Scottish Football: Reminiscences and Sketches

By David Drummond Bone

“Scottish Football - Reminiscences and Sketches” is a 1890 work by David William Bone. It contains an account of significant Scottish football teams, matches, managers, and more from the late nineteenth century, as well as general information about the contemporary state of the game and its history. Highly recommended for those with an interest in Scottish football and its humble beginnings. Contents include: “Football: Ancient And Modern”, “The Football Wave”, “A 'Sweep For The Cup'; Or, How Pate Brown Kept His Engagement”, “Famous Association Players—Past And Present”, “The Pioneers Of Association Football In Scotland; Or, 'The Conqueror's Football Boots'”, “How Clubs Were Started Long Ago”, etc. David Drummond Bone (1841–1911) was a prominent newspaper publisher in Glasgow. Macha Press is publishing this classic work now in a new edition complete with the original text and artwork for a new generation of football lovers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macha Press
• Release date: May 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528790468

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SCOTTISH FOOTBALL

REMINISCENCES AND SKETCHES

By

D. D. BONE

First published in 1890

Copyright © 2020 Macha Press

This edition is published by Macha Press,

an imprint of Read & Co.

This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any

way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library.

Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd.

For more information visit

www.readandcobooks.co.uk

Contents

A History of Football

PREFACE

I FOOTBALL: ANCIENT AND MODERN

II THE FOOTBALL WAVE

III A SWEEP FOR THE CUPOR, HOW PATE BROWN KEPT HIS ENGAGEMENT

IV FAMOUS ASSOCIATION PLAYERS—PAST AND PRESENT

V THE PIONEERS OF ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL IN SCOTLAND; OR, THE CONQUEROR'S FOOTBALL BOOTS

VI HOW CLUBS WERE STARTED LONG AGO

VII THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL; OR, NED DUNCAN'S DREAM

VIII THE PATRONS, SPECTATORS, AND POPULAR PLAYERS

IX A DREAM OF THE PAST

X THE DUEL NEAR THE FOOTBALL FIELD, AND THE CAUSE OF IT

XI THE FINAL TIE FOR THE ASSOCIATION CHALLENGE CUP—1889-90

A History of Football

Football has an incredibly long and varied history. Various forms have been identified throughout times-past, as early as the second century in China. However the modern game as today's fans would recognise it, was officially codified in 1863, in London.

According to FIFA the competitive game cuju was the earliest form of football. It is evidenced in the form of an exercise in a military manual from the third and second centuries BCE. This was a Chinese manual compiled by Zhan Guo Ce, and the game literally translates as ‘kick ball.’ It originally involved kicking a leather ball through a small hole in a piece of silk cloth, which was fixed on bamboo canes and hung about 9 metres above the ground. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 CE), cuju games were standardized and official rules were established.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. There are also a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games, played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world. For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by an English explorer named John Davis, went ashore to play a form of football with Inuit people in Greenland. There are later accounts of an Inuit game played on ice, called Aqsaqtuk. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through the other team's line, and then at a goal. These games and others may well go far back into antiquity.

Despite these early beginnings, the main sources of modern football codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England. There, team football games were played in schools since at least 1581. England can also boast the earliest ever documented use word ‘football’ (1409) when King Henry IV of England issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of money for ‘foteball.’ In addition to this early evidence, there is also a Latin account from the end of the fifteenth century of football being played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire. This is the first written description of a ‘kicking game’, and the first description of dribbling:

The game at which they had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions.

While football continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, its public schools (known as private schools in other countries) are widely credited with three key achievements in the creation of modern football codes. First of all, the evidence suggests that they were important in taking football away from its ‘mob’ form and turning it into an organised team sport. Secondly, many early descriptions of football and references to it were recorded by people who had studied at these schools. And thirdly, it was teachers, students and former students from these schools who first codified football games, to enable matches to be played between schools.

The first set of football rules was drawn up at the University of Cambridge in 1848, and became particularly influential in the development of subsequent codes, including association football. Known as the 'Cambridge Rules', they were written at Trinity College, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Rugby and Winchester schools, though they were not universally adopted.

Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to this codification. During the early 1860s, there were further and increasing attempts in England to unify and reconcile the various football games, especially in the industrial north, resulting in the ‘Sheffield Rules’ of 1857. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was a master at Uppingham School and issued his own rules of what he called ‘The Simplest Game’ (aka the Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863, a revised version of the Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven member committee, again with a distinguished membership representing former pupils of Eton, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.

With all these different rules, there was great scope for confusion on the football field. As a result, one Ebenezer Cobb Morley, a solicitor from Hull, wrote to Bell's Life newspaper in 1863, proposing a governing body for football. Morley was to become the FA's first secretary (1863-66) and its second president (1867-74). He is also particularly remembered for drafting the first ‘Laws of the Game’ at his home in Barnes, London – that are today played the world over. For this, he is considered not just the father of the Football Association, but of Association Football itself.

On 20th July 1871, C. W. Alcock, a gentleman from Sunderland and a former pupil of Harrow School proposed that ‘a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the [Football] Association’ an idea that gave birth to the competition. At the first FA Cup in 1872, the Wanderers (from London) and the Royal Engineers (an Army team) met in the final in front of 2,000 paying spectators. Despite the Royal Engineers being the heavy favourites, one of their players sustained a broken collar bone early on and since substitutions had not yet been introduced, the Engineers played a man down for the rest of the match – which they eventually lost 1-0.

During this period, the influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread all over the world. By the end of the nineteenth century however, distinct regional codes were already developing. These evolved into American football, Canadian football, rugby union and rugby league, which were often held in opposition to Association football, Australian rules football and Gaelic football, which made greater use of kicking rather than tackling. The need for a single body to oversee the worldwide game became apparent at the beginning of the twentieth century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. This resulted in FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), an organisation founded by seven European countries in Paris, on 21st May 1904.

Today, football is one of the most popular sports in the world, played all over the globe. The ‘beautiful game’ has truly stood the test of time; from the advent of ancient kicking games, through to the English uptake and codification of the sport in the nineteenth century – and through to the present day. It is hoped that the current reader enjoys this book on the subject.

PREFACE

In bringing my first edition of Football Reminiscences and Sketches before the public, I do so with a sense of profound regard for the game and its players, and heartfelt gratitude to numerous friends—some of whom, alas! are no more—for advice and assistance. If my readers consider it worthy of one who has devoted a quarter of a century in attaining that experience necessary to criticise the players of the dead past and those of the living present with fidelity, I will have gained something to be remembered, and be amply repaid for what I have done to assist the spread of the Association game in Scotland. Many of my sketches, under different names, have already appeared in various journals, including the Daily and Weekly Mail, Bell's Life in London, and the Scottish Football Annual, but I have remodelled some of them very considerably, and indulge in the hope that they may while away an hour or so at the fireside of the Player and Spectator after a big Cup Tie or other interesting match.

The Author

FOOTBALL REMINISCENCES

I

FOOTBALL: ANCIENT AND MODERN

Then strip, lads and to it, though cold be the weather, And if, by mischance you should happen to fall, There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather, For life is itself but a game at Football.

—

Sir Walter Scott

In Scotland, so closely associated with traditional lore, and the acknowledged birth-place of romance and patriotic song, it would be almost dangerous to incur displeasure by attempting to refer to the early history of anything associated with the amusements or recreations of the people, without actually touching on tradition—a point held by some in far greater regard and reverence than actual fact. Under these circumstances, then, I do not want to run the risk of complete annihilation by ignoring the traditional, and even territorial, aspect of Football. That the game was played as early as the tenth century there is any amount of authentic evidence to show, and that it continued to be one of the chief recreations of the people there can be no doubt. Coming much further down, however, the game of Football is referred to, both by historical and romance writers. In Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, we find that the English and Scotch soldiers, in a few hours' actual cessation from skirmishing on the eve of a battle, engaged in the merry Football play. Our forefathers, however, must have played the game in rather a rude and undignified fashion, if we can believe certain authorities—actual brute force and superiority in point of weight being the indispensable concomitants of a successful side. The matches, too, must have been played utterly regardless of science. Just fancy a couple of crack teams meeting on a heather-covered field, with the hailing spots about a mile and a-half apart, and playing a match lasting four or five hours! Could any of our young men nowadays stand such rough-and-tumble work? Happily it is not required. It has been found that a match lasting an hour and a-half, with the ball ever and anon passing in front of one on a level field, is quite enough, even for the strongest back, half-back, or forward. Experience has sufficiently proved that, even in this age of scientific play. So much for the past, and I will proceed to touch briefly on the spread and popularity of football.

To those who only know football as promoted by the Queen's Park, and subsequently by the Vale of Leven, Clydesdale, Granville (now defunct), 3rd L.R.V, and lastly, though not leastly, by the Scottish Football Association, we are almost compelled to offer some information. A quarter of a century ago a Union was formed in Edinburgh to draw up a code of rules to encourage the game of Football, and matches were played between schools and other clubs. These rules were a combination of the present Association and Rugby, dribbling being largely indulged in, but the goal-posts were similar to those now in use under the latter code of rules, and a goal could not be scored unless the ball went over the posts. This game made considerable progress in Edinburgh, being vigorously promoted by scholastic clubs and students attending college. Some years later, when the number of young gentlemen sent over from England to be educated in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, began to increase, these old rules were subjected to considerable alteration, and eventually assimilated to those of the English Rugby Union, and all the known clubs in Scotland at that time adhered tenaciously to these rules, and under them many exciting games were played between Eastern and Western clubs, the Glasgow Academicals and Edinburgh Academicals being the leading ones. Eventually, however, the new clubs springing into existence in the Western District of the country did not care to play these rules, and, following the example of similar clubs in England, adhered to what they considered an improvement on the old system of Football, and joined the English Football Association, formed in 1863. The first to do this was the Queen's Park, the mother of Association Football in Scotland, in 1867, and the example was soon followed by the Clydesdale, 3rd L.R.V., Vale of Leven, Granville, and others, a few years afterwards. Well can I remember witnessing several exciting tussles on the Queen's Park recreation ground (then the only meeting-place of the Premier Association Club), between the Vale of Leven, Hamilton, East Kilbride, Clydesdale, Granville, and 3rd L.R.V. Since then the spread and popularity of the Association style of play has been so often written about that it is, so to speak, bound up in the actual history of the Western District of Scotland. In Edinburgh, however, the new rules have not made so much headway, the Rugby code being there as extensively played as of yore. Some advances, however, have taken place, and the Edinburgh University has an Association team, and that city several promising clubs, including the Hibernian, Heart of Midlothian, and St. Bernard, and, in Leith, the Athletic, that made such a plucky fight with the Queen's Park in a recent cup tie.

No one, except a close observer, can believe the earnestness and enthusiasm imparted into the game by the formation of young clubs, but there is one danger which should be avoided. There is such a thing as overdoing; and, depend upon it, if this is continued, the game will suffer. To those who love and appreciate everything in season, the advice I am about to impart will be doubly significant. Football is a winter game, and while it may be all right to practice in spring and autumn, the line is bound to be drawn somewhere, and why attempt to force it down the throats of cricketers, athletes, yachtsmen, and even lawn-tennis players, in the heart of summer? It must not be forgotten that some of our best and most influential football clubs have also cricket clubs and kindred summer recreations attached, and, in the interests of football, these should be encouraged; and to this end I am confident my remarks will be treated with some respect. I am also sure that no one who has taken a deep interest in the game from its comparative infancy, but can look back with extreme pleasure on its development, and even go the length of registering a vow that he will do his utmost to make and uphold it as an honest and manly game, despite isolated assumptions by a few traducers who question such earnestness, and I