The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872 Read Online Free Page A

birth itself. One of the leading lights of the earliest Rangers team, William Dunlop, penned the history of the early years for the 1881–82 edition of the Scottish Football Annual under the pseudonym True Blue. Dunlop had joined the club in 1876 (his sister, Mary, would go on to marry Tom Vallance) and was a Scottish Cup finalist against Vale of Leven in 1877 and again in 1879; that same year he began a 12-month term as president of the club. In looking back at the game against Callander he recalled of Rangers: ‘Thus ended their first match, played about the latter end of May 1872, some two months after the inauguration of the club.’
  The idea for a football club had been discussed by the teenage pioneers during walks in West End Park, nowadays known as Kelvingrove Park, close to the residences and lodging houses of the youngsters. In the 1871 census Peter McNeil, a 16-year-old clerk, lived at No. 17 Cleveland Street with his oldest sister, Elizabeth, 30, and brothers James, 27, Henry, 21, and William, 19. Moses, a trainee clerk, made his way to join his siblings on his arrival in Glasgow, most likely towards the end of 1871, by which time Elizabeth was head of the household that had subsequently moved around the corner to No. 169 Berkeley Street. Peter Campbell, born and raised in Garelochhead, knew the Shandon brothers from childhood and he was also employed near his friends on moving to Glasgow, at the Barclay Curle shipyard at Stobcross Quay. The quartet was completed by William McBeath, an assistant salesman, who had been born in Callander but arrived in Glasgow from Perthshire with his mother, Jane, soon after the death of his father Peter in 1864. The birth of Rangers symbolised a new beginning for William, who lived in the same tenement close in Cleveland Street as the McNeils. His mother died in March 1872 of chronic bronchitis, aged just 53, with her son’s youthful scrawl officially certifying her death.
  Dunlop wrote: ‘A friend of ours, and member of the Rangers, certainly not noted for his accurate knowledge of history, used to remark that there were only two incidents in the history of Scotland specially worth remembering. Jeffrey, Brougham and Sydney Smith met in an old garret in Edinburgh and as a result of their “crack” determined to found the Edinburgh Review. P. McNeil, W. McBeith [sic], M. McNeil and P. Campbell, as the result of a quiet chat carried on without any attempt at brilliancy in the West End Park, determined to found the Rangers FC. These old Rangers had been exercised: in fact, their feelings had been wrought upon, on seeing matches between the Queen’s Park, the Vale (of Leven), and 3rd L.R.V. (Third Lanark). Viewing the interesting and exciting points of the game, even then brilliantly elucidated by the Queen’s Park, had given rise to the itching toe, which could only be relieved by procuring a ball and bestowing upon it an unlimited amount of abuse.’ Friends, particularly those with a Gareloch connection, were rounded up, Harry McNeil and three chums from Queen’s Park agreed to second and soon Rangers were off and running (most of them in their civvies) at Flesher’s Haugh. To be fair, Dunlop freely admitted that the game against Callander was considered a ‘terrible’ spectacle and poor McBeath was so exhausted by his efforts ‘he was laid up for a week,’ although he was named Man of the Match. Nevertheless, inspired and motivated by that first encounter, office bearers were quickly elected and further games arranged.

    Once upon a dream: Few would have thought a walk along these paths in West End Park would result in the birth of one of the world’s greatest football clubs.
    Soon, the youthful Rangers team were the most popular draw on Glasgow Green, courtesy of their exuberant, energetic and winning brand of football. Their earliest fans would undoubtedly have included the residents of the east end of the city, many of them Irish Catholic immigrants, who