Olympic Football Club, occasionally calledPaisley Olympic, was a Scottishfootball team located in the town ofPaisley,Renfrewshire.
| Full name | Olympic F.C. | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1880 | |
| Dissolved | 1886 | |
| Ground | Thistle Park | |
| President | J. R. Taylor | |
| Hon. Secretary | John M'Callum M.A., Neil M'Callum | |
| Secretary | James Gemmell | |
The club was founded in 1880, holding its first meeting in October.[1] It first played competitive football in 1882–83, losing in a replay toPollok in the first round of theRenfrewshire Cup, and joined theScottish Football Association in 1883,[2] by which time the town already had senior clubs in the shape ofAbercorn,Paisley Athletic, andSt Mirren.
By 1884, the Olympic could boast of 70 members, less than half the size of the Athletic, a third of the size of Abercorn, and less than a quarter of the size of the Saints.[3] It was however comparatively successful on a local level, reaching the semi-final of the Renfrewshire Cup in 1883–84 and 1884–85. In the latter year, the club surprised Abercorn with a 2–1 win in a quarter-final replay, the Abbies protesting in vain about crowd encroachment;[4] in the semi-final, Olympic drew 2–2 withPort Glasgow Athletic, but lost 5–0 in the replay in a game which was tighter than the score suggested, Olympic not taking any of numerous chances in the first half, and still being in the game at 2–0 when reduced to 10 men through injury.[5] The club's success, despite its size, was attributed to a tactical shift, having adopted the 2–3–5 system with Spruill at centre-midfield, instead of the 2–2–6 used by its opponents.[6]
Olympic first entered theScottish Cup in1883–84, reaching the third round on its debut, with wins atYoker[7] andClippens.[8] The run came to an end with a 5–0 home defeat toAyrshire sideMauchline.[9] The club was unlucky in its second entry in1884–85, being drawn away at the much biggerArthurlie, but only lost 2–0, and suffered from "some very hard lines".[10]
The club's end seems to have come out of the blue. As late as June 1885 it was beating Abercorn in a friendly[11] and was drawn to play atArthurlie in the first round of the1885–86 Scottish Cup.[12] However the club "collapsed" at the end of August, its players finding berths with St Mirren and (in the case of Gorman and Heiton[13]) Abercorn.[14] The club was effectively replaced by theDykebar club, which played its first match at Thistle Park in October 1885,[15] and who took on centre-midfielder Robert Spruill from the Olympic.[16]
The club's colours were ½" crimson and white hooped jerseys and hose, and blue knickers.[17]
The club played at Thistle Park, Greenhill, Paisley, a 5-minute walk from the railway station.[18] The ground was the ground of the Paisley Thistlecricket club, and formerly the ground of St Mirren.[19]
