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SPORTS HISTORY BLOG

Over 250 articles on all aspects of Scottish sport

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One of the great joys of the 1872 international - 140th anniversary this week - is that there are some carefully preserved original artefacts from the match, as well as the illustrations which appeared in the Graphic. 
  •    The ticket (above) is held by the Scottish Football Museum in Glasgow. They could be bought in advance of the game from Queen's Park committee members, and despite the high price, sales were so buoyant that there were fears the ground would not cope with the anticipated large crowd. The Glasgow Herald suggested admission should be by ticket only, but then published an anxious response on the day of the game from an intending spectator: 'I do not know the committee of management, nor anyone who has tickets to dispose of, and it would be too had if I had my journey to Partick for nothing.' In the event, the crowd behaved impeccably 'and never once trenched upon the field of play'.
  •    The shirt (below left) worn by England forward Arnold Kirke Smith, in his only international, was kept by his family until 1998, when it sold at Christie's for £21,000 and is now on display in the National Football Museum - the first of eleven 'milestones in the game' that visitors see. Picture courtesy of Umbro football's photostream.
  •    Caps were not awarded specifically for this match, but Scotland's JJ Thomson made sure the honour of playing against England in 1872-3-4 was recorded on his cap (below right) when it was presented a couple of years later. It is now held at the Scottish Football Museum.

Who knows if there are any other souvenirs of the match still to be discovered?

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This week is the 140th anniversary of the first international football match, Scotland v England, played in Glasgow on 30 November 1872. To mark the event, here are a few little-known facts about the game, which finished 0-0:
  •    The Scotland team wore blue jerseys and white knickerbockers with blue and white hooped socks. These were the colours of Queen's Park FC, whose committee selected the team and made all the arrangements for the game as the Scottish FA had not yet been formed. To distinguish the jerseys, a red lion rampant was embroidered onto the chest by Marion Wotherspoon, sister of one of the Scotland players. Unfortunately, if the pictures of the game are accurate, she sewed them on back to front.
  •    Although all of the Scotland players were members of Queen's Park, two of them had to travel from England specially for the game. They were the brothers Robert and James Smith, who were founding members of the club in 1867 but had since moved to London and were now playing for South Norwood. In fact, they turned out for their London club in the FA Cup the week before and the week after the international.
  •    Two of the England players, Frederick Chappell and Arnold Kirke Smith, had previously played for Scotland against England in the series of unofficial internationals that preceded this match.
  •    A photographer was asked to attend the ground but left as the players refused to commit to buy his prints. Therefore the only images of the match are the engravings which appeared in The Graphic two weeks later. They were drawn by William Ralston, a young Glasgow artist who went on to a successful career with Punch.
  •    The attendance is often quoted as four thousand, but some contemporary newspapers gave a figure of 2,500 which seems more likely. The gate receipts were just under £103, which equates to just over two thousand admissions at a shilling each. Ladies were admitted free.
  •    Both teams changed goalkeepers at half-time. Robert Barker started in goal for England but changed places at the break with William Maynard. For Scotland, team captain Robert Gardner moved upfield for a while with Robert Smith going between the sticks, but Gardner reverted to his original position during the second half.
  •    After the match, the teams enjoyed dinner at Carrick's Royal Hotel in George Square, where the lengthy toast list included the Sheffield FA and the Scotland rugby team.

Read the full story of the match in my book, First Elevens. Order now for Christmas!
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Photo of William Ker c1876 (copyright)

One of the most satisfying aspects of research into the early footballers is discovering their families, and I was particularly lucky to make contact with direct descendants of William Ker (above), who played for Scotland in the 1872 international then emigrated the following year.

   My breakthrough was in finding that William and his younger brother George both went to the Yakima Valley in Washington State, where there is now a local history website [link] with pictures of them both. From there I managed to trace their family trees down to the present generation and gain access to a number of excellent photos, some of which are in my book. They even had a letter to William from Queen's Park FC in 1874! 

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All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell.