What would it take to tempt a footballer into the lion's den? A gold medal was on offer for those who were brave enough, and no fewer than five Scots were up for the challenge.
   In a curious sideline to some research I was doing about internationalists, the same story came up several times over three decades. I decided to bring the players together for the first time.

The first was Liverpool captain Andy Hannah, the Scotland internationalist. He had just led his team to a 2-1 victory over Notts County in November 1893 and for his Saturday night entertainment he went to the circus which was pitched right outside Anfield. For a bet he went into the cage and the promoters gave him a gold medal.
   There does seem to have been an arrangement at the circus for customers to show their bravery by going into the cage and touching one of the lions, even pulling its tail. Quite how brave you had to be is open to question, and it is likely the lions were doped or restrained, but it was good publicity when someone famous did the trick.
   It was not until 1908 that another footballer took up the challenge, and this time it was Billy Fulton, who had played for Sunderland, Derby County and Bristol City. He was now running a pub in his native Alloa, and just like Hannah he was awarded a gold medal. What is more, he repeated the feat in 1910 the next time the circus came to town, this time with five lions in the cage, to collect a second medal!

Just a couple of weeks after Fulton's exploit, Bobby Templeton of Kilmarnock (and formerly of Newcastle and Celtic) agreed in advance to attend the circus, which allowed Bostock & Wombwell to advertise in advance. He played for his club against Celtic in Glasgow then hurried back to Kilmarnock where, in front of a crowded house he calmly patted the lion on the back and turned its tail, to widespread applause. It has to be said that the local paper commented 'the animal seemed to be quite unconscious of the honour which was being conferred upon it'.

The final act of 'bravery' came in 1922 with not one, but two, goalkeepers. Jimmy Brownlie of Third Lanark and Charlie Shaw of Celtic visited the menagerie next to Kelvin Hall and under the watchful eye of the trainer they both went into the cage together. According to one report they were photographed with the lion but I have yet to find any photos which record this event, or any of the previous acts.

And what of the gold medals? None have come to light, as far as I know, but they do appear to have been genuine. I found the photos below from another excursion into the lion's den in 1907 (which you can read about here). The medal is hallmarked as gold, and suitable engraved, so it does seem that Wombwell's had a stock of medals to reward the rare person brave enough to face the lions.

If you want to read more about the Bostock and Wombwell menagerie, I can point you to a couple of fascinating articles. One is on the Arthur Lloyd site about the Scottish zoo, another on the National Library of Scotland about travelling zoos.
   And if anyone does have any photos of footballers with lions, or a medal, or can tell me about more examples (surely it was not only Scottish players?), please get in touch through my contacts page. 

I have just added to my collection of digitised sports books with this 1930 history of the Scottish Football League. It was written by John McCartney, who had just retired from a long career in football as player and manager.
   You can read this book by clicking on the cover image above to download a pdf, or visit my Digitised books and articles page where you can read a wide range of rare material.
   In the light of recent controversy about the league's organisation and its member clubs, McCartney's interesting account makes it clear that discord and argument are nothing new, in fact they have been a feature of Scottish football since the beginning.
   He was able to speak from long personal experience as a player and manager on both sides of the border. His playing career included Rangers, Cowlairs, Newton Heath (Manchester United), Luton Town and Barnsley, where he first went into management. He continued his managerial career with St Mirren, Hearts, Portsmouth and Luton Town before ill health forced his retiral.

His 48 page book has a number of excellent illustrations, notably the panoramic stadium views of Hampden Park, seen here packed to capacity, as well as Ibrox and Tynecastle.

McCartney also drew, from memory, this image of the original pavilion at Renton FC when they were founders of the Scottish League in 1890. It was a bittersweet moment for the Dunbartonshire club, who had been declared 'World Champions' two years earlier, as they were summarily ejected from the League for professionalism after just five matches.

Even the adverts are interesting, such as this one from Paddy Crossan's Bar in Edinburgh city centre. Crossan was a legendary former Hearts player who saw active service in WW1. The pub retained his name for many years after his death in 1933.

The discovery of this unique illustration of the world's first rugby football international has brought to life one of the most important moments in sporting history.
   Scotland met England on 27 March 1871 at Edinburgh Academicals' ground in Raeburn Place but although both teams were photographed there were not thought to be any pictures of the match in progress.
   However, when I came across this engraving in a print dealer's catalogue I soon realised its significance. Previously unknown to historians, it was published four weeks after the match in a short-lived publication called The Illustrated Newspaper, originally in black and white then colourised at a later date.
   It is signed J McL R, the initials of John McLaren Ralston (1849-83), a talented 22-year-old Glaswegian artist who was starting to make a name for himself in a career that brought admiration from, among others, Vincent van Gogh.
   What makes Ralston's illustration all the more intriguing is that his elder brother William (1841-1911) famously drew the sketches of the first association football international, which took place the following year.

The brothers' style of illustration has strong similarities and it has been said by art historians that John (known as Jack) was the more talented of the two and taught William how to draw. They certainly had an excellent artistic pedigree as their father Peter ran a well-known photographic studio in Glasgow city centre, good enough to earn a royal warrant. Peter Ralston took his sons into the business, and both used it as a springboard to launch their careers.
   When Jack Ralston headed over to Edinburgh in 1871, he joined an enthusiastic crowd of around 4,000 crammed into Raeburn Place to witness the inaugural rugby international. He had ample opportunity to draw a number of character studies and used a degree of artistic licence to capture the scene, placing his focus on the spectators in the foreground. They are paying scant attention to the match, some of them engaged in discussion or argument and they are clearly well-to-do, including a finely dressed lady. Whether they relate to specific individuals is hard to say.

The players, by contrast, are almost incidental, a blur of movement in the background. There is just enough detail to show that the forwards are engaged in a mighty scrum while some backs stand aside from the struggle, ready to intercept a loose ball or breakaway run. An umpire in top hat, perhaps the legendary HH Almond, watches intently. 
   ​There are other interesting aspects to the scene, as it appears to confirm that the playing surface was laid out between the slope of the ancient archery mound, which used to be a feature of ground, and its boundary on the east side. The English team actually complained that the pitch was too narrow, just 55 yards wide. Also of interest, the goalposts are much shorter than in modern times.
   The idea that the international pitch was squeezed into a corner of Raeburn Place is emphasised by the absence of spectators behind the north goal, a slope would have given a good vantage point but was on neighbouring farmland and separated from the sports field by a burn. In the distance can be seen the buildings of South Inverleith Mains Farm, which was bought by the city and demolished in 1889 to create what is now Inverleith Park.

The day ended in an unexpected – and much celebrated – victory for the Scotland twenty by a goal and a try to a try, yet until now the only known images relating to this historic match were the posed team groups. The Scotland photo was taken in front of the pavilion by ER Yerbury, just before the start of play, while the England team had two photos taken that morning 'in plain clothes and in uniform' by Ross and Pringle of George Street.
   Ralston was only 22 at the time and his drawing of the scene was an exciting addition to his portfolio. He must have taken it directly to his publisher as he is recorded in the London census just five days later. Over the coming decade he was in much demand as an engraver and his prolific output appeared in journals such as the Illustrated London News, not to mention many books. He covered a range of contemporary, rustic and historic scenes and among them are more sporting subjects such as bowls, croquet and curling.  His talent was even admired, somewhat incongruously, by Vincent van Gogh, who described one Ralston print as 'exquisitely done'.

Sadly, Ralston's star shone only briefly. He lived in Hampstead while he worked as an engraver for London publications, but then he fell ill. He returned to Glasgow and died on 11 July 1883 in the family home at 2 Kersland Street, aged 34 and unmarried. His cause of death was given vaguely as 'debility'.
   Rugby football, on the other hand, went from strength to strength, and the Raeburn Place ground, which opened in 1854 as a school sports field, is itself currently being transformed. Jack Ralston's impressions of the first match will go on public display for the first time at the new Museum of International Rugby, due to open there in 2020. 

You can also read an article about this discovery in The Times newspaper.

The full story of the first football internationals, both rugby and soccer, is detailed in my book 'First Elevens', available here price £9.99 post free.

The growth of Scottish sport in the late Victorian era owes much to the efforts of Percival King, an Edinburgh sports shop owner. He was one of the first to understand the value of self-promotion, edited a superb cricket annual and donated football trophies which are still competed for today.
   King was born in Surrey in 1835 and although he was apprenticed as a cooper he was hooked on cricket and soon found himself in demand as a batsman. Still following his trade, he moved to Cheshire where he played for Birkenhead Park, and returned to London where had a trial for Surrey. He was given his first professional engagement in Birmingham and then Fred Lillywhite offered him the chance of a job in Scotland.
   He duly came to Edinburgh in 1862 as cricket professional at Merchiston Castle School and would remain in the city for the rest of his life. Although he coached at the school for 13 years, he really  made his mark with his pioneering sports retail business. He opened his first shop in Bristo Street in 1868 and it did so well that he soon expanded to a Cricket and Football Warehouse at 54 Lothian Street, which included a billiard room as well as an extensive stock of playing equipment.

He launched the Scottish Cricketers' Annual in 1871, which was not only an indispensible record of the game in Scotland, it also included a full catalogue of his stock. It would run to 17 editions, which are now rare and highly collectable.
   The same year he played his one first class match for Surrey, and although he scored 13 his great achievement was as wicket keeper, catching WG Grace.
   Back in Edinburgh he was noted as a batsman, captained the Players of Scotland and played many years for Brunswick; in 1885, aged 49, he scored 115 not out for them against Craigmount. He umpired numerous matches and was the undoubted guru of Scottish cricket thanks to his shop and the Annual.
   King was also an excellent businessman and clearly had an eye for an opportunity, keen to encourage other sports that might improve his turnover, notably football.
   In 1887 he donated the first Scottish Junior Cup to the fledgling Scottish Junior FA, and the inaugural competition was won by Fairfield Athletic, who defeated Edinburgh Woodburn 3-1 in Govan. King presented the cup to the winners in the public bar next to the ground.

From those small beginnings, the Scottish Junior Cup is now the world's oldest continually played football competition, having been contested annually without a break ever since (including war years). However, as the competition grew, King's silver-plated cup was soon considered too insignificant and in 1897 a new and grander trophy was commissioned by the SJFA, the one that is still in use today.
   King's original cup went into retirement, although it made one more appearance before modern times, being put up by the Scottish Junior FA as the War Fund Cup in 1917-18 and won by Renfrew Juniors. Then it disappeared from view until 1985 when the Sunday Post were contacted by a Lanarkshire reader who had been given the cup by a relative. The trophy duly came up for auction at Christies in April 1987 and sold for £500 to a demolition company in Kilsyth. The company's general manager was quoted in the press a few days later saying that he had intended to display it in his offices, but realising the interest of the SJFA he would donate it back to its original owners.
   Also in 1887, Percival King donated a cup to the Edinburgh FA who decided to use it 'with a view to keeping up interest among clubs after they had been defeated in the Shield competition'. It was named the King Cup and is still played for to this day by East of Scotland League clubs, probably one of the oldest sponsorship deals in world football!

He wound up his business in 1899, selling off his entire stock at auction, but his latter years were a challenge as he and his wife lived in straitened circumstances. Scotland’s top cricketers played a benefit match in 1909 which brought some comfort but he died the following year in Longmore Hospital after a long illness.
   Percival King deserves to be remembered as a sporting pioneer whose efforts enabled a generation of Scottish sportsmen to play the games they loved, and whose legacy lives on in the competitions he helped to establish.

​ 
Percival King
Born 9 December 1835 in Stockwell, Surrey.
Died 29 October 1910 in Edinburgh.

by guest blogger Douglas Gorman

Scotland had three great Junior  football internationalists in the early post-War period: Bert McNab (Petershill), Davie Mair (Stonehouse Violet) and Willie Niven (Irvine Meadow XI). 
   Their combined Junior Scotland careers stretched from 1948 to 1955 and overlapped between 1951 and 1954.
   In the 16 matches played by Scotland from 23 December 1950 to 12 February 1955 at least one of the trio was in the team and they all captained the team in a total of at least ten matches. Bert McNab’s 13 matches against international opposition has yet to be beaten.
   
You can read Douglas Gorman's account of their careers and achievements by clicking here.

As I write, Belgium are set to face Scotland at Hampden Park, fresh from an excellent World Cup campaign which saw them finish in third place. Yet perhaps their greatest honour came in 1920 when they won Olympic gold in the football tournament, and much of the credit went to their Scottish coach, Willie Maxwell.
   Maxwell is a key figure in the development of Belgian football, having gone to Brussels in 1909 after a fine career which included a cap for Scotland against England in 1898. Born in Arbroath, he started out in his home team where he represented Forfarshire aged 18. He played briefly for Hearts and Dundee before joining Stoke in 1895, where he was the club's top goalscorer in five of his six seasons there. Rated one of the top forwards of his era, Stoke turned down serious money for him but after he suffered a knee injury (thereby missing a second cap) he lost some of his speed. He had a season at Third Lanark in 1901-02 before returning to England with Sunderland, Millwall and finally Bristol City, where he won a Second Division championship medal in 1906.
   Like many prominent players of the era, he went to the continent to coach and took charge initially of Leopold FC in Brussels. Part of his remit was to teach the players how to shoot, and he also took them on a short tour to England. He was optimistic about the future for Belgian football, according to this article at the end of 1909:

   In 1911 he was asked to coach the Belgian national team, and was also training another club side, Daring FC. He threw himself into Belgian life, and even represented the country at cricket in 1913. He had always been a fine batsman and had played for Arbroath, Staffordshire and Bedminster during his football career.
   Although his Belgian appointment was curtailed by the First World War, he returned after the conflict and his greatest triumph came in 1920 at the Olympic Games, held in Antwerp. Belgium, as hosts, beat Spain and Netherlands to reach the final against Czechoslovakia. With Belgium leading 2-0 towards the end of the first half, English referee John Lewis sent off a Czech player and the rest of the team promptly walked off in protest. The Belgians were awarded the gold medal, and were essentially world champions (albeit this competition was for amateurs only).
   Maxwell remained as national team coach until 1928, after which he coached Malines (Mechelen) for a decade, and finally led Cercle Bruges to the second division title in 1937/38.
   He returned to Staffordshire and his wife's home town of Stone, where he is buried, although he died in Bristol.

William Sturrock Maxwell, born Arbroath 21 September 1875, died Bristol 14 July 1940. 

He was a Scottish football coach who managed teams in Spain, Uruguay, Mexico and Argentina. He won trophies and was held in high regard, but almost nobody in this country has heard of William Raeside.
   I first came across him when I wrote my recent blog about the Scottish players who spent the 1946-47 season in Mexico. He has a fascinating story, but working out Raeside's football career has proved quite a challenge: he changed his name, knocked years off his age, exaggerated his achievements and had long periods out of football.
   I can find no record of Raeside until he was announced in the summer of 1927 as the new coach of Celta Vigo in north-west Spain. He was then aged 35 and the club outlined an impressive background as player and coach: 'He played for 11 years with Hibernian, South Shields, Darlington and others. Later he was trainer of Hibernian and then, as a professor of athleticism for Charles Durning at St Mirren. He was instructor at Glasgow University and then trainer of four Norwegian clubs – one of whom he took to the final of the Norwegian championship. He comes with excellent references, including from Celtic and Motherwell.'
   The trouble is, I have been unable to verify any of these claims, or indeed any football pedigree as player or trainer. There is perhaps some truth in it, for example he may well have been an assistant to Charles Durning, who was trainer of St Mirren 1911-19 and subsequently athletics coach at Glasgow University, but there is no hard evidence. He certainly didn't make any first team appearances as a player.

Nonetheless, he was a success at Celta Vigo: his team won the championship of Galicia for 1927-28, and the club was disappointed when he left them after a year.
   Yet what makes his story particularly curious is that Raeside took the Celta Vigo job under a false name, WH Cowan. And that takes some explaining.
   Born in Paisley in 1892, William Raeside was brought up in the city, where he worked as a steel cutter, which probably saved him from being called up in the first war. He married Jane Gerrard in 1911 and they had two daughters.
   However, he separated from his wife and by 1920 was living in Edinburgh when he fathered the first of five children by Jessie Cowan Scobie. Her middle name is significant as he used it to change his identity, and perhaps to evade his first wife, who divorced him in 1928 claiming 'address unknown'. At the time, he was coaching Celta Vigo as WH Cowan, and later that year he had a son who was registered with that surname, and Raeside even signed the register as William R Cowan. That subterfuge was only corrected years later, in 1946, with the aid of a sheriff.
   Following his year in Vigo, Raeside returned to Glasgow to work as an accountant, reverted to his own surname and married Jessie in 1930. Throughout this time, he was described on all the birth and marriage certificates as a clerk or accountant. Interestingly, however, on similar certificates relating to his children, many years later, his occupation was given as football trainer or athletic coach. It is a good example of how family records can help to build up a life story with their snippets of information.
   There is no record of Raeside having any further football involvement until the summer of 1937, when Millington Drake, a British diplomat in Montevideo, was asked by the president of Nacional to find him a coach who would improve Uruguayan football 'by the influence of English technique and training systems.' Somehow Drake was put in touch with Raeside, whose ability to speak Spanish must have helped, and he duly crossed the Atlantic in November 1937 to take up the position.
   He spent a year coaching Nacional, assisted by Hector Castro, a World Cup winner with Uruguay in 1930, and they are credited with laying the foundations for the great Nacional team which Castro led to five straight championship titles. The first signs of that success came early in 1938 when Nacional won the Gold Cup, formally known as the Torneo Internacional Nocturno, played between the ten best teams from Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rosario and La Plata. It included a memorable 2-1 away win at Estudiantes on 19 February 1938, in a bitterly hostile atmosphere known as 'the match of the bloodstained shirts'.
   Raeside (also known as Reaside) decided to return home in October 1938, reportedly to become a scout for Arsenal, prompting mass demonstrations from fans who wanted him to stay.

Again there was a fallow period before his next overseas appointment with Asturias in Mexico City, coaching the team for the 1945-46 season in the Mexican Liga Mayor. They finished tenth out of 16, a disappointment after winning the league two years earlier, but he remained with the club for a second season having recruited three Scottish players, including Jackie Milne as coach.
   In 1947 he was on the move again, this time to Argentina, taking charge of Newell's Old Boys in Rosario. It was not a great success as Newell's did not win any of their first ten games, in fact they only won seven out of 30 all season, and ended the season in 11th place in the Argentina Primera Division. 
   He appears to have suggested recruiting Scottish players, as in 1948 Newell's had three Scots in their ranks: Willie Kilpatrick (ex-Chelsea, Dunfermline and others) was joined by two inexperienced juniors from Renfrew, Stewart McCallum and Donald McDonald. Former Celtic striker Joe Rae also signed up but then bought himself out of the contract. By all accounts, the Scots were not a great success, but by then Raeside had returned home. 

 
With thanks to the following sources:
​
Celta Vigo: http://yoentrenealcelta.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/wh-cowan.html

Nacional: http://www.nacionalenargentina.com.ar/una-gesta-unica-y-heroica-el-campeonato-nocturno-rioplatense/

Newell’s Old Boys: http://anotandofutbol.blogspot.com/2018/02/newells-old-boys-parte-2.html

Newell’s Old Boys: https://nobhomenaje.blogspot.com/2017/05/quinteto-ofensivo-1947.html

Chivas Guadalajara: https://www.facebook.com/Datos.Chivas/

British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

The anecdote about Millington Drake in 1937 is from Scoring for Britain by Peter J Beck (1999).

It seems hardly credible now, but in 1888 a Scottish village football team was crowned Champions of the World. Renton FC was one of the most powerful clubs in Scotland at the time, despite their humble roots in the Dunbartonshire where they competed for players with Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and a host of other local clubs.
   They won the Scottish Cup in 1885 and again in 1888, defeating Cambuslang in the final with a record 6-1 scoreline. That victory prompted a challenge to the English FA Cup winners, West Bromwich Albion, and the match on 12 May was heavily marketed as the 'Championship of the World'. In torrential rain, Renton won 4-1 and basked in the glory of their champion status.
   Robert Bradley and Douglas Gorman have written the full story of the World Championship match, how it came about. and who the key personalities were. You can read it in the attached article (click here).

Sadly, this was the peak of Renton's achievements. Village pride had induced them to great things, but as amateurs they could not compete with the march of professionalism which allowed the city clubs to attract the best players. Renton were founding members of the Scottish League in 1890 but soon found themselves suspended on a charge of professionalism. They had a last hurrah in reaching the 1895 Scottish Cup final and in 1897, less than ten years after their world championship, they were forced to drop out of league football altogether. They stumbled on in lower leagues before folding in 1922, and their famous home ground, Tontine Park, was demolished to make way for housing.

BBC Scotland has recently launched a great little promotional video for this season's Scottish Cup tournament, in time for the fourth round ties later this month. They have animated the man on top of the trophy as he comes to life and the Victorian footballer kicks a ball around the Scottish Football Museum, ending up with a cracking goal against the motionless tinplate players, before quickly getting back into place as the museum attendant returns.
   But who was the original footballer on the cup? The Scottish Cup was commissioned in 1874 by the fledgling Scottish FA, who asked Glasgow silversmiths George Edward & Sons to come up with a suitably grand trophy. No cost was spared and the final bill came to £56 12 shillings (which included a set of medals) Trouble was, association football was in its infancy at the time, and the designer needed some help to create a lifelike representation of a player to stand on top.
   The inspiration for the figure was published in The Graphic after the first football international, played on 30 November 1872. One of the nine drawings by William Ralston shows a Scotland player steadfastly dribbling the ball while an English tackler is robustly pushed away by a teammate.

Having an action figure gave the Scottish Cup a unique identity, and helped to differentiate it from the original FA Cup, made two years earlier. In many respects that was a similar design, but it had a less adventurous static player on the lid, hand on hip, with the ball at his feet.
   Taking this theme further, I was surprised to find that this was not the only time that trophy designers took inspiration from printed sources. 

And remarkably the same scene, not so detailed but with some unmistakable similarities in the player positions, appears again on a later trophy. This photo shows the centrepiece of the original Scottish Juvenile Cup, which was made in 1899.
   I would love to know of any other early football trophies that have taken their inspiration from external sources.

One of the pioneering personalities of the first decade of Scottish football was Joseph (Joe) Taylor, who played in the first​ six Scotland internationals and won the first three Scottish Cups with Queen's Park. His life was sadly cut short at the age of just 37,
   I have written before about his exploits, but what really brings a story to life is a family connection. Therefore I was delighted to be contacted by his great grandson Colin Taylor, who recently sent me these fantastic photos. This is the gold medal won when Joe  captained Queen's Park to victory in the 1876 cup final, when Third Lanark were beaten in a replay.
   Although this is not the oldest winner's medal in existence - the Scottish Football Museum has JJ Thomson's silver medal from 1874 - it does bear witness to the rapid growth of the game in Scotland, being made of gold and with the Scottish FA's new crest engraved on the front.

What is more, the family also retains the superb gold watch which was presented to him when he married. It reads: 'Presented to Mr Joseph Taylor on the occasion of his marriage by the members of the Queen's Park Football Club in token of their appreciate of his valuable service and of their best wishes for his future happiness. Glasgow, 24th September 1879'. Around 80 club members dined in the St Enoch Restaurant to mark the occasion. ​Joe married Agnes Miller and they had four sons (one of whom, John Benjamin Taylor, would go on to play for Queen's Park as well).

Born in 1850 in Dunoon, where he gained a reputation as a sprinter in local sports meetings, Joe Taylor came to Glasgow for work and, like many young athletes from out of town, joined Queen's Park in 1870. He soon established himself in the team and played a key role at full back on many high profile occasions. At a time when the emphasis was very much on attack, he added a new dimension to football by specialising in defence: 'Considering his light weight, he was a fine tackler, returned very smartly to his forwards, and possessed remarkable speed.'
   Notably, he travelled to London in March 1872 to play against Wanderers in the FA Cup semi-final, when Queen's Park shocked the football establishment by holding the hosts to a 0-0 draw. He played in the first international later that year, and went on to captain Scotland against England in 1875 and 1876, in addition to his club successes. 
   He gave up playing football in 1877 but remained closely involved with Queen's Park and was elected club President for 1878/79. He worked as a clerk for a drapery wholesaler and all was well until 1885 when he was struck down by the first signs of tuberculosis. He went to New Zealand for six months to try and clear his lungs with sea air, which worked for a time but in the days before antibiotics it was really only a matter of time before he succumbed. He died in October 1888 at his home in Victoria Terrace, close to Hampden Park, and laid to rest in Cathcart Cemetery, where you can still see his memorial. 
   After he died, Joe Taylor's obituary in the Glasgow Herald left no doubts about his standing: 'To the older school of players and followers of the game, that gentleman was known as the embodiment of everything that was best, purest and most manly in a football player.' 
   He was held in such high regard that Queen’s Park played a benefit match against Third Lanark on 5 January 1889, attracting around 7,000 spectators to Hampden and raising over £100. The club then added £50 to the fund for his family, an enormous sum which assured his sons' future (and meant they would never have to sell his medals).

Taylor's legacy is that he established the template for intelligent and gentlemanly behaviour, on and off the field. When DD Bone chronicled the early years of the game, he wrote: 'No man who captained the Queen's Park was so much respected both on the field and in private life. None hated unfair or rough play more; he could not endure it in a club companion.'  

You can read the stories of all the early internationalists in my book First Elevens.

​
UPDATE - APRIL 2024

Joseph Taylor's grave at Cathcart Cemetery has been restored. Check out the story: ​https://www.scottishsporthistory.com/sports-history-news-and-blog/scottish-football-pioneer-joseph-taylors-grave-restored