not used to propel a projectile in any other widely-played sport, and more specifically it does not play a part in any other code of football, and never has – the shape of the ball or the heavier weight make it impractical or downright dangerous.
Even in soccer, it is barely mentioned in the Laws of the Game, except tangentially – for example, you can head a pass-back to the goalkeeper without sanction, your head could put you offside in these days of VAR scrutiny, you can be guilty of violent conduct for head-butting, and there are protocols for head injuries. But in the normal course of the game, heading is essentially unregulated.
Even in soccer, it is barely mentioned in the Laws of the Game, except tangentially – for example, you can head a pass-back to the goalkeeper without sanction, your head could put you offside in these days of VAR scrutiny, you can be guilty of violent conduct for head-butting, and there are protocols for head injuries. But in the normal course of the game, heading is essentially unregulated.
A PowerPoint slide showing the dangers of heading, with a variety of news reports
On the other hand, perhaps it should be regulated. It is now generally accepted that heading carries an element of risk, and several high profile players have suffered an early death from neuro-degenerative disease, with heading a ball during their career being an attributable cause. The sad examples of Jeff Astle and Gordon McQueen are illustrated above.
Recent research from Loughborough University even determined that heading a ball creates a pressure wave energy transfer to the brain which is comparable to some military gunshots and blasts.
Consequently the last few years have seen attempts to redesign the ball to make it safer, while new medical protocols have been put in place - for example, the Scottish FA has banned heading in training the day before and after a professional match, and there are moves to exclude heading completely from youth football.
The risks are clear, but there is little prospect of heading being banned completely as it is too deeply ingrained in the game. So the question remains, why do it?
The answer to that requires an analysis of changes in football laws and playing styles that led to its adoption, as it is clear that heading was not a part of the game when the Football Association was founded in 1863.
It did not emerge until the following decade, and only in 1871 do we have the first reports of deliberate heading. So, what happened?
Recent research from Loughborough University even determined that heading a ball creates a pressure wave energy transfer to the brain which is comparable to some military gunshots and blasts.
Consequently the last few years have seen attempts to redesign the ball to make it safer, while new medical protocols have been put in place - for example, the Scottish FA has banned heading in training the day before and after a professional match, and there are moves to exclude heading completely from youth football.
The risks are clear, but there is little prospect of heading being banned completely as it is too deeply ingrained in the game. So the question remains, why do it?
The answer to that requires an analysis of changes in football laws and playing styles that led to its adoption, as it is clear that heading was not a part of the game when the Football Association was founded in 1863.
It did not emerge until the following decade, and only in 1871 do we have the first reports of deliberate heading. So, what happened?
A PowerPoint slide with a summary of regional usage of the 'fair catch' in early association football and related codes
A simplistic answer is that heading was an innovative ploy which was an unintended consequence of the abandonment of the 'fair catch', a feature which survives in other codes of football. But it's not as straightforward as that, as heading was not taken up universally in response to that rule change.
Let's have a closer look at the fair catch, which was a relic of various school codes of football, and which equates to the 'mark' in rugby. The fair catch survived the drawing up of the Laws of the Game in 1863 but the FA soon realised their mistake and, as part of their drive to distinguish the association game from rugby, they dropped it in February 1866. The pioneers at Cambridge University did not even go that far, and having had it in their 1856 rules, it was gone in 1863.
Despite that, in London and Cambridge there is no known evidence of a player using those changes to start heading the ball. Was it because the idea simply did not occur to anyone? I think it is more likely that they were in thrall to their old school games, where the ball must be kicked and dribbling was king.
Further north, however, the story is different. When we talk of Sheffield Rules, that means a changing landscape. First, we had Sheffield FC who published theirs in 1858, and they went with the fair catch. Then the Sheffield Football Association redrafted those laws when it was founded in 1867 and dropped the fair catch to align with London. But a year later, due to popular local demand, they brought it back again, and it survived until 1871.
As for Glasgow, the other early hotbed of football, they never had a fair catch rule. When Queen's Park were founded in 1867 they adopted the FA's laws of the game, then took it a step further by formally joining the FA in 1870.
What Glasgow and Sheffield had in common, and set them apart from London, was an expansive style of football that encouraged passing, facilitated by a more liberal interpretation of offside. This essentially meant that the ball was more likely to be kicked in the air, to travel a distance, and that appears to be the genesis of heading when catching was no longer an option.
Let's have a closer look at the fair catch, which was a relic of various school codes of football, and which equates to the 'mark' in rugby. The fair catch survived the drawing up of the Laws of the Game in 1863 but the FA soon realised their mistake and, as part of their drive to distinguish the association game from rugby, they dropped it in February 1866. The pioneers at Cambridge University did not even go that far, and having had it in their 1856 rules, it was gone in 1863.
Despite that, in London and Cambridge there is no known evidence of a player using those changes to start heading the ball. Was it because the idea simply did not occur to anyone? I think it is more likely that they were in thrall to their old school games, where the ball must be kicked and dribbling was king.
Further north, however, the story is different. When we talk of Sheffield Rules, that means a changing landscape. First, we had Sheffield FC who published theirs in 1858, and they went with the fair catch. Then the Sheffield Football Association redrafted those laws when it was founded in 1867 and dropped the fair catch to align with London. But a year later, due to popular local demand, they brought it back again, and it survived until 1871.
As for Glasgow, the other early hotbed of football, they never had a fair catch rule. When Queen's Park were founded in 1867 they adopted the FA's laws of the game, then took it a step further by formally joining the FA in 1870.
What Glasgow and Sheffield had in common, and set them apart from London, was an expansive style of football that encouraged passing, facilitated by a more liberal interpretation of offside. This essentially meant that the ball was more likely to be kicked in the air, to travel a distance, and that appears to be the genesis of heading when catching was no longer an option.
An accidental headed goal for Broomhall v Mackenzie [Sheffield Independent, 18 October 1870; British Newspaper Archive]
It was in Sheffield that we have the first record of a headed goal, but it was a lucky accident. In October 1870, a Mackenzie player whacked the ball clear only for it to rebound back into goal from the head of William Booker of Broomhall. It wasn't a deliberate act, so the only thing that can be taken from this is that it shows there was no problem in the laws with the ball hitting the head.
I should point out that match reports in Sheffield were often more comprehensive than elsewhere at this time, making details such as this accessible to researchers.
I should point out that match reports in Sheffield were often more comprehensive than elsewhere at this time, making details such as this accessible to researchers.
Catching was disallowed in Derby St Andrews v Sheffield Wednesday [Sheffield Independent, 9 January 1871; BNA]
Staying with Sheffield for now, a key event came on 7 January 1871 when Sheffield Wednesday travelled to play Derby St Andrews. The Derby team had their own hybrid rules and, being the home team, insisted that there should be no catching that day. This appears to have caught the Sheffield men on the hop and the match report shows that instead of using their hands they let the ball hit them on various parts of the body – headed, breasted or armed. Perhaps it was from this that the germ of an idea came about.
A PowerPoint slide giving examples of the earliest known attempts at heading in inter-club matches, February 1871
Two weeks later, on 23 January, the Sheffield FA changed their rules so that the fair catch was deleted, on a trial basis to the end of the season.
It was not universally welcomed locally but almost immediately you read of Sheffield players attempting to deliberately head the ball, albeit not with much success. What is interesting is that the examples illustrated were games against non-Sheffield teams, from Nottingham and Manchester, whereas in games involving Sheffield clubs only, there are no such reports of heading around that time.
The fair catch rule was scrapped definitively by the Sheffield FA on 10 October 1871, but only by a 44-36 majority, after a fiercely contested debate among the member clubs.
It was not universally welcomed locally but almost immediately you read of Sheffield players attempting to deliberately head the ball, albeit not with much success. What is interesting is that the examples illustrated were games against non-Sheffield teams, from Nottingham and Manchester, whereas in games involving Sheffield clubs only, there are no such reports of heading around that time.
The fair catch rule was scrapped definitively by the Sheffield FA on 10 October 1871, but only by a 44-36 majority, after a fiercely contested debate among the member clubs.
Report of the Sheffield FA practice match on 5 November 1871 describes the first intentionally headed goal [Sheffield Independent, 7 November 1871; BNA]
It took until almost the end of the year, on 5 November 1871, for the first report anywhere of a deliberately headed goal begins scored. In a practice match to choose the Sheffield select to face London, Henry Ash, an Attercliffe player, 'judiciously headed the ball through'. But while the potential was now recognised, it still does not appear to be widely practised as there was no mention at all of heading when the Sheffield faced London in December, under Sheffield rules.
However, a few weeks later, on 27 January 1872, Henry Ash was in the Sheffield team to face London in the return at The Oval, under Association rules, and by now, Sheffield players were clearly becoming more used to the idea of heading.
However, a few weeks later, on 27 January 1872, Henry Ash was in the Sheffield team to face London in the return at The Oval, under Association rules, and by now, Sheffield players were clearly becoming more used to the idea of heading.
A PowerPoint slide with some of the press coverage of heading in London v Sheffield, played at The Oval on 27 January 1872.
It caused a minor sensation – the Londoners thought this was hilarious, not football as they knew it. The press described heading as 'ingenious' and it was such a novelty that they even had to describe the act as 'stopping the ball with the head, so placed as to make the ball rebound in the direction it came from'.
I've seen it said that this proves that Sheffield invented heading. But how about this: just five weeks later, Queen's Park travelled outside Scotland for the first time to play Wanderers in the FA Cup semi-final, at the Oval on 5 March 1872. There had been no prior contact between the footballers of Glasgow and Sheffield but the Scots were also well versed in heading. The Field reporter wrote that 'their method of driving the ball with the head is precisely the same as that adopted in Sheffield'.
So by early 1872, Sheffield and Glasgow footballers were adept at heading, whereas it was unknown in London.
The start point for Sheffield is reasonably clear, related to their abandonment of the fair catch, but the genesis for Queen's Park is harder to pin down. Although the club was founded in 1867, this was the first time there was any kind of detailed newspaper report on their style of play. I would argue that Queen's Park had probably adopted heading early on, because they never had the fair catch rule, nor did they have the inherited baggage of public school rules and etiquette. However, the lack of reports makes it impossible to prove.
I've seen it said that this proves that Sheffield invented heading. But how about this: just five weeks later, Queen's Park travelled outside Scotland for the first time to play Wanderers in the FA Cup semi-final, at the Oval on 5 March 1872. There had been no prior contact between the footballers of Glasgow and Sheffield but the Scots were also well versed in heading. The Field reporter wrote that 'their method of driving the ball with the head is precisely the same as that adopted in Sheffield'.
So by early 1872, Sheffield and Glasgow footballers were adept at heading, whereas it was unknown in London.
The start point for Sheffield is reasonably clear, related to their abandonment of the fair catch, but the genesis for Queen's Park is harder to pin down. Although the club was founded in 1867, this was the first time there was any kind of detailed newspaper report on their style of play. I would argue that Queen's Park had probably adopted heading early on, because they never had the fair catch rule, nor did they have the inherited baggage of public school rules and etiquette. However, the lack of reports makes it impossible to prove.
William Ralston's drawing of a Scotland player deftly heading the ball against England on 30 November 1872 [The Graphic, 15 December 1872]
Later that year, on 30 November 1872, we have the first illustration of a player heading the ball, an unidentified Scotland player against England in the first international, described rather incongruously by The Graphic as 'making good kicks off his head'. For me, that drawing is a clear indication that heading was now a well-practised skill – a skill that the English players did not possess, with the possible exception of their one player from Sheffield. Combined with the Scots' ability to pass the ball as a team, this momentous occasion really did bring two very different ways of playing football face to face.
You might think that was that, and heading swiftly became a universal part of the game, with everyone following the example of Glasgow and Sheffield, and that is demonstrably true in Scotland and the North of England.
However in London, where the public school amateurs still dominated and clung on to football's dribbling roots, heading was perceived as a dark art, somehow against the spirit of the game. There was a marked reluctance to learn and to change, which remained in place for a generation and I found a couple of examples from over a decade later.
Norman Coles Bailey, a Westminster School old boy who captained England 15 times, suggested in the Football Annual for 1885 that heading (or butting, as he called it) was taken to excess, and wondered whether it might be better for the game if it was outlawed, on the same lines as handling the ball. He went on to describe heading in front of goal by a forward as 'detrimental' and a waste of time. Try telling that to Erling Haaland.
You might think that was that, and heading swiftly became a universal part of the game, with everyone following the example of Glasgow and Sheffield, and that is demonstrably true in Scotland and the North of England.
However in London, where the public school amateurs still dominated and clung on to football's dribbling roots, heading was perceived as a dark art, somehow against the spirit of the game. There was a marked reluctance to learn and to change, which remained in place for a generation and I found a couple of examples from over a decade later.
Norman Coles Bailey, a Westminster School old boy who captained England 15 times, suggested in the Football Annual for 1885 that heading (or butting, as he called it) was taken to excess, and wondered whether it might be better for the game if it was outlawed, on the same lines as handling the ball. He went on to describe heading in front of goal by a forward as 'detrimental' and a waste of time. Try telling that to Erling Haaland.
Charles Alcock writes disparagingly of heading in 'Football, A Popular Handbook of the Game' (1887)
And Bailey was not alone. In 1887 Charles Alcock, Secretary of the FA, so often an innovator, wrote disparagingly of 'half a dozen men hitting up the ball like so many goats'. He was firmly of the opinion that the foot was made for kicking and the head was made for thinking. Not a fan!
But in essence, Norman Bailey and Charles Alcock were swimming against the tide, and with the decline of the amateur influence and the rise of the professionals came the recognition that heading was here to stay.
To conclude, heading was a late starter in football, an unintended consequence of a law change, but only where it fitted with the local style of play. It was not invented by any one player or in any one place, although patchy newspaper reporting makes it difficult to see the full picture. Heading spread from Sheffield and Glasgow around the country but was derided by some as being unsporting.
Today, having been part of the game for 150 years, the wheel has now gone full circle, and this universally admired skill is also recognised as a potential health hazard. So this may not be the end of the story, and there may be restrictions ahead.
But in essence, Norman Bailey and Charles Alcock were swimming against the tide, and with the decline of the amateur influence and the rise of the professionals came the recognition that heading was here to stay.
To conclude, heading was a late starter in football, an unintended consequence of a law change, but only where it fitted with the local style of play. It was not invented by any one player or in any one place, although patchy newspaper reporting makes it difficult to see the full picture. Heading spread from Sheffield and Glasgow around the country but was derided by some as being unsporting.
Today, having been part of the game for 150 years, the wheel has now gone full circle, and this universally admired skill is also recognised as a potential health hazard. So this may not be the end of the story, and there may be restrictions ahead.
I will leave you with this lovely 1882 cartoon of Charles Campbell, a Queen's Park and Scotland star, described as 'a handy man with his head at football'. It was one of a series of humorous drawings in the book 'Free Kicks at Football'.
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The only known photo of the pavilion at the first Hampden Park, shortly after it was built there in 1878.
The buried remains of a football pavilion at the first Hampden Park are to be protected from the threat of development, thanks to the timely intervention of Historic Environment Scotland which plans to designate the site as a scheduled monument.
The foundations of the pavilion, which stood at Hampden for just five years between 1878 and 1883, are the only tangible surviving elements of what is thought to be the world's first stadium which was purpose-built for association football. It is a fascinating story that deserves to be examined in detail.
Hampden Park, in the south of Glasgow, opened in 1903 and is well known as Scotland's national football stadium, but it is the third stadium of that name and its origins go back three decades earlier to the summer of 1873. That was when Queen's Park Football Club took the inspired decision to build a ground of their own.
Founded in 1867, Queen's Park had previously played on open recreation ground but the rapid growth in football's popularity, demonstrated by the crowds that flocked to the first international match in 1872, convinced them they needed somewhere to call home. A dedicated ground would also enable them to charge for admission, providing money for further development.
After much lobbying, they persuaded Glasgow Council to lease an area of open ground off the Cathcart Road called Hampden Park after the nearest street to the south, Hampden Terrace. The club put up a wooden fence to enclose their playing area, built a modest wooden pavilion, and opened for business with a Scottish Cup tie against Dumbreck on 25 October 1873, winning 7-0.
Hampden Park was unique, a place where football was king, unlike other grounds which had been created primarily to host sports such as cricket and athletics, with football only allowed as an afterthought. As such, the Queen's Park innovators created a template which was quickly copied as other football clubs saw the benefits of having their own ground, where they could cash in on the growing fervour for football.
Queen's Park continued to invest in improvements, notably in 1876 when they built a grandstand along the length of one side, where they could charge extra in return for an improved view of the pitch. And the next thing they needed was a better pavilion, to replace the small stripping hut which had stood since the beginning.
They found the answer thanks to the misfortune of others: in the autumn of 1877 Caledonian Cricket Club, which also played football and lacrosse, was ejected from their ground at Kelvinbridge as the landlords had sold the site for the new Glasgow Academy buildings.
Caledonian CC had erected a superb new pavilion just two years earlier but it was now surplus to requirements. Queen's Park knew it well as they had played a Scottish Cup tie there in October 1876, so they saw an opportunity. They made the cricket club an offer of £65 for the building - surely much less than it originally cost - and undertook to dismantle it and move it to Hampden. It was a brave but inspired decision, as although the cost of removing and rebuilding eventually added up to £239, it meant that in February 1878 Queen's Park had a pavilion to be proud of.
It was completed just in time, as Hampden Park was shortly to host its first international matches: against England on 2 March 1878, then against Wales three weeks later. Both ended in comprehensive victories, with scores that would be unthinkable today: 7-2 v England, 9-0 v Wales.
The pavilion was opened with little fanfare, and although there is a single surviving photo (above) which probably shows the opening ceremony, there was no mention of the new building in the press. However, it is possible to build up a picture of its layout and style.
It was an impressive construction, raised on an embankment with solid foundations, a timber-clad frame and a slate roof with decorative woodwork. A few steps led up to a large entrance vestibule, which had doors to two spacious dressing rooms, each with running water and windows facing the pitch.
The foundations of the pavilion, which stood at Hampden for just five years between 1878 and 1883, are the only tangible surviving elements of what is thought to be the world's first stadium which was purpose-built for association football. It is a fascinating story that deserves to be examined in detail.
Hampden Park, in the south of Glasgow, opened in 1903 and is well known as Scotland's national football stadium, but it is the third stadium of that name and its origins go back three decades earlier to the summer of 1873. That was when Queen's Park Football Club took the inspired decision to build a ground of their own.
Founded in 1867, Queen's Park had previously played on open recreation ground but the rapid growth in football's popularity, demonstrated by the crowds that flocked to the first international match in 1872, convinced them they needed somewhere to call home. A dedicated ground would also enable them to charge for admission, providing money for further development.
After much lobbying, they persuaded Glasgow Council to lease an area of open ground off the Cathcart Road called Hampden Park after the nearest street to the south, Hampden Terrace. The club put up a wooden fence to enclose their playing area, built a modest wooden pavilion, and opened for business with a Scottish Cup tie against Dumbreck on 25 October 1873, winning 7-0.
Hampden Park was unique, a place where football was king, unlike other grounds which had been created primarily to host sports such as cricket and athletics, with football only allowed as an afterthought. As such, the Queen's Park innovators created a template which was quickly copied as other football clubs saw the benefits of having their own ground, where they could cash in on the growing fervour for football.
Queen's Park continued to invest in improvements, notably in 1876 when they built a grandstand along the length of one side, where they could charge extra in return for an improved view of the pitch. And the next thing they needed was a better pavilion, to replace the small stripping hut which had stood since the beginning.
They found the answer thanks to the misfortune of others: in the autumn of 1877 Caledonian Cricket Club, which also played football and lacrosse, was ejected from their ground at Kelvinbridge as the landlords had sold the site for the new Glasgow Academy buildings.
Caledonian CC had erected a superb new pavilion just two years earlier but it was now surplus to requirements. Queen's Park knew it well as they had played a Scottish Cup tie there in October 1876, so they saw an opportunity. They made the cricket club an offer of £65 for the building - surely much less than it originally cost - and undertook to dismantle it and move it to Hampden. It was a brave but inspired decision, as although the cost of removing and rebuilding eventually added up to £239, it meant that in February 1878 Queen's Park had a pavilion to be proud of.
It was completed just in time, as Hampden Park was shortly to host its first international matches: against England on 2 March 1878, then against Wales three weeks later. Both ended in comprehensive victories, with scores that would be unthinkable today: 7-2 v England, 9-0 v Wales.
The pavilion was opened with little fanfare, and although there is a single surviving photo (above) which probably shows the opening ceremony, there was no mention of the new building in the press. However, it is possible to build up a picture of its layout and style.
It was an impressive construction, raised on an embankment with solid foundations, a timber-clad frame and a slate roof with decorative woodwork. A few steps led up to a large entrance vestibule, which had doors to two spacious dressing rooms, each with running water and windows facing the pitch.
A possible floor plan for the pavilion at first Hampden, with entrance vestibule and two dressing rooms. This has been adapted from a plan published in 1889 after the pavilion was moved and extended.
An 1882 sketch of the dressing room inside the Hampden pavilion, from 'Free Kicks at Football'.
Some views of the pavilion and its surroundings at Hampden Park were published in 1882 in a humorous book, Free Kicks at Football, which is available at Glasgow University Special Collections.
The building was erected just in time, as the original wooden pavilion fell down in September 1879, when spectators sitting on its roof caused it to collapse.
With the best facilities and a capacity for over ten thousand spectators, Hampden Park had become the principal football stadium in Scotland, and continued to host the internationals against England and Wales, which came along in 1880 and 1882. In all, Scotland played six matches at first Hampden and won them all, never scoring less than five goals in any of the games. It was also the venue for Scottish Cup finals in 1874, 1875, 1877 (second replay), 1878, 1879 and 1883, not to mention numerous high profile Queen's Park games.
More broadly, having a 'home of Scottish football' gave the game considerable impetus and allowed it to develop rapidly, beyond all recognition. This was a period when Scotland dominated football on the field of play, the English in particular having no answer to the passing game that, in time, came to characterise the 'Scotch professor'.
However, the life of first Hampden was cut short in 1883, when the Caledonian Railway published its plans for a new route that would cut right through the football ground, which the club still leased from the Council. The last major match to be played there was the Glasgow Charity Cup final on 19 May 1883, when Queen's Park beat Rangers 4-1 in front of a crowd estimated at over 10,000.
The building was erected just in time, as the original wooden pavilion fell down in September 1879, when spectators sitting on its roof caused it to collapse.
With the best facilities and a capacity for over ten thousand spectators, Hampden Park had become the principal football stadium in Scotland, and continued to host the internationals against England and Wales, which came along in 1880 and 1882. In all, Scotland played six matches at first Hampden and won them all, never scoring less than five goals in any of the games. It was also the venue for Scottish Cup finals in 1874, 1875, 1877 (second replay), 1878, 1879 and 1883, not to mention numerous high profile Queen's Park games.
More broadly, having a 'home of Scottish football' gave the game considerable impetus and allowed it to develop rapidly, beyond all recognition. This was a period when Scotland dominated football on the field of play, the English in particular having no answer to the passing game that, in time, came to characterise the 'Scotch professor'.
However, the life of first Hampden was cut short in 1883, when the Caledonian Railway published its plans for a new route that would cut right through the football ground, which the club still leased from the Council. The last major match to be played there was the Glasgow Charity Cup final on 19 May 1883, when Queen's Park beat Rangers 4-1 in front of a crowd estimated at over 10,000.
A plan of the first Hampden Park, showing the pavilion at top left, the grandstand to the south, and Cathcart Turnpike Road to the west. This has been adapted from the Cathcart District Railway planning map drawn up in 1879.
An overlay on the Ordnance Survey map of 1893 showing the position of first Hampden in relation to the surrounding area, after the construction of the railway to the east and new roads with tramlines, cutting across the football ground. By this time Queen's Park had moved to second Hampden (to the right).
As the new railway line took precedence, Queen's Park had no option but to move, and although it was to an adjacent site - the second Hampden, later rebuilt as New Cathkin Park - it meant a year of upheaval as the new ground was constructed. However, they took the pavilion with them, rebuilding it with brick cladding, and then in 1889 it was further expanded with the addition of an upper storey, a gymnasium extension, and other rooms.
The pavilion at second Hampden Park, where it was rebuilt following the move in 1883, and then substantially extended in 1889. However, it retained recognisable features including the ground floor layout and the decorative woodwork.
The pavilion's life came to an end in 1903 when Queen's Park moved once again, constructing the gigantic arena that we now know as Hampden Park, the third to bear that name.
The club was forced to sell the pavilion piecemeal after misguidedly turning down an offer of £350 from Third Lanark for the building. It was broken up for its materials, fetching just £73 and 10 shillings, much less than its market value.
The club was forced to sell the pavilion piecemeal after misguidedly turning down an offer of £350 from Third Lanark for the building. It was broken up for its materials, fetching just £73 and 10 shillings, much less than its market value.
The Scottish Referee, 7 August 1903, recorded the sale of the pavilion and its fixtures.
The pavilion packed a lot into its short life. Having started out in 1875 as a cricket pavilion on the other side of the city, it found new life at first Hampden in the south side, and was moved yet again to a third site before it was ten years old. It was moved, rebuilt, refurbished, expanded and finally demolished, a sorry conclusion to the story of a building which had been a focal point for the meteoric growth of Scottish football over three decades.
However, it is now widely recognised that the first Hampden Park is an iconic football ground whose importance to Scottish heritage cannot be overstated. That is why I am delighted that Historic Environment Scotland has recognised its significant cultural value to the nation, and has taken steps to protect the site for future generations.
It will also, hopefully, encourage further archaeological exploration of the site after two previous digs in 2017 and 2021 uncovered the pavilion's foundations as well as wider evidence of the stadium's early life.
However, it is now widely recognised that the first Hampden Park is an iconic football ground whose importance to Scottish heritage cannot be overstated. That is why I am delighted that Historic Environment Scotland has recognised its significant cultural value to the nation, and has taken steps to protect the site for future generations.
It will also, hopefully, encourage further archaeological exploration of the site after two previous digs in 2017 and 2021 uncovered the pavilion's foundations as well as wider evidence of the stadium's early life.
Historic Environment Scotland's map highlighting the area within Kingsley Gardens to be designated as a scheduled monument.
Footnote: Hampden Bowling Club and its pavilion
It had long been claimed by members of Hampden Bowling Club (now closed) that their pavilion was the same as the original football pavilion. This has now been proven to be a myth, as it was built new in 1905. HES have recognised this, and have turned down a request to designate the Bowling Club pavilion as a listed building.
The HES proposal to designate the site of the first Hampden pavilion covers only a part of Kingsley Gardens, and the area occupied by the bowling club grounds has been excluded.
Thanks
This article would not have been possible without the input of a number of football historians, and I acknowledge with thanks the work done by Phil Martin, Frank McCrossan and Ged O'Brien in particular.
Update - 13 May 2026
Historic Environment Scotland has confirmed that the site of the Hampden pavilion has been designated as a scheduled monument, following a public consultation.
See https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/historic-site-of-first-hampden-scores-scheduled-status/
It had long been claimed by members of Hampden Bowling Club (now closed) that their pavilion was the same as the original football pavilion. This has now been proven to be a myth, as it was built new in 1905. HES have recognised this, and have turned down a request to designate the Bowling Club pavilion as a listed building.
The HES proposal to designate the site of the first Hampden pavilion covers only a part of Kingsley Gardens, and the area occupied by the bowling club grounds has been excluded.
Thanks
This article would not have been possible without the input of a number of football historians, and I acknowledge with thanks the work done by Phil Martin, Frank McCrossan and Ged O'Brien in particular.
Update - 13 May 2026
Historic Environment Scotland has confirmed that the site of the Hampden pavilion has been designated as a scheduled monument, following a public consultation.
See https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/historic-site-of-first-hampden-scores-scheduled-status/
- Published on
Silver belt buckle awarded to Hugh McColl junior in 1871 by the members of West End Cricket Club
Many years ago I bought this attractive belt buckle at an antique fair, engraved for presentation to Hugh McColl junior by the members of West End Cricket Club for the highest bowling average in 1871.
At the time I had no idea where it came from, in fact initially I thought that West End may have referred to one of the ancestors of Newcastle United. But recently I finally uncovered the full story about Hugh McColl, and his little buckle has taken me on a fascinating journey of cricket and football from Scotland to South America.
Thanks to the online digitisation of old newspapers and other publications, I established that West End was a Glasgow cricket club which took up football in the winter months and was one of the early members of the Scottish Football Association. McColl was not just a player at both sports, the SFA's first annual in 1875 listed him as the club contact, which was an important breakthrough as it gave his home address.
At the time I had no idea where it came from, in fact initially I thought that West End may have referred to one of the ancestors of Newcastle United. But recently I finally uncovered the full story about Hugh McColl, and his little buckle has taken me on a fascinating journey of cricket and football from Scotland to South America.
Thanks to the online digitisation of old newspapers and other publications, I established that West End was a Glasgow cricket club which took up football in the winter months and was one of the early members of the Scottish Football Association. McColl was not just a player at both sports, the SFA's first annual in 1875 listed him as the club contact, which was an important breakthrough as it gave his home address.
The Scottish Football Annual for 1875-76 lists Hugh McColl as secretary of West End FC in Glasgow
By a strange quirk, I found that Hugh McColl was later credited with being one of the pioneers of football in Chile, while his namesake Hugh MacColl had come to notice as one of the founders of Spanish football in Seville. My initial thought was that this could possibly be the same man, but it turned out to be a remarkable coincidence with a slight variation in spelling. So, who was the West End man, and how did he end up in Chile?
Hugh McColl was born in 1852, the fifth child of Hugh McColl and Lillias Inglis Mackie who had married in 1841 and lived in Glasgow. His father was a skilled tradesman as an engine pattern maker, and the family home was in Richard Street in Anderston, now long gone but at the time a respectable area of town.
As a young commercial clerk Hugh enjoyed cricket in his free time and around 1870 was one of the founding members of West End Cricket Club. He was clearly a decent player, as the following year he won the prize for bowling, but just how good is hard to tell as West End was a minor club whose matches rarely appeared in the press, nor did they trouble the Scottish Cricketers' Annual.
In 1873 the club took a big step forward by securing the lease of Burnbank, the Glasgow Academicals ground on Great Western Road, and also formed a football section for the winter months. That spurred them on to join the Scottish FA, which enabled West End to enter the Scottish Cup in 1874, beating Star of Leven in the first round before going down 7-0 to the mighty Queen's Park in the second.
They had to leave Burnbank in 1875 (with Rangers taking over the lease for a year), which appears to have prompted the cricket section to wind up, but West End carried on as a football club and took up residence at Avenue Park in Cowlairs.
Hugh McColl was not just a player, appearing at full back, he held an integral role as club secretary for 1875-76. West End continued to enter the Scottish Cup and in 1876 they reached the third round after defeating 4th RRV and Govan, but were thrown out of the competition following a 1-1 draw with Edinburgh side Swifts, as the SFA ruled that West End must be disqualified for not scheduling the match on the due date.
Like many clubs of the day, West End’s existence was brief. Their final Scottish Cup tie was in September 1877, a 5-1 loss to Strathclyde, and the club's last known fixture was in March 1878. They disbanded at the end of the season.
That might have been the end of Hugh McColl's involvement with football, as he embarked on a career in the import/export trade, got married and started a family. However, a decade later he crossed the Atlantic and set up in business in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso with his family.
Hugh McColl was born in 1852, the fifth child of Hugh McColl and Lillias Inglis Mackie who had married in 1841 and lived in Glasgow. His father was a skilled tradesman as an engine pattern maker, and the family home was in Richard Street in Anderston, now long gone but at the time a respectable area of town.
As a young commercial clerk Hugh enjoyed cricket in his free time and around 1870 was one of the founding members of West End Cricket Club. He was clearly a decent player, as the following year he won the prize for bowling, but just how good is hard to tell as West End was a minor club whose matches rarely appeared in the press, nor did they trouble the Scottish Cricketers' Annual.
In 1873 the club took a big step forward by securing the lease of Burnbank, the Glasgow Academicals ground on Great Western Road, and also formed a football section for the winter months. That spurred them on to join the Scottish FA, which enabled West End to enter the Scottish Cup in 1874, beating Star of Leven in the first round before going down 7-0 to the mighty Queen's Park in the second.
They had to leave Burnbank in 1875 (with Rangers taking over the lease for a year), which appears to have prompted the cricket section to wind up, but West End carried on as a football club and took up residence at Avenue Park in Cowlairs.
Hugh McColl was not just a player, appearing at full back, he held an integral role as club secretary for 1875-76. West End continued to enter the Scottish Cup and in 1876 they reached the third round after defeating 4th RRV and Govan, but were thrown out of the competition following a 1-1 draw with Edinburgh side Swifts, as the SFA ruled that West End must be disqualified for not scheduling the match on the due date.
Like many clubs of the day, West End’s existence was brief. Their final Scottish Cup tie was in September 1877, a 5-1 loss to Strathclyde, and the club's last known fixture was in March 1878. They disbanded at the end of the season.
That might have been the end of Hugh McColl's involvement with football, as he embarked on a career in the import/export trade, got married and started a family. However, a decade later he crossed the Atlantic and set up in business in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso with his family.
Sport was thriving in Valparaiso before football came along - this silver beaker was presented at the Cricket Club's athletic sports in 1879
There was already an established British community in Valparaiso with a long-standing cricket club, and that gave him the opportunity to resume his enthusiasm in football, which presumably had never gone away. In 1889 he was a founder of the first organised football club in Chile as an offshoot of the cricket club. Although details are sketchy it appears that Hugh McColl was a driving force, elected as its first president, one of several Scots involved on and off the field.
The Valparaiso club took a while to settle, not helped by a civil war in 1891, then in 1892 was established as a standalone entity and began to promote football in the port city. The following year it elected a board of directors to became the first constituted football club in the country, and went on to be a founding member of the Football Association of Chile in 1895. Valparaiso was undoubtedly the most important team in the nascent football association, known simply as 'The Club' or 'The Senior Club' until the outbreak of the First World War forced it into a hiatus, as most of its players left to defend the British Empire.
Meanwhile, Hugh McColl played an active role not just in Valparaiso but in the early development of football in Chile's capital, as he is seen in a photo of the first Santiago football eleven, which had been founded in 1893 by the Santiago Cricket and Athletic Club to play in the first intercity match between Valparaiso and Santiago. It is not clear how he was involved, and perhaps had been recruited to coach the new team. This is presently the only known photo of McColl.
The Valparaiso club took a while to settle, not helped by a civil war in 1891, then in 1892 was established as a standalone entity and began to promote football in the port city. The following year it elected a board of directors to became the first constituted football club in the country, and went on to be a founding member of the Football Association of Chile in 1895. Valparaiso was undoubtedly the most important team in the nascent football association, known simply as 'The Club' or 'The Senior Club' until the outbreak of the First World War forced it into a hiatus, as most of its players left to defend the British Empire.
Meanwhile, Hugh McColl played an active role not just in Valparaiso but in the early development of football in Chile's capital, as he is seen in a photo of the first Santiago football eleven, which had been founded in 1893 by the Santiago Cricket and Athletic Club to play in the first intercity match between Valparaiso and Santiago. It is not clear how he was involved, and perhaps had been recruited to coach the new team. This is presently the only known photo of McColl.
Hugh McColl (back left) is in this photo of Santiago Football Club, founded in July 1893 by British expatriates in Chile
Not long after, Hugh McColl and his family returned to Glasgow, having spent at least five years in Chile, with his daughter Lillias born there in 1891. Back home, he went into partnership in a shipping agency with John Crosbie Rogers (1839-1921), who had spent a long time in Chile before returning to Glasgow, where he was Chilean vice-consul. The business prospered and that meant several return trips to Valparaiso for McColl over the next two decades, as he developed trade between Chile and the UK. His company McColl and Rogers were described in the Glasgow directory as ship and insurance brokers, commission agents, export and produce merchants.
After the War, the company became known as McColl and Sons, operating from an office in Wellington Street until his death in 1928.
At the time, nothing was said about his role in football, and even today Hugh McColl is one of those little-known exporters of Scottish football, who learned the game at home before taking it abroad.
He is now recognised as one of several Scots who were pioneers of Chilean football, and it is remarkable that his story has come to light thanks to a chance find at an antique fair.
Hugh McColl
Born 28 April 1852 in Glasgow
Died 13 October 1928 in Glasgow
With sincere thanks to Chilean football historian Sebastián Núñez Mardones for his input. Director of CEDEP, the Chilean Centre for Sports Studies, his book Selección Chilena 1910 - Duelos del Centenario is the definitive story of the first Chilean international team.
See his comprehensive article on the early years: The background to the founding of Santiago Wanderers
Further reading:
Scots Football Worldwide - Valparaiso.
Scots Football Worldwide - Santiago.
How John Hamilton played for Chile in 1910.
After the War, the company became known as McColl and Sons, operating from an office in Wellington Street until his death in 1928.
At the time, nothing was said about his role in football, and even today Hugh McColl is one of those little-known exporters of Scottish football, who learned the game at home before taking it abroad.
He is now recognised as one of several Scots who were pioneers of Chilean football, and it is remarkable that his story has come to light thanks to a chance find at an antique fair.
Hugh McColl
Born 28 April 1852 in Glasgow
Died 13 October 1928 in Glasgow
With sincere thanks to Chilean football historian Sebastián Núñez Mardones for his input. Director of CEDEP, the Chilean Centre for Sports Studies, his book Selección Chilena 1910 - Duelos del Centenario is the definitive story of the first Chilean international team.
See his comprehensive article on the early years: The background to the founding of Santiago Wanderers
Further reading:
Scots Football Worldwide - Valparaiso.
Scots Football Worldwide - Santiago.
How John Hamilton played for Chile in 1910.
- Published on
KB footballers in about 1886, with James Young Smart (circled) in the back row.
One of the pioneers of Danish football was a man from Dundee who was top scorer in the country's first football league. James Young Smart, a player and administrator with Strathmore FC, went to Copenhagen in 1885 and made a huge impact through his skills on and off the field.
Smart's influence was recalled when Queen's Park went on tour to Copenhagen in 1898. Scottish Sport magazine carried an interview with former player Alexander Hamilton, in which he stated that the honour of introducing the game in Denmark belonged to a former Dundee Strathmore player called JT Smart (they got his middle initial wrong). See Matt McDowell's fascinating research paper and an article on the Scottish Football Museum website.
However, although Smart was an important figure he was not the actual founder of the game in Denmark. The first football was a birthday gift in 1878 for Johannes Juhl Raahauge, whose father was a merchant based in Hull; he then introduced the sport to his fellow students at Sorø Academy. And in 1879, KB (Kjøbenhavns Boldklub) took up association football, three years after being founded as a multisport club,
James Young Smart was born in Dundee in 1862, the eldest surviving son of a jute mill manager. In the summer of 1878 he was elected secretary and treasurer of Strathmore FC, aged just 16, and played regularly for them over the next few years, rising to become club president in 1882. Strathmore had been founded early in 1877, named in honour of its patron the Earl of Strathmore, and its ground was at Rollo's Pier, off Magdalen Yard Road at the west end of the city.
He remained still president until he left Dundee to go abroad, as reported in the Evening Telegraph on 18 February 1885: 'On Monday evening a number of gentlemen met in the Queen's Hotel and entertained Mr J.Y. Smart to supper on the occasion of his leaving Dundee for Copenhagen.'
Soon after he arrived in Denmark, he joined KB and gained quite a reputation for his skills. An early history of Danish football said Smart was: 'an excellent player in almost every position… a crowd favourite, especially among the boys, jovial and playful, teaching them tricks and ball skills.'
In the winter of 1886–87, he helped to translate the laws of association football from English into Danish, working with Ludwig Sylow and other KB committee members.
In 1888, KB instigated the country's first knockout cup competition, and won it convincingly with Smart in the forefront. Then a year later, he was the top scorer in Denmark's first league tournament in 1889-90, scoring 12 times for KB although they finished second behind Akademisk. The following season, KB did win the league and Smart showed his versatility by sometimes playing in goal.
Even after he left Denmark he was not forgotten and the creative Danish midfielder August Lindgren, who played in the 1908 Olympics, was nicknamed 'Smart' in tribute to the Scot.
In 1892, Smart went to New York for a while, then returned to Dundee to join the family business at Rosebank jute mill. He kept up his football interest as a member of Dundee FC's match committee, helping out in December 1898 when the club got going again after liquidation, and in December 1899 his sisters ran a stall at the football club's fundraising bazaar.
Thereafter, things get a bit hazy. His father had died in 1896 and in March 1900 the Dundee Courier carried a company advert to announce that Mr James Young Smart was no longer employed at Rosebank mill. Although he was still listed as a jute factory manager in the 1901 census, there is nothing to indicate that he was still involved in the family business; yet his brother and two sisters were directors.
It appears his life had started to go into a downward spiral and Smart died at Duke Street Hospital, Glasgow in 1921, age 59 and unmarried. The death certificate gave his usual residence as the Great Eastern Hotel, politely known as a 'working man's hostel' but in reality a doss-house; cause of death was myocardial degeneration and chronic nervous congestion (ie heart disease and stroke). It was a sorry end for a Scottish sporting pioneer whose impact on Danish football is remembered to this day.
Smart's influence was recalled when Queen's Park went on tour to Copenhagen in 1898. Scottish Sport magazine carried an interview with former player Alexander Hamilton, in which he stated that the honour of introducing the game in Denmark belonged to a former Dundee Strathmore player called JT Smart (they got his middle initial wrong). See Matt McDowell's fascinating research paper and an article on the Scottish Football Museum website.
However, although Smart was an important figure he was not the actual founder of the game in Denmark. The first football was a birthday gift in 1878 for Johannes Juhl Raahauge, whose father was a merchant based in Hull; he then introduced the sport to his fellow students at Sorø Academy. And in 1879, KB (Kjøbenhavns Boldklub) took up association football, three years after being founded as a multisport club,
James Young Smart was born in Dundee in 1862, the eldest surviving son of a jute mill manager. In the summer of 1878 he was elected secretary and treasurer of Strathmore FC, aged just 16, and played regularly for them over the next few years, rising to become club president in 1882. Strathmore had been founded early in 1877, named in honour of its patron the Earl of Strathmore, and its ground was at Rollo's Pier, off Magdalen Yard Road at the west end of the city.
He remained still president until he left Dundee to go abroad, as reported in the Evening Telegraph on 18 February 1885: 'On Monday evening a number of gentlemen met in the Queen's Hotel and entertained Mr J.Y. Smart to supper on the occasion of his leaving Dundee for Copenhagen.'
Soon after he arrived in Denmark, he joined KB and gained quite a reputation for his skills. An early history of Danish football said Smart was: 'an excellent player in almost every position… a crowd favourite, especially among the boys, jovial and playful, teaching them tricks and ball skills.'
In the winter of 1886–87, he helped to translate the laws of association football from English into Danish, working with Ludwig Sylow and other KB committee members.
In 1888, KB instigated the country's first knockout cup competition, and won it convincingly with Smart in the forefront. Then a year later, he was the top scorer in Denmark's first league tournament in 1889-90, scoring 12 times for KB although they finished second behind Akademisk. The following season, KB did win the league and Smart showed his versatility by sometimes playing in goal.
Even after he left Denmark he was not forgotten and the creative Danish midfielder August Lindgren, who played in the 1908 Olympics, was nicknamed 'Smart' in tribute to the Scot.
In 1892, Smart went to New York for a while, then returned to Dundee to join the family business at Rosebank jute mill. He kept up his football interest as a member of Dundee FC's match committee, helping out in December 1898 when the club got going again after liquidation, and in December 1899 his sisters ran a stall at the football club's fundraising bazaar.
Thereafter, things get a bit hazy. His father had died in 1896 and in March 1900 the Dundee Courier carried a company advert to announce that Mr James Young Smart was no longer employed at Rosebank mill. Although he was still listed as a jute factory manager in the 1901 census, there is nothing to indicate that he was still involved in the family business; yet his brother and two sisters were directors.
It appears his life had started to go into a downward spiral and Smart died at Duke Street Hospital, Glasgow in 1921, age 59 and unmarried. The death certificate gave his usual residence as the Great Eastern Hotel, politely known as a 'working man's hostel' but in reality a doss-house; cause of death was myocardial degeneration and chronic nervous congestion (ie heart disease and stroke). It was a sorry end for a Scottish sporting pioneer whose impact on Danish football is remembered to this day.
In 1898, Queen's Park visited Denmark to play exhibition matches, the first Scottish club to make an overseas trip.
James Young Smart
Born 18 March 1862 in Dundee
Died 8 May 1921 in Glasgow
Update: in June 2026, a remarkable medal which was won by James Young Smart came up at auction. It was awarded for his success in Denmark in season 1887-88, and after fierce bidding it sold for well over the pre-sale estimate, realising 1600 euros plus commission.
- Published on
Next time you hear someone singing Football's Coming Home, ask them where they think 'home' is. They might answer London, Sheffield or Cambridge; maybe even Glasgow.
They would be wrong, as there is no single 'home of football' and many places can stake a claim. But one thing is certain: the world's first known club dedicated to football was founded over 200 years ago in Edinburgh.
Modern football can trace its roots to a winter's afternoon in 1824 when John Hope, a young law student, clubbed together with some friends to buy a leather ball and a bladder. They hired a grassy field in the suburbs, set up goalposts and started playing the game they loved.
They called their new club, appropriately enough, The Foot-Ball Club and over the next seventeen years hundreds of young men joined in, paying a subscription to kick a ball about and enjoy vigorous exercise once or twice a week. It was a vibrant organisation whose influence spanned far and wide.
Those football pioneers give Scotland's capital city every right to be celebrated as a 'home of football'. The sport thrived in Edinburgh decades before the Football Association was founded, long before the first attempts to codify the rules of association football, but although the Foot-Ball Club has tangible links to the modern game we know today, it made few waves at the time. Despite its popularity, the club kept such a low profile that there is barely a single mention of its activities in the newspapers of the day.
It might even have been lost to history but thankfully John Hope was an obsessive hoarder who filed away every scrap of paper during his long life, an accumulation which amounted by the time of his death to over 200 boxes. They were carefully preserved by a succession of conscientious Edinburgh lawyers, and tucked away in those boxes were the football membership lists, the club accounts, correspondence with his fellow players and even a handwritten set of rules.
The Foot-Ball Club records now rest in the National Records of Scotland, where they were rediscovered by Dr Neil Tranter of Stirling University in the 1990s. He waded through mountains of uncatalogued papers, some of which had not been touched for a century, and published his findings in an academic paper which opened to door to many other researchers, including myself.
Today, much of John Hope's archive, including everything related to the Foot-Ball Club, has been digitised. It represents a treasure trove of immense historical significance, one which few other sporting organisations can emulate; for example, there is no equivalent archive for Hibs, Hearts, Rangers or Celtic.
The papers are a vital part of Scotland's national heritage, as sporting history is not just about who scored which goal and when, it takes us into all sorts of unexpected places: Hope's club represents a wider picture of affluent society in the city of Edinburgh, the people who lived there, and their influence on the world about them.
The founder
John Hope, the instigator of the club, was an influential character in 19th century Edinburgh in many fields: a social reformer, a philanthropist, a town councillor, a fighter of causes and of course a sportsman.
They would be wrong, as there is no single 'home of football' and many places can stake a claim. But one thing is certain: the world's first known club dedicated to football was founded over 200 years ago in Edinburgh.
Modern football can trace its roots to a winter's afternoon in 1824 when John Hope, a young law student, clubbed together with some friends to buy a leather ball and a bladder. They hired a grassy field in the suburbs, set up goalposts and started playing the game they loved.
They called their new club, appropriately enough, The Foot-Ball Club and over the next seventeen years hundreds of young men joined in, paying a subscription to kick a ball about and enjoy vigorous exercise once or twice a week. It was a vibrant organisation whose influence spanned far and wide.
Those football pioneers give Scotland's capital city every right to be celebrated as a 'home of football'. The sport thrived in Edinburgh decades before the Football Association was founded, long before the first attempts to codify the rules of association football, but although the Foot-Ball Club has tangible links to the modern game we know today, it made few waves at the time. Despite its popularity, the club kept such a low profile that there is barely a single mention of its activities in the newspapers of the day.
It might even have been lost to history but thankfully John Hope was an obsessive hoarder who filed away every scrap of paper during his long life, an accumulation which amounted by the time of his death to over 200 boxes. They were carefully preserved by a succession of conscientious Edinburgh lawyers, and tucked away in those boxes were the football membership lists, the club accounts, correspondence with his fellow players and even a handwritten set of rules.
The Foot-Ball Club records now rest in the National Records of Scotland, where they were rediscovered by Dr Neil Tranter of Stirling University in the 1990s. He waded through mountains of uncatalogued papers, some of which had not been touched for a century, and published his findings in an academic paper which opened to door to many other researchers, including myself.
Today, much of John Hope's archive, including everything related to the Foot-Ball Club, has been digitised. It represents a treasure trove of immense historical significance, one which few other sporting organisations can emulate; for example, there is no equivalent archive for Hibs, Hearts, Rangers or Celtic.
The papers are a vital part of Scotland's national heritage, as sporting history is not just about who scored which goal and when, it takes us into all sorts of unexpected places: Hope's club represents a wider picture of affluent society in the city of Edinburgh, the people who lived there, and their influence on the world about them.
The founder
John Hope, the instigator of the club, was an influential character in 19th century Edinburgh in many fields: a social reformer, a philanthropist, a town councillor, a fighter of causes and of course a sportsman.
John Hope, founder of The Foot-Ball Club, pictured in 1865
Born in 1807 in Dalry House – which still stands, not far from Haymarket – Hope went to school and university in the city and became a lawyer like his father, following in his footsteps as a Writer to the Signet. He lived almost his entire life in the New Town, he was extremely wealthy, never married, and devoted his fortune and his boundless energy to causes he believed in.
Some of his beliefs will be judged by today's standards as extreme, bigoted or blinkered. His views on religion, for example, included ferocious and sustained attacks on Popery, and he became so obsessed with abstinence from alcohol that he insisted his staff sign the pledge, and even fell out with churches over their use of fermented wine, rather than the unfermented variety, for communion.
But he was also a passionate social reformer who spoke up for the poor and the downtrodden, for example leading a campaign to introduce the Saturday half-holiday for workmen in Edinburgh, organising regular excursions to the countryside for thousands of slum kids, and providing education to help them escape those slums.
When he died in 1893, he was one of the city's richest men, having accumulated a fortune which would be worth about £50 million in today's money. He left most of his wealth to the Hope Trust, a religious charity, leaving his extended family distraught at getting nothing. They mounted a legal challenge which claimed he suffered from insane delusions when he wrote the will but after six years of wrangling, the family lost and the Hope Trust continues his work in temperance and religion to this day.
Hope believed firmly in the benefits of sport and exercise, and could loosely be described as an advocate of Muscular Christianity, although of a particular Scottish variety.
Most of all, though, he stands out today because he loved and promoted football. Hope and his friends had all played the game at the High School of Edinburgh, where generations of boys were actively encouraged to participate in sport and exercise. There are numerous references of football being a popular game in the school yards, back to Walter Scott's time.
In the confined spaces of the High School Yards – an environment which has hardly changed in two hundred years since – there was a hard surface bounded by stone walls, where football evolved on a similar pattern to that enjoyed by boys at Charterhouse and Westminster in London. Right from the start of football history, players from these urban schools tended to favour the non-carrying game as full body tackling was likely to cause injury and damage to clothing, hence they became early advocates of association-type football.
Why form a football club?
At the dawn of the 19th century, football was generally considered a game for boys, not for responsible adults. John Hope and his friends broke that convention when they decided to carry on playing after leaving school, whether going up to University or into the world of work, and soon found that plenty of others were of the same mind.
As well as a love of football, other key factors were the established sporting culture in Edinburgh and the fondness for middle and upper class men in the city subscribing to clubs where they not only played sport, they socialised together.
There are a number of sporting world firsts for Edinburgh: in this city we had the first archery club (Royal Company of Archers, 1676), the first golf club (Burgess Golfing Society, 1735), the first gymnastic club (1786) and then, thanks to John Hope, the first football club in 1824.
And where there are clubs, there are rules and competitions, cups and trophies. So again the city boasts several world firsts: in golf the Company of Gentlemen Golfers laid down rules which governed the Edinburgh Silver Club, both in 1744; in bowls the Edinburgh Society of Bowlers rules in 1769 led to the Edinburgh Silver Jack; in curling the rules of the Duddingston Curling Club were written in 1811; and – as we shall see – the earliest known rules of football.
The template of organised sports clubs in Edinburgh was therefore well established by the 1820s, a decade which saw a national movement towards athletic and more vigorous sports. In this context, the formation of the Foot-Ball Club makes sense.
How did they play?
The Foot-Ball Club papers are a treasure trove of names, accounts, receipts and letters. Perhaps most important of all, there is a set of fledgling rules, written by John Hope in 1833. This represents the earliest known attempt at football codification, although the players must have had some kind of unwritten understanding before then.
Some of his beliefs will be judged by today's standards as extreme, bigoted or blinkered. His views on religion, for example, included ferocious and sustained attacks on Popery, and he became so obsessed with abstinence from alcohol that he insisted his staff sign the pledge, and even fell out with churches over their use of fermented wine, rather than the unfermented variety, for communion.
But he was also a passionate social reformer who spoke up for the poor and the downtrodden, for example leading a campaign to introduce the Saturday half-holiday for workmen in Edinburgh, organising regular excursions to the countryside for thousands of slum kids, and providing education to help them escape those slums.
When he died in 1893, he was one of the city's richest men, having accumulated a fortune which would be worth about £50 million in today's money. He left most of his wealth to the Hope Trust, a religious charity, leaving his extended family distraught at getting nothing. They mounted a legal challenge which claimed he suffered from insane delusions when he wrote the will but after six years of wrangling, the family lost and the Hope Trust continues his work in temperance and religion to this day.
Hope believed firmly in the benefits of sport and exercise, and could loosely be described as an advocate of Muscular Christianity, although of a particular Scottish variety.
Most of all, though, he stands out today because he loved and promoted football. Hope and his friends had all played the game at the High School of Edinburgh, where generations of boys were actively encouraged to participate in sport and exercise. There are numerous references of football being a popular game in the school yards, back to Walter Scott's time.
In the confined spaces of the High School Yards – an environment which has hardly changed in two hundred years since – there was a hard surface bounded by stone walls, where football evolved on a similar pattern to that enjoyed by boys at Charterhouse and Westminster in London. Right from the start of football history, players from these urban schools tended to favour the non-carrying game as full body tackling was likely to cause injury and damage to clothing, hence they became early advocates of association-type football.
Why form a football club?
At the dawn of the 19th century, football was generally considered a game for boys, not for responsible adults. John Hope and his friends broke that convention when they decided to carry on playing after leaving school, whether going up to University or into the world of work, and soon found that plenty of others were of the same mind.
As well as a love of football, other key factors were the established sporting culture in Edinburgh and the fondness for middle and upper class men in the city subscribing to clubs where they not only played sport, they socialised together.
There are a number of sporting world firsts for Edinburgh: in this city we had the first archery club (Royal Company of Archers, 1676), the first golf club (Burgess Golfing Society, 1735), the first gymnastic club (1786) and then, thanks to John Hope, the first football club in 1824.
And where there are clubs, there are rules and competitions, cups and trophies. So again the city boasts several world firsts: in golf the Company of Gentlemen Golfers laid down rules which governed the Edinburgh Silver Club, both in 1744; in bowls the Edinburgh Society of Bowlers rules in 1769 led to the Edinburgh Silver Jack; in curling the rules of the Duddingston Curling Club were written in 1811; and – as we shall see – the earliest known rules of football.
The template of organised sports clubs in Edinburgh was therefore well established by the 1820s, a decade which saw a national movement towards athletic and more vigorous sports. In this context, the formation of the Foot-Ball Club makes sense.
How did they play?
The Foot-Ball Club papers are a treasure trove of names, accounts, receipts and letters. Perhaps most important of all, there is a set of fledgling rules, written by John Hope in 1833. This represents the earliest known attempt at football codification, although the players must have had some kind of unwritten understanding before then.
John Hope's football rules of 1833 (National Records of Scotland)
His six brief instructions to players indicate a kicking game between opposing sides, with a defined playing surface and using goals as a method of scoring.
The first two rules indicate a concern for safety and a desire to avoid injury:
Single soled shoes, no iron
No tripping
Rules three and four introduce the method of scoring, and a defined playing area:
Ball to pass imaginary line
A free kick if ball out of bounds
Rule five indicates a controlled amount of physical contact:
Pushing is allowed. Holding not illegal
Rule six appears to mean that the only time the ball could be handled was when it was out of play:
Allow the ball to be lifted between fields
While there are no records of inter-club matches – these were guidelines for club members playing amongst themselves, wearing caps to distinguish the sides – there is a strong indication that John Hope and his friends played a precursor to what became association football. It certainly bore little relation to rugby, which permitted handling, carrying and running with the ball.
A flavour of what it was like to play for the club can be found in the correspondence which is extensive, albeit largely limited to letters which Hope received, rather than those he sent. For example, in 1825 Henry Logan, a founding member who had gone to London, wrote to say how much he missed the action: 'How I envy you the pleasure you must have had the day there were 39 members out, such kicking of shins and such tumbling.'
The style of play was also determined by the playing equipment, which can be discovered through the accounts. One receipt from James Christie and Son of George Street, shows that if you wanted a football in 1831 you had to have a leather case made specially and pay handsomely: the costs start at two shillings and sixpence.
The first two rules indicate a concern for safety and a desire to avoid injury:
Single soled shoes, no iron
No tripping
Rules three and four introduce the method of scoring, and a defined playing area:
Ball to pass imaginary line
A free kick if ball out of bounds
Rule five indicates a controlled amount of physical contact:
Pushing is allowed. Holding not illegal
Rule six appears to mean that the only time the ball could be handled was when it was out of play:
Allow the ball to be lifted between fields
While there are no records of inter-club matches – these were guidelines for club members playing amongst themselves, wearing caps to distinguish the sides – there is a strong indication that John Hope and his friends played a precursor to what became association football. It certainly bore little relation to rugby, which permitted handling, carrying and running with the ball.
A flavour of what it was like to play for the club can be found in the correspondence which is extensive, albeit largely limited to letters which Hope received, rather than those he sent. For example, in 1825 Henry Logan, a founding member who had gone to London, wrote to say how much he missed the action: 'How I envy you the pleasure you must have had the day there were 39 members out, such kicking of shins and such tumbling.'
The style of play was also determined by the playing equipment, which can be discovered through the accounts. One receipt from James Christie and Son of George Street, shows that if you wanted a football in 1831 you had to have a leather case made specially and pay handsomely: the costs start at two shillings and sixpence.
The Foot-Ball Club accounts reveal much about how the game was played. This sheet of expenses from 1834 details all the equipment needed.
The cases contained inflated pig bladders, which burst regularly so the club required a regular supply of fresh ones. This aspect was outlined in more detail in the accounts for 1834, in which the costs of the paraphernalia for playing football were itemised: three bladders at threepence each, six laces at a penny each, a tin pipe and wire. It went on to detail the purchase of oil, a cloth brush, a canvas bag, yet more bladders, and somewhat incongruously a bottle of whisky – which was used to clean out the bladders.
The players also needed a regular venue so there is payment of ground rental, called 'grass rent' as the club played on a field which might otherwise have been used for grazing cattle. They moved several times during the life of the club, hiring fields which are now the suburbs of Dalry and Bruntsfield.
And there was also payment to an attendant, to allow the players to focus on enjoying themselves. Right from the very start of the club, a boy was paid a shilling a week to blow up and repair the footballs, put up the goalposts and look after the equipment.
Who played football?
In 1824 John Hope was seventeen years old and had just matriculated as a student at Edinburgh University but while he was typical of the founders, the membership books record around 300 men over the next decade. They include students, schoolboys, soldiers and professional classes, and by researching their names, it has been possible to shed light on who these trailblazers were: where they lived and worked, where they were educated, and what their position was in society.
Some men had a fleeting membership, some played for years, and three of them were members throughout the club's existence. The club had a buoyant first decade with upwards of sixty members each year before falling away to less than half that number.
The early membership lists give only a name, then in the 1830s they also included an address which means it has been possible to identify who most of the members were, where they came from, and what they did with their lives. Not surprisingly, they were mostly young men who had been at school within Edinburgh. There are strong links to the High School, where most of Edinburgh male society in the early 19th century was educated, including John Hope and his father.
But another school which features largely is the Edinburgh Academy, which opened in 1824 in direct competition to the High School, and over one third of those we have identified went there. The Academy subsequently played a crucial role in introducing rugby football to Scotland in the 1850s, yet it is clear that Academy boys played football for many years before then, and it was of the kicking rather than the carrying variety.
A sizable proportion of members were schooled further afield before making their way to Edinburgh. Within Scotland, they came from the Scottish Borders to the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland, and many in between.
There was also a scattering of English members. At that time Oxford and Cambridge universities only accepted Church of England conformists, so non-conformists and Roman Catholics were obliged to seek their higher education in Scotland or abroad, and Edinburgh University was a popular choice.
The players also needed a regular venue so there is payment of ground rental, called 'grass rent' as the club played on a field which might otherwise have been used for grazing cattle. They moved several times during the life of the club, hiring fields which are now the suburbs of Dalry and Bruntsfield.
And there was also payment to an attendant, to allow the players to focus on enjoying themselves. Right from the very start of the club, a boy was paid a shilling a week to blow up and repair the footballs, put up the goalposts and look after the equipment.
Who played football?
In 1824 John Hope was seventeen years old and had just matriculated as a student at Edinburgh University but while he was typical of the founders, the membership books record around 300 men over the next decade. They include students, schoolboys, soldiers and professional classes, and by researching their names, it has been possible to shed light on who these trailblazers were: where they lived and worked, where they were educated, and what their position was in society.
Some men had a fleeting membership, some played for years, and three of them were members throughout the club's existence. The club had a buoyant first decade with upwards of sixty members each year before falling away to less than half that number.
The early membership lists give only a name, then in the 1830s they also included an address which means it has been possible to identify who most of the members were, where they came from, and what they did with their lives. Not surprisingly, they were mostly young men who had been at school within Edinburgh. There are strong links to the High School, where most of Edinburgh male society in the early 19th century was educated, including John Hope and his father.
But another school which features largely is the Edinburgh Academy, which opened in 1824 in direct competition to the High School, and over one third of those we have identified went there. The Academy subsequently played a crucial role in introducing rugby football to Scotland in the 1850s, yet it is clear that Academy boys played football for many years before then, and it was of the kicking rather than the carrying variety.
A sizable proportion of members were schooled further afield before making their way to Edinburgh. Within Scotland, they came from the Scottish Borders to the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland, and many in between.
There was also a scattering of English members. At that time Oxford and Cambridge universities only accepted Church of England conformists, so non-conformists and Roman Catholics were obliged to seek their higher education in Scotland or abroad, and Edinburgh University was a popular choice.
The membership list for the first season of The Foot-Ball Club, 1824-25.
When these young men came to Edinburgh to study or to work, the fact that they chose to join the Foot-Ball Club infers that they had already played a form of football at home or school.
For example, George Witham, an English member of the club in its first two years while a medical student, was a Roman Catholic who had been educated at Stonyhurst, a Jesuit school in Lancashire, which had a tradition of playing a form of football known as The Grand Match, with a pancake as a prize for the winners.
The addresses in the membership rolls include virtually every major street in Edinburgh's New Town and less than ten per cent were in the suburbs. Apart from three in the vicinity of the University, none were in the historic Old Town, indicating that football was not yet a working class game.
As for careers, while most members were students when they joined, almost all went on to be professional men such as lawyers, doctors, army officers, commerce and the church. There is no evidence of lower middle class occupations such as shopkeepers and clerks.
Given Hope's family and professional connections, it is little surprise that the majority of the members whose careers have been identified became lawyers, and of those, most became Writers to the Signet. Then as now, Edinburgh was a city of lawyers, and many lawyers had the time, the affluence and the social status to join clubs and indulge in recreations.
Among strong connections to medicine are a number of prominent surgeons and doctors such as Alexander Wood, who invented the hypodermic syringe, while six club members (or their brothers) became Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons or Physicians.
There are numerous other stories about the club members as they made their way in life. Just as one quick example, several posed as subjects for the pioneering photographers, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the 1840s. There are pictures of John Hope himself, James Rannie Swinton, Robert Dundas Cay and James Moncreiff, probably the first ever photographs of football players.
What was the club's legacy?
The Foot-Ball Club can be shown to have had a significant influence on the development of the game of football, with close links between its members and the next generation of footballers later in the century, men who played in the early codified games of rugby and association football.
For example, there are two notable links to the captains of the first Scotland international teams, association and rugby, who were both sons of Foot-Ball Club members. James Kirkpatrick, captain of Scotland in the first unofficial association football international of 1870 and an FA Cup winner with Wanderers in 1878, was a son of Charles Sharpe Kirkpatrick, a member in 1831-32. Francis Moncreiff, Scotland's captain in the first international rugby match against England in 1871, was a son of James Moncreiff (a future Lord Advocate) who was a member in 1832-33.
If you believe that sons learn from their fathers, that is a remarkable legacy, and the principle was repeated, with several other sons of members playing football in the 1860s and 1870s at school and at university.
Despite this, John Hope is rarely given much credit for his contribution to the early development of football. Historians who research the origins of association game usually focus on the founding of the FA in 1863, on the public schools, on Sheffield and so on. For example, Sheffield FC, founded in 1857, claim to be 'the world’s first football club' and have actually incorporated the slogan into their crest. It simply isn't true. They might be the oldest surviving club, but the world's first? Not at all. That honour belongs to Edinburgh, and more specifically to John Hope.
Unfortunately, Hope's organisational skills would prove to be a double-edged sword. Having run the club single-handedly, when he got too old to enjoy playing there was no-one suitable to take his place. The final item in the club's archive is a letter dated February 1841 from John G Campbell of 7 Great King Street, asking if three or four of his friends could join. Campbell knew the club well, having been a member ten years previously, but he was too late: around that time the Foot-Ball Club was wound up.
There is currently little evidence of organised adult football being played in the city for the next few years but the 1850s witnessed another burst of football activity.
In 1851 the Edinburgh University Football Club challenged the 93rd Highlanders, garrisoned in Edinburgh Castle, to a match. The losers agreed to present the winners with a silver medal, which is preserved in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum at Stirling Castle and is the world's oldest football prize. It depicts clearly a kicking, association-type, form of football, and that is backed up by newspaper reports which describe positional play, teamwork and organisation.
As the 1850s progressed, John Hope continued to be a catalyst for football in the city. In 1854 he created a playing field at Stockbridge Park, where he encouraged boys to play football, writing 'the game is strongly recommended as giving most exercise and fun in a short time'.
For example, George Witham, an English member of the club in its first two years while a medical student, was a Roman Catholic who had been educated at Stonyhurst, a Jesuit school in Lancashire, which had a tradition of playing a form of football known as The Grand Match, with a pancake as a prize for the winners.
The addresses in the membership rolls include virtually every major street in Edinburgh's New Town and less than ten per cent were in the suburbs. Apart from three in the vicinity of the University, none were in the historic Old Town, indicating that football was not yet a working class game.
As for careers, while most members were students when they joined, almost all went on to be professional men such as lawyers, doctors, army officers, commerce and the church. There is no evidence of lower middle class occupations such as shopkeepers and clerks.
Given Hope's family and professional connections, it is little surprise that the majority of the members whose careers have been identified became lawyers, and of those, most became Writers to the Signet. Then as now, Edinburgh was a city of lawyers, and many lawyers had the time, the affluence and the social status to join clubs and indulge in recreations.
Among strong connections to medicine are a number of prominent surgeons and doctors such as Alexander Wood, who invented the hypodermic syringe, while six club members (or their brothers) became Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons or Physicians.
There are numerous other stories about the club members as they made their way in life. Just as one quick example, several posed as subjects for the pioneering photographers, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the 1840s. There are pictures of John Hope himself, James Rannie Swinton, Robert Dundas Cay and James Moncreiff, probably the first ever photographs of football players.
What was the club's legacy?
The Foot-Ball Club can be shown to have had a significant influence on the development of the game of football, with close links between its members and the next generation of footballers later in the century, men who played in the early codified games of rugby and association football.
For example, there are two notable links to the captains of the first Scotland international teams, association and rugby, who were both sons of Foot-Ball Club members. James Kirkpatrick, captain of Scotland in the first unofficial association football international of 1870 and an FA Cup winner with Wanderers in 1878, was a son of Charles Sharpe Kirkpatrick, a member in 1831-32. Francis Moncreiff, Scotland's captain in the first international rugby match against England in 1871, was a son of James Moncreiff (a future Lord Advocate) who was a member in 1832-33.
If you believe that sons learn from their fathers, that is a remarkable legacy, and the principle was repeated, with several other sons of members playing football in the 1860s and 1870s at school and at university.
Despite this, John Hope is rarely given much credit for his contribution to the early development of football. Historians who research the origins of association game usually focus on the founding of the FA in 1863, on the public schools, on Sheffield and so on. For example, Sheffield FC, founded in 1857, claim to be 'the world’s first football club' and have actually incorporated the slogan into their crest. It simply isn't true. They might be the oldest surviving club, but the world's first? Not at all. That honour belongs to Edinburgh, and more specifically to John Hope.
Unfortunately, Hope's organisational skills would prove to be a double-edged sword. Having run the club single-handedly, when he got too old to enjoy playing there was no-one suitable to take his place. The final item in the club's archive is a letter dated February 1841 from John G Campbell of 7 Great King Street, asking if three or four of his friends could join. Campbell knew the club well, having been a member ten years previously, but he was too late: around that time the Foot-Ball Club was wound up.
There is currently little evidence of organised adult football being played in the city for the next few years but the 1850s witnessed another burst of football activity.
In 1851 the Edinburgh University Football Club challenged the 93rd Highlanders, garrisoned in Edinburgh Castle, to a match. The losers agreed to present the winners with a silver medal, which is preserved in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum at Stirling Castle and is the world's oldest football prize. It depicts clearly a kicking, association-type, form of football, and that is backed up by newspaper reports which describe positional play, teamwork and organisation.
As the 1850s progressed, John Hope continued to be a catalyst for football in the city. In 1854 he created a playing field at Stockbridge Park, where he encouraged boys to play football, writing 'the game is strongly recommended as giving most exercise and fun in a short time'.
John Hope's printed rules of football in 1854 bear strong similarities to the future code of association football.
He even printed rules of play which bear strong similarities not just to his 1833 rules, but also to the future codes for association football. For example: goals scored between the posts, no handling of the ball, teams wearing distinctive colours, and an insistence on sporting behaviour with no hacking (the great divide between rugby and what became association football).
Unfortunately he could not renew his lease of Stockbridge Park, and this inadvertently opened the door to the handling game because in the same year, rugby football was introduced at the Edinburgh Academy. Rugby was soon taken up by the other principal schools in the city where it became the dominant code.
However, the non-handling game continued to prosper among the working classes, and the laying out of the Meadows as a recreational space provided an accessible and free resource for young men to play football. There is plenty of evidence that the game was popular there throughout the 1860s.
When the rules of association football finally came to Edinburgh, thanks to the missionary efforts of Queen's Park FC, it was John Hope who saw the potential and he encouraged the soldiers in his volunteer regiment, the Third Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers, to form one of the city's first clubs in 1874. He actually kicked off their first match, and when they won their first trophy in 1876, the Edinburgh Shield, it was presented not to the club captain, but to him.
The Third ERV later evolved into St Bernard's FC, who won the Scottish Cup in 1895, and although John Hope wasn't around to see that triumph, having died two years earlier, he is part of a thread which runs all the way from the formation of the Foot-Ball Club in 1824 to victory in the national cup competition. It is a formidable legacy.
John Hope and his footballers became not only significant figures in the ranks of 19th century Edinburgh society, they also made a major contribution to the game's progress. Scotland's capital really can make a claim to be a true home of football.
To read the full story, buy the book: 1824, The World's First Football Club is on sale from Amazon price £10, post free in the UK.
Unfortunately he could not renew his lease of Stockbridge Park, and this inadvertently opened the door to the handling game because in the same year, rugby football was introduced at the Edinburgh Academy. Rugby was soon taken up by the other principal schools in the city where it became the dominant code.
However, the non-handling game continued to prosper among the working classes, and the laying out of the Meadows as a recreational space provided an accessible and free resource for young men to play football. There is plenty of evidence that the game was popular there throughout the 1860s.
When the rules of association football finally came to Edinburgh, thanks to the missionary efforts of Queen's Park FC, it was John Hope who saw the potential and he encouraged the soldiers in his volunteer regiment, the Third Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers, to form one of the city's first clubs in 1874. He actually kicked off their first match, and when they won their first trophy in 1876, the Edinburgh Shield, it was presented not to the club captain, but to him.
The Third ERV later evolved into St Bernard's FC, who won the Scottish Cup in 1895, and although John Hope wasn't around to see that triumph, having died two years earlier, he is part of a thread which runs all the way from the formation of the Foot-Ball Club in 1824 to victory in the national cup competition. It is a formidable legacy.
John Hope and his footballers became not only significant figures in the ranks of 19th century Edinburgh society, they also made a major contribution to the game's progress. Scotland's capital really can make a claim to be a true home of football.
To read the full story, buy the book: 1824, The World's First Football Club is on sale from Amazon price £10, post free in the UK.
- Published on
At this year's Football History Conference in Belfast, I gave a talk on the Netflix Series The English Game, which came out five years ago. I was interested in exploring whether and how the series has influenced the study of football history.
You can read my full illustrated talk by clicking on this link (which will open a pdf).
Much of my involvement in the programme went back to my previous research on Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love, the Scottish protagonists of the story, and my biography of Arthur Kinnaird. You can read about them in my blog, or just look for 'Suter' or 'Kinnaird' in the search box top right.
You can read my full illustrated talk by clicking on this link (which will open a pdf).
Much of my involvement in the programme went back to my previous research on Fergie Suter and Jimmy Love, the Scottish protagonists of the story, and my biography of Arthur Kinnaird. You can read about them in my blog, or just look for 'Suter' or 'Kinnaird' in the search box top right.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Do you think The English Game has been a force for good, and brought more people into football history, or has it simply muddied the waters, provoking needless arguments?
More widely, is drama the best way to cover football history, or do you think it would be better to focus on factual, and accurate, documentary?
And finally, what topics or stories are crying out to be covered by the big screen?
Please leave any comments below.
More widely, is drama the best way to cover football history, or do you think it would be better to focus on factual, and accurate, documentary?
And finally, what topics or stories are crying out to be covered by the big screen?
Please leave any comments below.
- Published on
Today I gave the second of my talks on early sport in Scotland's capital, with The Birth of Rugby in Edinburgh.
It covers the origins of the handling game, from medieval beginnings through the haphazard games of the early 19th century, to the rapid developments that kicked off in the 1850s.
Rugby football arrived in Edinburgh in 1854 almost by accident, and by the end of the decade it had been adopted by the major schools because of the influence of Tom Brown's Schooldays and the cult of Muscular Christianity.
The event at the City Art Centre was part of the Edinburgh 900 celebration, and attracted a large audience.
For anyone unable to attend, I have now put the full illustrated talk into a single pdf document, which can be opened by clicking on this link.
You can also read my first talk, on The Birth of Football in Edinburgh at this link.
It covers the origins of the handling game, from medieval beginnings through the haphazard games of the early 19th century, to the rapid developments that kicked off in the 1850s.
Rugby football arrived in Edinburgh in 1854 almost by accident, and by the end of the decade it had been adopted by the major schools because of the influence of Tom Brown's Schooldays and the cult of Muscular Christianity.
The event at the City Art Centre was part of the Edinburgh 900 celebration, and attracted a large audience.
For anyone unable to attend, I have now put the full illustrated talk into a single pdf document, which can be opened by clicking on this link.
You can also read my first talk, on The Birth of Football in Edinburgh at this link.
The Scotland team that faced England in the first rugby international in 1871.
- Published on
Detail from a silver medal presented in 1851, the world's oldest known football prize
Today I gave a talk on The Birth of Football in Edinburgh, describing the early development of the sport in Scotland's capital up to the formation of the city's first association football clubs in the 1870s.
It is a fascinating story which ranges from medieval times to developments in the Victorian era, covering not just those pioneers who played football in the 19th century but the social changes that brought the game to a wider audience. The 1850s were crucial, as the Meadows were opened up to the public for sport, while the Saturday half-holiday gave working men the time to play.
The event at Edinburgh's City Art Centre, part of the Edinburgh 900 celebration, attracted a large audience - all tickets were allocated several months ago.
For anyone unable to attend, I have now put the full illustrated talk into a single pdf document, which can be opened by clicking on this link.
I will be giving another talk next week, on the birth of rugby in Edinburgh, and will also put it online afterwards.
It is a fascinating story which ranges from medieval times to developments in the Victorian era, covering not just those pioneers who played football in the 19th century but the social changes that brought the game to a wider audience. The 1850s were crucial, as the Meadows were opened up to the public for sport, while the Saturday half-holiday gave working men the time to play.
The event at Edinburgh's City Art Centre, part of the Edinburgh 900 celebration, attracted a large audience - all tickets were allocated several months ago.
For anyone unable to attend, I have now put the full illustrated talk into a single pdf document, which can be opened by clicking on this link.
I will be giving another talk next week, on the birth of rugby in Edinburgh, and will also put it online afterwards.
The Third Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers, Edinburgh's first association football club, founded in 1874.
- Published on
Dewar's Temperance Hotel in Glasgow holds a special place in Scottish football history. It was there on 13 March 1873 that eight clubs resolved to 'form themselves into an association for the promotion of football according to the rules of the Football Association'.
Queen's Park FC issued an invitation to 'Scotch clubs' to the founding meeting of the Scottish FA. [North British Daily Mail, 3 March 1873, via British Newspaper Archive]
That founding meeting of the Scottish FA took place in the hotel at 11 Bridge Street, just south of the river Clyde. It followed two Scotland v England encounters which were organised by Queen's Park FC, who realised that they could not continue on their own and it was time for a national body. Their appeal for clubs to join them attracted representatives from Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Dumbreck, Third Lanark, Eastern and Granville, while Kilmarnock sent a letter of support.
Between them, they chose Archibald Campbell of Clydesdale as President with William Ker of Queen's Park as treasurer and Archibald Rae of Queen's Park as secretary. The eight committee members were James Turnbull (Dumbreck), Donald Macfarlane (Vale of Leven), Ebenezer Hendry (Clydesdale), William Dick (Third Lanark), John Mackay (Granville), James McIntyre (Eastern), Robert Gardner (Queen's Park) and William Gibb (Clydesdale). Apart from 49-year-old Campbell, all of them were active players and three of them (Ker, Gardner and Gibb) were internationalists.
Between them, they chose Archibald Campbell of Clydesdale as President with William Ker of Queen's Park as treasurer and Archibald Rae of Queen's Park as secretary. The eight committee members were James Turnbull (Dumbreck), Donald Macfarlane (Vale of Leven), Ebenezer Hendry (Clydesdale), William Dick (Third Lanark), John Mackay (Granville), James McIntyre (Eastern), Robert Gardner (Queen's Park) and William Gibb (Clydesdale). Apart from 49-year-old Campbell, all of them were active players and three of them (Ker, Gardner and Gibb) were internationalists.
A detailed report of the founding meeting in the North British Daily Mail, 17 March 1873 [BNA]
Archibald Campbell, elected first President of the Scottish Football Association
The committee laid down a set of rules and while the Scottish FA took on the role of organising future internationals, its primary focus was the inauguration of a national competition, the Scottish Cup, which was played for the first time the following season.
So, who was Dewar, where exactly was this hotel and why was it chosen as the venue?
There is nothing there now to mark the spot: Dewar's Hotel is long gone, having been demolished in the 1930s, and a later building stands on the site. The Scottish FA did commission a plaque to commemorate their founding meeting, but they outsourced the work and rather ineptly it was put on the wrong side of the street.
The story goes back to 1840, when Alexander Dewar married Jane Wylie, not long after he arrived in Glasgow from his native Perthshire. Shortly after their marriage they opened the Railway Arms Tavern in Clyde Place, the first of four businesses, all with the same name and all in close proximity to the newly-built Bridge Street Station which was then the southern terminus for Glasgow.
After five years the Dewars moved their business briefly to Jamaica Street, then in 1847 they opened the third Railway Arms at 16 Bridge Street. This was in a prime position, right next to the station entrance and it proved to be a popular venue, expanding in 1852 and with further improvements in 1857. By this time the Dewars had six daughters who helped run the hotel, but in 1863 Alexander Dewar was declared bankrupt. He told the bankruptcy court that business had recently fallen off, and although he was discharged six months later the hotel closed in 1864. It was later taken over as railway offices.
Undeterred by this setback, the family moved across the road to more modest premises at 11 Bridge Street, on the upper floors of a building which had shops and a restaurant at street level. This time it was on a no-alcohol basis, hence the name Dewar's Temperance Hotel, although it was formally still known as the Railway Arms.
So, who was Dewar, where exactly was this hotel and why was it chosen as the venue?
There is nothing there now to mark the spot: Dewar's Hotel is long gone, having been demolished in the 1930s, and a later building stands on the site. The Scottish FA did commission a plaque to commemorate their founding meeting, but they outsourced the work and rather ineptly it was put on the wrong side of the street.
The story goes back to 1840, when Alexander Dewar married Jane Wylie, not long after he arrived in Glasgow from his native Perthshire. Shortly after their marriage they opened the Railway Arms Tavern in Clyde Place, the first of four businesses, all with the same name and all in close proximity to the newly-built Bridge Street Station which was then the southern terminus for Glasgow.
After five years the Dewars moved their business briefly to Jamaica Street, then in 1847 they opened the third Railway Arms at 16 Bridge Street. This was in a prime position, right next to the station entrance and it proved to be a popular venue, expanding in 1852 and with further improvements in 1857. By this time the Dewars had six daughters who helped run the hotel, but in 1863 Alexander Dewar was declared bankrupt. He told the bankruptcy court that business had recently fallen off, and although he was discharged six months later the hotel closed in 1864. It was later taken over as railway offices.
Undeterred by this setback, the family moved across the road to more modest premises at 11 Bridge Street, on the upper floors of a building which had shops and a restaurant at street level. This time it was on a no-alcohol basis, hence the name Dewar's Temperance Hotel, although it was formally still known as the Railway Arms.
The buildings in Bridge Street which contained Dewar's Hotel are highlighted in this 1930s photo, taken shortly before the buildings were demolished. [canmore.org.uk/collection/1257774]
As well as providing rooms for visitors, its function room hosted a wide range of meetings and proved particularly popular for sporting associations and clubs. The Scottish FA certainly liked the environment as it held committee meetings at Dewar's Hotel regularly through the 1870s until it acquired its own premises, and others who met there included Rangers, Third Lanark and numerous smaller football clubs, as well as cricketers, bowlers and shinty players.
Dewar's Hotel was used by numerous football clubs and other sporting bodies. Rangers held their AGM there in 1879. [Evening Times, 7 June 1879, via BNA]
When the Scottish FA first met in 1873, however, Alexander Dewar was no longer there. He had died in October 1868 aged 57, and his widow Jane was left to carry on the business with the support of her daughters, so they were the hosts for the inaugural meeting.
Even after Jane's death in 1875 the hotel remained in the family, with the daughters in charge until they gave it up in 1880. That was shortly after the opening of the much larger Glasgow Central Station on the other side of the river, which diminished the status of Bridge Street Station as trains could now cross the Clyde directly to the city centre. Although a reconfigured station was created a few yards to the south, it had much less traffic and that meant the hotel lost much of its viability.
It carried on under new management as Fleming's Temperance Hotel until the turn of the century, then appears to have become rented apartments. With the slow decline of the Gorbals, the whole block where Dewar's Hotel stood, from 5 to 15 Bridge Street, was demolished in the mid-1930s.
Even after Jane's death in 1875 the hotel remained in the family, with the daughters in charge until they gave it up in 1880. That was shortly after the opening of the much larger Glasgow Central Station on the other side of the river, which diminished the status of Bridge Street Station as trains could now cross the Clyde directly to the city centre. Although a reconfigured station was created a few yards to the south, it had much less traffic and that meant the hotel lost much of its viability.
It carried on under new management as Fleming's Temperance Hotel until the turn of the century, then appears to have become rented apartments. With the slow decline of the Gorbals, the whole block where Dewar's Hotel stood, from 5 to 15 Bridge Street, was demolished in the mid-1930s.
A aerial view of Cumbrae House in Bridge Street, which stands on the site of Dewar's Hotel and the Old Hampden Bar.
On the site today is Cumbrae House, an attractive deco building with contrasting black and cream tiles, built in 1937 as a furniture showroom. Now used as offices, it faces onto Carlton Court, with a prominent façade on Bridge Street, although the building is need of attention and has been shrouded in scaffolding for the past couple of years. This is the place where that Scottish FA plaque should be.
This 1893 map shows the Old Hampden Bar (marked P.H. in the circle) at 9 Bridge Street, next to the hatched area which is the entrance to Dewar's Hotel. [National Library of Scotland]
John Crichton and the Old Hampden Bar
Curiously, directly beneath Dewar's Hotel there was a football-related pub at street level. The Old Hampden Bar at 9 Bridge Street was for many years run by John Gray Crichton, who had played for Third Lanark against Queen's Park in the 1876 Scottish Cup final and appeared in a Scotland trial match.
Curiously, directly beneath Dewar's Hotel there was a football-related pub at street level. The Old Hampden Bar at 9 Bridge Street was for many years run by John Gray Crichton, who had played for Third Lanark against Queen's Park in the 1876 Scottish Cup final and appeared in a Scotland trial match.
John Crichton's entry in the 1875 Scottish Football Annual. That season he played for Third Lanark in the Scottish Cup final.
He sounds like a great sportsman and a character. After leaving Thirds he was a player for Alexandra Athletic and Queen's Park, but had particular prominence as an athlete with a speciality for sack racing. While this may sound like a novelty event, the sack race was a staple of athletics meetings in the late Victorian era, and Crichton was virtually unbeatable until he gave it up in 1881.
The Athletic News paid tribute to his abilities, describing him as 'the cleverest sackist I ever saw … and, above all, he is every inch of him a gentleman.' After he retired, Crichton's natural successor as Scotland's leading sack racer was another footballer, Tuck McIntyre of Rangers.
There had been a pub or restaurant at 9 Bridge Street since the 1870s, and when Crichton took it over in 1887 he named it the Old Hampden Café as he provided food as well as drink. He decorated the walls with portraits of theatrical, political and sporting celebrities, and among the photos was an original image of the 1873 Scotland team that faced England a week before the Scottish FA was formed. Sadly, many of the photos were destroyed in a fire in 1916 but it is a measure of his popularity that he received over a hundred letters of support from his customers.
Crichton's influence extended far beyond these shores as he was made an honorary patron of Thistle Football Club in Fremantle, Western Australia, and supplied them with a set of strips and then a gold medal for their top scorer. The reason for this unlikely link is that his daughter had emigrated there with her husband, who played for the team.
The Athletic News paid tribute to his abilities, describing him as 'the cleverest sackist I ever saw … and, above all, he is every inch of him a gentleman.' After he retired, Crichton's natural successor as Scotland's leading sack racer was another footballer, Tuck McIntyre of Rangers.
There had been a pub or restaurant at 9 Bridge Street since the 1870s, and when Crichton took it over in 1887 he named it the Old Hampden Café as he provided food as well as drink. He decorated the walls with portraits of theatrical, political and sporting celebrities, and among the photos was an original image of the 1873 Scotland team that faced England a week before the Scottish FA was formed. Sadly, many of the photos were destroyed in a fire in 1916 but it is a measure of his popularity that he received over a hundred letters of support from his customers.
Crichton's influence extended far beyond these shores as he was made an honorary patron of Thistle Football Club in Fremantle, Western Australia, and supplied them with a set of strips and then a gold medal for their top scorer. The reason for this unlikely link is that his daughter had emigrated there with her husband, who played for the team.
The Scotland v England match programme in 1927 had this advert for the Old Hampden Bar, 9 Bridge Street.
John Crichton continued as landlord until 1920 when he sold up and retired to Surrey, where he died eight years later. However, the Old Hampden Bar remained open for at least another decade and had a prominent advert in the Scotland v England match programme in 1927, still boasting a photo gallery of footballers past and present.
- Published on
It's a word which was invented in the Victorian era as the short form of association football and has spread around the world, but the origins of 'soccer' remain shrouded in obscurity.
For a long time, the earliest printed example that the Oxford English Dictionary could find was in 1891. With digitisation of many Victorian publications that date has now been pushed back to 1885, when 'soccer' surfaced at the same time as its counterpart 'rugger'.
But this discovery has only served to muddy the waters as there are no fewer than three examples of 'soccer' or 'socker' in late 1885, all printed a few days apart in school magazines from different parts of the country. There is no obvious connection between them, so the mystery remains – where exactly did the word spring from?
For a long time, the earliest printed example that the Oxford English Dictionary could find was in 1891. With digitisation of many Victorian publications that date has now been pushed back to 1885, when 'soccer' surfaced at the same time as its counterpart 'rugger'.
But this discovery has only served to muddy the waters as there are no fewer than three examples of 'soccer' or 'socker' in late 1885, all printed a few days apart in school magazines from different parts of the country. There is no obvious connection between them, so the mystery remains – where exactly did the word spring from?
Charles Wreford Brown is often credited with inventing the word 'soccer' but this can now be dismissed as a myth.
The accepted wisdom is that 'soccer' was coined by students at Oxford University who had developed a slang which involved adding the suffix -er to common words: hence 'fresher' for freshman and 'brekker' for breakfast, among many others. Football was shortened to 'footer' but this could mean either code so they came up with a convoluted diminution of 'association' in response to the more easily-understood 'rugger' for rugby.
More specifically, soccer's invention has often been attributed to Charles Wreford Brown, an Old Carthusian, captain of the University football eleven and an England internationalist (pictured above). However, he can be ruled out as he was still at school when 'soccer' first appeared in print. In any case, the story was not published until 1952, a year after his death, when Geoffrey Green, the legendary football correspondent of The Times, told the anecdote but added the caveat 'Or so the story goes'.
The theory that soccer owes its origin to Oxford University takes a further dent as The Oxford Magazine offers the first printed use of 'Socker' in February 1887, three months after it first used 'Rugger'. Nothing earlier at the University has yet been found.
Nor is there anything to confirm that 'soccer' began life as 'assoccer' before being shortened, which may appear logical but there is no known contemporary usage of 'assoccer'. I believe this speculative explanation surfaced only recently, in the current century.
Let's have a look at the hard evidence, which points to 'soccer' and 'rugger' being created at the same time.
More specifically, soccer's invention has often been attributed to Charles Wreford Brown, an Old Carthusian, captain of the University football eleven and an England internationalist (pictured above). However, he can be ruled out as he was still at school when 'soccer' first appeared in print. In any case, the story was not published until 1952, a year after his death, when Geoffrey Green, the legendary football correspondent of The Times, told the anecdote but added the caveat 'Or so the story goes'.
The theory that soccer owes its origin to Oxford University takes a further dent as The Oxford Magazine offers the first printed use of 'Socker' in February 1887, three months after it first used 'Rugger'. Nothing earlier at the University has yet been found.
Nor is there anything to confirm that 'soccer' began life as 'assoccer' before being shortened, which may appear logical but there is no known contemporary usage of 'assoccer'. I believe this speculative explanation surfaced only recently, in the current century.
Let's have a look at the hard evidence, which points to 'soccer' and 'rugger' being created at the same time.
The earliest known printed use of 'soccer' in The Marlburian, dated 25 November 1885
By a whisker, the earliest known publication of 'soccer' was in The Marlburian, the fortnightly magazine of Marlborough College in Wiltshire, in its edition dated 25 November 1885. An anonymous pupil wrote: 'I can't help thinking it a great pity that there has been no 'Association' on the Common this term. It must improve the forward play and is certainly a pleasant change occasionally from everlasting Rugby.' He signed his letter 'Soccer', and clearly expected readers to understand what he meant by his pseudonym.
Intriguingly, Marlborough was a rugby-playing school, and although there were other letters in its magazine around that time promoting the merits of association football, only this one used the word 'soccer'.
Amazingly, within days, the word appeared in two other school publications, with a different spelling as 'socker'.
Intriguingly, Marlborough was a rugby-playing school, and although there were other letters in its magazine around that time promoting the merits of association football, only this one used the word 'soccer'.
Amazingly, within days, the word appeared in two other school publications, with a different spelling as 'socker'.
'Socker' and 'Rugger' make their first appearance in The Radleian magazine, December 1885 [Radley Archives]
'Our Oxford Letter' writes of 'Socker' in the December 1885 issue of The Oldhallian
At Radley College, five miles south of Oxford, a jocular article in the December 1885 issue of The Radleian used the word twice, comparing 'Socker' to 'Rugger' – which is the first known printed use of the latter – then stating: 'The patriotism of Old Radleians and their enthusiasm for 'Socker' reached such a pitch on All Saints' Day that they floated an Old Radleian Football Club.'
Also that month in Shropshire, at Old Hall School in Wellington, The Oldhallian contained an 'Oxford Letter' from a former pupil who wrote: 'The Varsity played Aston Villa and were beaten after a very exciting game; this was pre-eminently the most important 'Socker' game played in Oxford this term.'
So, in late 1885, correspondents to three geographically diverse schools all felt comfortable in using a new word for association football, and one of them used its equivalent for rugby. Yet there is nothing to link them and it is implausible that they all came up with the same idea simultaneously.
Also that month in Shropshire, at Old Hall School in Wellington, The Oldhallian contained an 'Oxford Letter' from a former pupil who wrote: 'The Varsity played Aston Villa and were beaten after a very exciting game; this was pre-eminently the most important 'Socker' game played in Oxford this term.'
So, in late 1885, correspondents to three geographically diverse schools all felt comfortable in using a new word for association football, and one of them used its equivalent for rugby. Yet there is nothing to link them and it is implausible that they all came up with the same idea simultaneously.
The geographically diverse locations of the schools which first used 'soccer' or 'socker' in print in late 1885: Old Hall (Shropshire), Radley (Oxfordshire), Marlborough (Wiltshire)
My hunch is that that 'soccer' and 'rugger' were already in verbal use and had been committed to print earlier that year in another journal – which has not yet been identified – and that this was picked up by these three contributors. Whatever their origin, the new slang took a surprisingly long time to gain traction as 'soccer' and 'rugger' were used only a few times in print in the second half of the decade.
After detailed searches, I have managed to find just a dozen or so instances of 'soccer' by 1890, mainly in school magazines. The Carthusian (Charterhouse) talks of the school’s soccer internationalists in October 1886 and the word appears again in December that year. There are further sightings in The City of London School Magazine in November 1886, The Lancing College Magazine of June 1887, and once more in The Radleian in February 1889.
On a national level, the terminology was picked up by the Boy's Own Paper in April 1889, with an article about 'Football at Oxford' which explained: 'In Varsity patois, Rugby is yclept Rugger while Association has for its synonym Socker.'
After detailed searches, I have managed to find just a dozen or so instances of 'soccer' by 1890, mainly in school magazines. The Carthusian (Charterhouse) talks of the school’s soccer internationalists in October 1886 and the word appears again in December that year. There are further sightings in The City of London School Magazine in November 1886, The Lancing College Magazine of June 1887, and once more in The Radleian in February 1889.
On a national level, the terminology was picked up by the Boy's Own Paper in April 1889, with an article about 'Football at Oxford' which explained: 'In Varsity patois, Rugby is yclept Rugger while Association has for its synonym Socker.'
The Tyro, the school magazine of Harrow, talked of school slang including 'Footer' in April 1864 [Harrow School Archives]
Interestingly, the principle of adding a suffix to common words can be traced with some certainty to Harrow, where The Tyro published an article about school slang in 1864: 'Our great predilection is for shortening words connected with the school into their roots, with the addition of er. For example, we speak of ducker, fouler, speecher etc where our fathers would have used the more decorous phrases of 'duck puddle', 'foul copy', 'speech room' as the case may be. But by far the most striking instance of this termination is in the short 'footer'.'
However, Harrow boys appear to have had no need of an alternative to 'footer' as 'soccer' did not make its first appearance in The Harrovian until March 1889.
However, Harrow boys appear to have had no need of an alternative to 'footer' as 'soccer' did not make its first appearance in The Harrovian until March 1889.
A writer ponders the origin of 'Soccer' and 'Rugger' in The Daily Telegraph, 14 August 1899 [British Newspaper Archive]
As the new words gained popularity during the 1890s, the divergence in spelling settled as 'soccer' rather than 'socker', and by the end of the decade soccer and rugger were so much part of the mainstream that in 1899 the Daily Telegraph reflected: 'Who now speaks of Association or Rugby football, and who does not welcome the abbreviated forms of 'Soccer' or 'Rugger'?'
The writer went on to ponder the origin of soccer as a word but was unable to come up with an answer: 'On whose lips Association first changed into Soccer, history is silent.'
That mystery remains the case today, and whether soccer started out as 'Varsity patois' or public school slang, there is no proof as yet.
For now, the credit for its first use goes to an unknown boy at Marlborough College, but I am confident that more about soccer's origin will, one day, be uncovered.
The writer went on to ponder the origin of soccer as a word but was unable to come up with an answer: 'On whose lips Association first changed into Soccer, history is silent.'
That mystery remains the case today, and whether soccer started out as 'Varsity patois' or public school slang, there is no proof as yet.
For now, the credit for its first use goes to an unknown boy at Marlborough College, but I am confident that more about soccer's origin will, one day, be uncovered.
Marlborough College rugby football team, pictured in 1870
For another perspective on the origins of soccer, see Steve Hendrick's lengthy analysis in Sporting Intelligence, published in 2015.
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All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell.