| Full name | Kilmarnock Athletic Football Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname | the Athletics[1] | |
| Founded | 1877 | |
| Dissolved | 1885 | |
| Ground | Holm Quarry | |
Kilmarnock Athletic Football Club was anassociation football club fromAyrshire inScotland.
On 5 May 1877, the Kilmarnock Cricket Club hosted a charity match between an Ayrshire select and a Glasgow select, in order to raise funds for a statue in honour ofRobert Burns, on its Holm Quarry ground.[2] The match was a success, and, in the aftermath, the K.C.C. took over theWinton club in order to continue hosting football.
For its first season the club was known as theKilmarnock Cricket and Football Club[3] and its first competitive match was a 4–0 win overMaybole Thistle in the first round of the1877–78 Scottish Cup, with players such as goalkeeper M'Lelland, plus Whyte, Smith, Cunningham, Goudie, Ferguson, and captain Kennedy having been part of the Winton regular XI.[4] The K.C. & F.C. lost 1–0 toMauchline in the second round.[5]
The following season, the club joined theScottish Football Association under the new name ofKilmarnock Athletic.[6] The club was quickly successful, winning theAyrshire Cup in 1878–79. From 1881 to 1884 the club was one of the top clubs in Scotland. In1881–82, the club reached the semi-final of theScottish Cup, only narrowly losing toQueen's Park.[7]
In 1882–83, the club had an annus mirabilis, winning two of the Ayrshire trophies; the Ayrshire Cup and the Kilmarnock Merchants' Charity Cup, the latter of which was awarded to the club whenHurlford F.C. walked off the pitch in protest at going 2–1 behind in the final.[8] The Athletics also repeated the previous year's feat of reaching the Scottish Cup semi-final. The club was drawn to playVale of Leven away, and held theAlexandria side to a draw, only to lose 2–0 in the replay at home. The club did however win one national competition; the Second XI Cup, beatingDumbarton 2–0 in the final atBoghead Park,[9] and the Athletic retained the trophy against the same opponent with a 3–1 replay win at Holm Quarry the following season, thanks to goals from Murray, Hay, and Mair,[10] after a 1–1 draw at Boghead.[11]
The club's Cup runs paradoxically caused the club's demise. The club was now an attractive friendly fixture for English clubs, and the Athletics went on tour of England over the following winter. The legalisation of professional football inEngland meant the players were susceptible to offers of professional contracts south of the border. The club had started the 1884–85 season with its record win, 14–0 overStewarton Cunninghame F.C. in the Scottish Cup, but the club's leading player,John Goodall, plus two other players (Hay and Walkinshaw), left the club during the winter; theGreat Lever club persuaded them not to return home with the Athletic after a friendly in Bolton.[12] The club also lost three other players toHalliwell.[13]
A month after defeat toAyr in the Merchants' Cup in 1884–85,[14] the club was wound up.
The name Kilmarnock Athletic was used for two clubs in the years afterwards; a junior club formerly known as Kilmarnock Britannia, who used the name in the 1886–87 season,[15] and a senior cluboriginally known as Rosebank, who used the name from 1889 to 1900.
As the K.C. & F.C., the club wore navy. After changing name to Athletic, the club's colours were crimson shirts (until 1880), scarlet shirts (until 1883), and maroon shirts (until dissolution), with white shorts.[16] In practice the shades of red may have referred to the same colour.
The club's ground was Holm Quarry, which was briefly shared byKilmarnock F.C. until the rent forced Killie to find an alternative pitch.[17]
