Third Lanark

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Lore & Background

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

In Their Own Story

The final days at Cathkin Park were marked by a sharp decline in both performance and attendance. On Saturday 15 April 1967, only 297 spectators watched Third Lanark beat Clydebank 1–0, John Kinnaird scoring the goal that would become the team's last competitive victory. Two weeks later, on Tuesday 25 April 1967, the final home game against Queen of the South ended in a 3–3 draw. Brian McMurdo scored twice for Queens, including the last senior goal at Cathkin Park, while John Kinnaird (2) and Hugh McLaughlan netted for Thirds; the crowd numbered just 325. The club's final match was a 5–1 defeat to Dumbarton at Boghead Park on Friday 28 April 1967, with Drew Busby scoring the last goal. A Board of Trade investigation later revealed corruption, including lottery fraud and players being paid in coins. On 7 June 1967, Lord Fraser issued a winding-up order, ending senior football for Third Lanark.

Reader's Guide

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 goa

Did You Know?

• Third Lanark's lowest-ever home League attendance was 297 spectators on 15 April 1967 for a match against Clydebank.
• The club won its only Scottish League championship in 1903–04, despite having to play much of that season at Hampden Park while their own ground was rebuilt.
• Third Lanark fielded one of the only Scottish Jewish professional football players, Sam Latter, and had a notable following among Glasgow's Jewish community.