 Third Lanark A.C. badge embedded at New Cathkin Park | ||
| Full name | Third Lanark Athletic Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | Thirds, Warriors, Redcoats, The Hi-Hi | |
| Founded | 1872; 153 years ago (1872) | |
| Dissolved | 1967; 58 years ago (1967) | |
| Ground | Cathkin Park,Crosshill New Cathkin Park,Glasgow | |
| Manager | David Ampleford | |
| League | Central Scottish AFL | |
Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottishfootball club based inGlasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of theScottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and theScottish Football League (SFL) in 1890. Third Lanark played in the top division of the SFL for the majority of the club's existence, and wonthe league championship in1903–04. The club also won theScottish Cup twice, in1889 and1905. Third Lanark went out of business in 1967, as a result of mismanagement, six years after having finished in third place in the SFL. Third Lanark's former ground,Cathkin Park inCrosshill, is still partially standing and is used for minor league football.
In 1996, an amateur football club called Third Lanark was founded, with intentions of restoring the club's name to senior football, and returning to play regularly atCathkin Park. In 2008, the club was reformed again as Third Lanark AFC and currently has an amateur team and four youth teams. The chairman of the reformed club is Simon Weir.
Third Lanark started as the football team of the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers (3rd LRV), part of theVolunteer Force. The team was formally founded on 12 December 1872 at a meeting of the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers in the Regimental Orderly Room in Howard Street, Glasgow. The soldiers, inspired by thefirst ever international friendly which had taken place two weeks previously, decided to form their own team. Several of the Scotland team in that match, made up solely ofQueen's Park players, had been part of the regiment: including Billy Dickson,Billy MacKinnon andJoseph Taylor.[1] In its early years, the club was successful inshooting competitions, with members winning the prestigious 'Queen's Prize' (still contested today as an event within theCommonwealth Games).[1]
A later meeting decided that the playing kit should be: "A cowl – one end blue, the other yellow, a scarletguernsey. Blue trousers orknickerbockers with blue stockings." It was later decided that all guernseys should have the number three on them,[2] and at the first AGM in March 1873, the constitution was amended to allow members of Queen's Park to become office bearers of Thirds. The players first used an olddrill field on Victoria Road (north of the village ofStrathbungo, close to today's Govanhill Park, roughly on the site ofHutcheson's Grammar School's Primary department), to train.[3][1] The club soon moved a short distance to a new ground,Cathkin Park situated at the junction of Allison Street and Hollybrook Street.[1]
Having joined the newly formedGlasgow Football Association in 1883,[4] the club was a founder member of theScottish Football League in1890. By then, Third Lanark had already won theScottish Cup in1889, having fallen at the final in1876 and1878. The name was changed to Third Lanark AC in 1903, when official links with the military were severed.[5] In the same year, the club moved tothe second Hampden Park which had been vacated and deconstructed by Queen's Park who themselves had relocated toa new third Hampden. Third Lanark had to play much of the1903–04 at this new Hampden while their own ground, renamed New Cathkin Park, was rebuilt for their use.[6] Despite this upheaval, they won their onlyScottish League championship in that season,[7] as well as the Scottish Cup again in1905[1] (they were losing finalists in1906). In that pre-World War I period they also claimed the minorGlasgow Merchants Charity Cup in 1890, 1898, and 1900 and theGlasgow Cup in 1903, 1904 and 1909.[8]
In 1921, Third Lanark organised a tour of North America inviting several guest players to join them and thus being billed in some press reports and marketing as a 'Scotland XI'.[9][10][11][12] Indeed, only four of the players were actually registered with Third Lanark.[13] During the tour they played 25 matches, winning 24 and drawing the other game.[13] Two years later the club (again with some guest players) made atour over South America, playing a total of eight friendly matches inBuenos Aires andMontevideo,[14] including a game against theArgentina national side on 24 June.[15][16] They dropped out of the top division for the first time in 1925 and spent a period as a 'yo-yo club', with three relegations and three promotions in total over the next decade. As well as consolidating in Division One until the interruption of World War II, the club also reached another Scottish Cup Final in1936, going down 1–0 to Rangers.[17]
After being relegated in 1953, Third Lanark beat Rangers 1–0 to lift the Glasgow Charity Cup in 1954,[18] and captured the same trophy two years later againstPartick Thistle,[19][20] then returned to the top tier in 1957.
After losing toHearts in the1959 Scottish League Cup Final,[21] the last day of the 1960–61 season saw the club reach a historic landmark. Third Lanark beat Hibernian 6–1 at Cathkin Park to reach 100 goals for the season, and the win secured third place in Scotland's top division. The following season sawThirds take part in European competition for the only time when the club facedRouen of France home and away in theAnglo-Franco-Scottish Friendship Cup (Rouen won 4–0 at Cathkin on 7 November 1961 and 2–1 in France on 9 May 1962). Third Lanark won its final senior trophy, the Glasgow Cup, on 8 April 1963, beatingCeltic 2–1 in the final at Hampden Park.[22]
Third Lanark fielded one of the onlyScottish Jewish professional footballer players,Sam Latter. Third Lanark had a notable following among the Jewish community in Glasgow, many of whom lived nearby. It was reported by theJewish Chronicle that as late as 1960, around one-quarter of match-going fans were Jewish. When the club folded, many Jewish supporters of Third Lanark opted to begin supporting Celtic, despite most within the broader Glasgow Jewish community supporting Old Firm rivals Rangers.[23]
Only four years after that successful 1960–61 season, the club's decline began. The 1965–66 season found Thirds in Division Two, having been relegated as a consequence of the club's most unsuccessful season ever, with only three wins and a single draw from 34 matches in the league in1964–65 (the final 21 fixtures were all lost).
There followed another two seasons of mediocrity and discontent. On 8 January 1966, theGlasgow Herald announced in a front-page story that the board was investigating the possibility of moving Third Lanark to the new town ofEast Kilbride and selling Cathkin Park for housing.[24]That season, Third Lanark played 36 league matches, winning 12, drawing 8 and losing the other 16, thus gaining 32 points to finish fourteenth out of nineteen clubs. 55 goals were scored and 65 conceded.
Third Lanark recorded its lowest-ever home League attendance of 297 spectators on Saturday 15 April 1967 (on the same day as theEngland-Scotland international at Wembley) for the visit ofClydebank. Third Lanark won 1–0 with a goal from forward John Kinnaird;[25] it would be the team's final competitive victory. The last Third Lanark home game againstQueen of the South on Tuesday 25 April 1967 ended in a 3–3 draw; Brian McMurdo scored twice for Queens in the second half, including the last goal in senior football at Cathkin Park (the Thirds goals came from John Kinnaird (2) and Hugh McLaughlan; they were 3–1 up at half time). The final attendance at the ground was given as 325 spectators.[26]
The final Thirds game was a humiliating defeat atBoghead Park[27] when hostsDumbarton won 5–1 on Friday 28 April 1967 in front of 581 spectators (the last Thirds goal was scored by future Airdrie and Hearts starDrew Busby). The line-up in that final game at Boghead was: Bob Russell;Tony Connell andGerry Heaney; Hugh McLaughlan, Jim Little and Gordon McEwan; Hugh Rundell,Bobby Craig, Drew Busby, Don May and John Kinnaird. The manager was formerRangers captainBobby Shearer, assisted by former Scotland internationalJohn McKenzie as trainer.
This game ended Third Lanark's participation in senior football in Scotland. In the club'sfinal season of existence in Division Two of the Scottish Football League, Third Lanark played 38 League games, winning 34 points out of a possible 76 to finish eleventh out of twenty clubs. They won 13 games, drew 8 and lost the remaining 17; 67 goals were scored and 78 conceded. In the 1960–61 season, home and away, Thirds had attracted 555,489 paying customers to their matches; in the final season of 1966–67, just 55,543 spectators attended their matches.[28]
About a fortnight after the final match at Boghead Park, it was announced that Glasgow Corporation had received an offer from the Third Lanark board to sell it the land at Cathkin for housing. The club's board acknowledged that a lack of funds had made this move inevitable.[29] Around the same time, the board also announced that it was negotiating with an estate company to build a new stadium atBishopbriggs, to the north of Glasgow.[30] In the end, the stadium was never built.
A subsequentBoard of Trade investigation into Third Lanark's affairs - which was published in November 1968 - revealed constant player squabbles and bitter internal struggles for power, as well as the fact that the corruption at Cathkin extended to defrauding the club lottery (which rarely paid out the weekly £200 prize).[31] It was also disclosed that players were paid late and often in coins rather than notes, they had to make their own way to away matches, hot water was not available after matches and every appointment in the club's management was made personally by club chairman Bill Hiddleston. This may have been a disincentive for anyone who was not close to Hiddleston to remain working for, or remain as a shareholder of, the club.
All of these events finally took their toll; on 7 June 1967, Lord Fraser in theCourt of Session in Edinburgh issued a winding-up order and appointed an official liquidator. The petition to wind up the club had been brought by a Glasgow building company which claimed that the club owed it more than £2000 for work done on the new stand at Cathkin Park. The judge accepted figures submitted on behalf of the provisional liquidator which showed that the club's liabilities exceeded its liquid assets by £40,000 in preference to those presented by the club and, with no sign of that position changing any time soon, he was left with no alternative but to issue an order to wind up the club.[32]
On 26 June 1967, it was announced that Third Lanark's membership of the Scottish Football League had ceased and that the club's remaining players were up for transfer.
On 1 July 1968, four former directors of Third Lanark were found guilty of contravening theCompanies Act 1948 by failing to keep proper books of account during the two years preceding the liquidation of Third Lanark, and fined £100 each. The investigation by the Board of Trade accused club chairman Bill Hiddleston of blatant corruption and found that "the circumstances (merited) police inquiry". Hiddleston had died of a heart attack inBlackpool on 16 November 1967.[27]
The role of chairman Hiddleston in the club's liquidation was, and remains, the subject of debate among those close to Third Lanark. He may have wished to profit personally from the sale of Cathkin Park for property development. Cathkin Park was sold for housing during the 1967 close season, but Glasgow City Council refused planning permission. On the other hand, he built a new grandstand for the club in 1963, an unlikely thing to do if Hiddleston had intended to put the club out of business. Another allegation was that Hiddelston wanted to force the club to move to eitherCumbernauld orEast Kilbride, the then boomingNew towns in the Glasgow commuter belt, which at that time had no senior sides of their own.
After Third Lanark went into liquidation, some Third Lanark fans began supporting other local clubs such asQueen's Park orClyde, and others began supporting theOld Firm. The nearby Junior clubPollok also received many new fans. Although most other Scottish teams that went into liquidation were later reformed as amateur sides, there was no such resurrection for Third Lanark for many years. It has been suggested that this was because there was such a prolonged period of downfall for Third Lanark that many fans felt too tired of what had gone on at the club to try to bring it back.[8]
A youth team later adopted the name "Third Lanark Athletic" (playing at Rosebank Park), as did a ladies' team. Occasionally exhibition matches were staged at Cathkin with a scratch Third Lanark team. Former Glasgow MPSir Teddy Taylor bought the company name "Third Lanark Athletic Club Ltd" from the sequestrators in 1967, when there remained the possibility of the club continuing in another form.
Third Lanark returned to its now dilapidated Cathkin Park home, playing in the Greater Glasgow Amateur League.[33]
On 9 June 2008, a four-man delegation from the club made a surprise announcement to the press, stating that Third Lanark AC would be interested in returning to the Scottish Football League, after SPL teamGretna decided to withdraw from the SFL. The other contenders for the vacant league place wereSpartans,Cove Rangers,Annan Athletic,Preston Athletic andEdinburgh City.[34] However, there was no formal application from Third Lanark to enter the SFL, and the club remained in Division 3 of the Greater Glasgow Amateur League. The vacant senior League place finally went to Annan Athletic.
In recent times, there have been moves towards reviving the senior club.[35][36]
Third Lanark A.F.C. is an amateur team[37][38] who, as of the2018–19 season, play in theCentral Scottish Amateur Football League.[39] The team previously competed in the West of Scotland AFL and the Greater Glasgow Premier AFL. As of 2018, the team is playing its home games at theToryglen Regional Football Centre (a modern facility a short distance from Cathkin Park)[40] and at the Barlia Football Centre[41] in Glasgow'sCastlemilk district, having played at Fullarton Park (home ofVale of Clyde F.C.), in prior seasons.
Third Lanark was known as Thirds, the Warriors, the Redcoats, and the Hi Hi. The last nickname was rumoured to have started during a match in the late 1890s, when a defender kicked the ball so high out of the ground that the crowd started screaming "High High High" and that nickname stayed with the club ever since. The fans invariably started to sing "Hi Hi Hi!" as a battle cry to encourage the team to victory during the club's matches.[42] There was a public house called The Hi Hi Bar at the southern end of Crown Street in theGorbals area of Glasgow, about one mile from the club's Cathkin Park stadium.
Third Lanark played at theoriginal Cathkin Park from their foundation until 1903, at which time they took over Queen's Park's Hampden Park ground, renaming itNew Cathkin Park, while Queen's Park moved to anew Hampden Park inMount Florida.[6][43] New Cathkin Park is currently owned byGlasgow City Council, and large areas of the terracing remain intact on three sides of the ground.[42]
Third Lanark was incorporated in 1903. Its initial shareholders were mostly middle-class fans who were wealthy enough to invest in the club. Very few of them were business people or entrepreneurs.[8]
| Name | Years | Honours |
|---|---|---|
| Jimmy Carabine | 1946–1950 | |
| Alec Ritchie | 1950–1954 | Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup (1951–52,1953–54) |
| James S. Blair | 1954–1955 | |
| Bill Hiddleston | 1955–1957 | Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup (1955–56) |
| Bob Shankly | 1957–1959 | |
| George Young | 1959–1962 | Scottish League Cup runners-up1959–60 |
| Willie Steel | 1963–1964 | Glasgow Cup (1962–63) |
| Bobby Evans | 1964–1965 | |
| Bill Hiddleston | 1965–1966 | |
| Frank Joyner | 1966–1967 | |
| Bobby Shearer | January–June 1967 |
The name of the Scottish club 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers was changed to Third Lanark AC in June 1903, when official links with the military were severed.
