Glasgow Founding Heritage
Four teenagers walking through West End Park in March 1872 decided to start a football club.
Rangers were founded in March 1872 by four teenage boys - brothers Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell and William McBeath - who discussed forming a football club while walking through West End Park, now Kelvingrove Park, in Glasgow. David Hill is also counted as a founder member. The club's first match, in May 1872, was a goalless friendly against Callander on Glasgow Green, and it is the fourth-oldest football club in Scotland.
Quick Facts
- Founded
- March 1872, West End Park (Kelvingrove Park), Glasgow
- Founders
- Moses McNeil
- Peter McNeil
- Peter Campbell
- William McBeath (and David Hill)
- First match
- May 1872 v Callander, Glasgow Green (0-0)
- Early grounds
- Fleshers' Haugh, Burnbank, Kinning Park, Cathkin Park, first Ibrox Park (1887)
- League
- Founder member of the Scottish Football League, 1890
Reader's Guide
The first annual meeting was held in 1873, when office-bearers were elected, and by 1876 the club had its first international player, Moses McNeil, who played for Scotland. Rangers were one of the eleven original members of the Scottish Football League when it began in 1890.
Before settling at Ibrox the club used a string of Glasgow grounds: Fleshers' Haugh on Glasgow Green, then Burnbank Park near Kelvinbridge, then Kinning Park for about ten years from the mid-1870s, and from February 1887 Cathkin Park, before the first Ibrox Park opened for the following season. The present ground opened in 1899.
More in Stadium & Culture
Elsewhere in Rangers FC
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced