Third Lanark A.C.

History

Foundation and expansion

Third Lanark started as the football team of the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers (3rd LRV), part of the Volunteer 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 the first 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 of Queen's Park players, had been part of the regiment: including Billy Dickson, Billy MacKinnon and Joseph Taylor. In its early years, the club was successful in shooting competitions, with members winning the prestigious 'Queen's Prize' (still contested today as an event within the Commonwealth Games).

A later meeting decided that the playing kit should be: "A cowl – one end blue, the other yellow, a scarlet guernsey. Blue trousers or knickerbockers with blue stockings." It was later decided that all guernseys should have the number three on them, 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 old drill field on Victoria Road (north of the village of Strathbungo, close to today's Govanhill Park, roughly on the site of Hutcheson's Grammar School's Primary department), to train. The club soon moved a short distance to a new ground, Cathkin Park situated at the junction of Allison Street and Hollybrook Street.

Having joined the newly formed Glasgow Football Association in 1883, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football League in 1890. By then, Third Lanark had already won the Scottish Cup in 1889, having fallen at the final in 1876 and 1878. The name was changed to Third Lanark AC in 1903, when official links with the military were severed. In the same year, the club moved to the second Hampden Park which had been vacated and deconstructed by Queen's Park who themselves had relocated to a new third Hampden. Third Lanark had to play much of the 1903–04 at this new Hampden while their own ground, renamed New Cathkin Park, was rebuilt for their use. Despite this upheaval, they won their only Scottish League championship in that season, as well as the Scottish Cup again in 1905 (they were losing finalists in 1906). In that pre-World War I period they also claimed the minor Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup in 1890, 1898, and 1900 and the Glasgow Cup in 1903, 1904 and 1909.

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'. Indeed, only four of the players were actually registered with Third Lanark. During the tour they played 25 matches, winning 24 and drawing the other game. Two years later the club (again with some guest players) made a tour over South America, playing a total of eight friendly matches in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, including a game against the Argentina national side on 24 June. 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 in 1936, going down 1–0 to Rangers.

Decline

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 in 1964–65 (the final 21 fixtures were all lost).

There followed another two seasons of mediocrity and discontent. On 8 January 1966, the Glasgow Herald announced in a front-page story that the board was investigating the possibility of moving Third Lanark to the new town of East Kilbride and selling Cathkin Park for housing. 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 the England-Scotland international at Wembley) for the visit of Clydebank. Third Lanark won 1–0 with a goal from forward John Kinnaird; it would be the team's final competitive victory. The last Third Lanark home game against Queen 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.

The final Thirds game was a humiliating defeat at Boghead Park when hosts Dumbarton won 5–1 on Friday 28 April 1967 in front of 581 spectators (the last Thirds goal was scored by future Airdrie and Hearts star Drew Busby). The line-up in that final game at Boghead was: Bob Russell; Tony Connell and Gerry Heaney; Hugh McLaughlan, Jim Little and Gordon McEwan; Hugh Rundell, Bobby Craig, Drew Busby, Don May and John Kinnaird. The manager was former Rangers captain Bobby Shearer, assisted by former Scotland international John McKenzie as trainer.

This game ended Third Lanark's participation in senior football in Scotland. In the club's final 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.

After liquidation

After Third Lanark went into liquidation, some Third Lanark fans began supporting other local clubs such as Queen's Park or Clyde, and others began supporting the Old Firm. The nearby Junior club Pollok 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.

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 MP Sir 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.

Rebirth as an amateur side

Third Lanark returned to its now dilapidated Cathkin Park home, playing in the Greater Glasgow Amateur League.

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 team Gretna decided to withdraw from the SFL. The other contenders for the vacant league place were Spartans, Cove Rangers, Annan Athletic, Preston Athletic and Edinburgh City. 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.

Third Lanark A.F.C. is an amateur team who, as of the 2018–19 season, play in the Central Scottish Amateur Football League. 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 the Toryglen Regional Football Centre (a modern facility a short distance from Cathkin Park) and at the Barlia Football Centre in Glasgow's Castlemilk district, having played at Fullarton Park (home of Vale of Clyde F.C.), in prior seasons.

Nickname

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. There was a public house called The Hi Hi Bar at the southern end of Crown Street in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, about one mile from the club's Cathkin Park stadium.

Ground

Third Lanark played at the original Cathkin Park from their foundation until 1903, at which time they took over Queen's Park's Hampden Park ground, renaming it New Cathkin Park, while Queen's Park moved to a new Hampden Park in Mount Florida. New Cathkin Park is currently owned by Glasgow City Council, and large areas of the terracing remain intact on three sides of the ground.

Ownership and finances

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.

Honours

Scottish Football League Division One:

Winners 1903–04

Scottish Football League Division Two:

Winners 1930–31, 1934–35

Scottish Cup:

Winners 1888–89, 1904–05

Runners-up (4) 1875–76, 1877–78, 1905–06, 1935–36

Scottish League Cup:

Runners-up 1959–60

Glasgow League:

Winners 1904–05, 1905–06

Glasgow Cup:

Winners 1903, 1904, 1909, 1963

Runners-up (12) 1891, 1906, 1907, 1914, 1924, 1938, 1943, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1954, 1958

Glasgow Charity Cup:

Winners 1890, 1898, 1901, 1952

Shared: 1954, 1956

Runners-up (8) 1884, 1897, 1910, 1914, 1932, 1939, 1943, 1946