Rangers Football Club, 1872

The Early Years of Rangers Football Club

The story of Rangers Football Club begins on the open spaces of Glasgow in 1872, when five young men — brothers Moses and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell, William McBeath and David Hill — came together to form a football team of their own. They were young men with little more than enthusiasm to sustain their new venture. There was no grand stadium, established organisation or wealthy patronage behind them, and their earliest football was played at Flesher’s Haugh on Glasgow Green, where in May 1872 the new team contested its first recorded match, a goalless draw against Callander.

The name they chose was Rangers. According to the traditional account, Moses McNeil had encountered the name Swindon Rangers in a book about English rugby football and suggested that Rangers should be adopted for their own team. Only two matches appear to have been played during that first year. The second produced a rather more emphatic result, Rangers defeating a side called Clyde — unrelated to the present-day Clyde Football Club — by 11–0. By then the Rangers players were appearing in the blue shirts that would become inseparably associated with the club.

Although Rangers trace their beginnings to 1872, it was in 1873 that the club was formally constituted and its first fixture list drawn up. What had begun as the enthusiasm of five young men was gradually developing into an organised football club.

The Light Blues

The blue jersey became one of the defining characteristics of Rangers. At a time when dark navy was commonplace among Scottish football clubs, Rangers became distinguished by their blue shirts and eventually acquired the enduring nickname “the Light Blues.” The expression appears to have gained particular currency following the 1878 Scottish Cup Final against Vale of Leven, when journalists described Rangers as “the light and speedy blues.”

There has sometimes been uncertainty about precisely what shade of blue those early Rangers jerseys actually were. Surviving photographs can make the shirts appear considerably paler than the royal blue subsequently associated with the club, but that appearance can be deceptive. Nineteenth-century photographic processes did not reproduce colours in the manner of modern photography, and the way in which blue registered on early photographic materials could cause a darker blue garment to appear surprisingly pale. The apparent lightness of the Rangers jersey in surviving images should therefore not necessarily be interpreted as evidence that the club actually wore pale blue. Contemporary references to royal blue provide good reason to believe that the Rangers jersey was considerably darker than those photographs might initially suggest.

There was, however, one notable interruption to the tradition. John Allan later recalled that during the period in which Angus Campbell served as honorary secretary in 1879–80, Rangers abandoned their traditional blue in favour of blue-and-white hooped jerseys. According to Allan, matters had not been going particularly well for the team and Campbell, a Highlander with what was described as a liberal strain of superstition, wondered whether a change of colours might also bring about a change in fortune. At his suggestion the traditional royal blue jerseys were put away and blue-and-white hoops adopted instead.

The experiment did not endure. Allan recalled that nobody was entirely happy until the traditional colours were restored by a committee decision in 1883, after which royal blue became firmly established as the colour of Rangers.

An intertwined RFC monogram has also long been associated with the club's earliest identity. It has traditionally been suggested that the device dated from the foundation period, although the earliest surviving evidence for the design comes from an early Rangers season ticket. Importantly, however, the monogram did not appear on the players' shirts during this period.

Establishing Rangers

The club progressed rapidly from its informal beginnings. For the 1875–76 season, Rangers moved to Burnbank Park, while in 1876 the young club achieved another important landmark when Moses McNeil became the first Rangers player selected for international football, representing Scotland against Wales.

Success in the Scottish Cup was initially more elusive. Rangers reached the final in 1877, where they encountered one of the outstanding Scottish teams of the Victorian period, Vale of Leven. The sides drew the first match and the first replay before Vale finally prevailed in a second replay. Rangers again reached the final in 1879, and once more Vale of Leven stood between them and the trophy. The final ended in a draw, but Rangers subsequently refused to participate in the replay following a dispute arising from the original match, and Vale of Leven were consequently awarded the cup.

Although Rangers had twice fallen short, simply reaching those finals demonstrated how rapidly the club had progressed. Within only a few years of those informal matches on Glasgow Green, Rangers were competing amongst the strongest football organisations in Scotland. Their growing importance within the Glasgow game was further demonstrated in 1883, when Rangers became one of the six founder members of the Glasgow Football Association.

The club was also willing to test itself against opposition beyond Scotland. During the period when Scottish clubs could participate in the English FA Cup, Rangers embarked upon an extraordinary run in 1886–87, eventually reaching the semi-final before losing to Aston Villa. By now Rangers were no longer simply an enthusiastic collection of footballers; they had become one of the established names of the Scottish game.

Rangers and Celtic

Another moment of enormous historical significance arrived in May 1888, when a newly established Glasgow club called Celtic was preparing to play its first match and Rangers provided the opposition. Celtic won the friendly 5–2, although nobody watching that afternoon could possibly have appreciated the significance the fixture would eventually acquire.

From that first encounter developed one of the most famous and enduring rivalries in world football. The expression Old Firm belonged to a later period, but the first meeting between the two Glasgow clubs that would come to dominate much of Scottish football had taken place.

The Birth of the Scottish Football League

Scottish football entered a new era in 1890 with the creation of the Scottish Football League, and Rangers were among its ten founder members. By this time the club was playing at the first Ibrox Park, having established itself in the Govan area of Glasgow. Rangers played their first League fixture on 16 August 1890, defeating Heart of Midlothian 5–2.

Over the course of the inaugural championship Rangers and Dumbarton emerged as the leading clubs. At the conclusion of the programme the two sides were level on points and a deciding match was therefore arranged at Cathkin Park. It finished 2–2, and with neither club able to separate itself from the other, the championship was shared between Rangers and Dumbarton. It remains the only occasion upon which the Scottish League championship has been jointly held. For Rangers it represented the first League title in the club's history, less than two decades after the five young founders had begun playing football together on Glasgow Green.

The First Scottish Cup Triumph

For all their growing stature, one important prize continued to elude Rangers. They had challenged for the Scottish Cup since the 1870s and had twice reached the final, but had never lifted the trophy. That finally changed in 1894, when their opponents in the final were Celtic. Rangers won 3–1, securing the Scottish Cup for the first time in the club's history.

The breakthrough heralded a period of increasing success. Rangers won the trophy again in 1897 and retained it in 1898, but an even greater achievement followed in the League. The 1898–99 season occupies a special place in Rangers history, as the club played eighteen Scottish League matches and won every one of them. Eighteen matches brought eighteen victories, a perfect championship campaign and one of the outstanding achievements of the early Scottish game.

Nor was it an isolated triumph. Rangers retained the championship in 1899–1900, won it again in 1900–01, and completed four successive titles by finishing champions once more in 1901–02. The transformation of the club was remarkable. The informal team created by five young men in 1872 had, within less than thirty years, become one of the dominant forces in Scottish football.

A New Ibrox

That extraordinary growth demanded a home capable of accommodating the enormous crowds now attracted by Rangers. In December 1899, the club moved into the new Ibrox Park, constructed on a scale appropriate to Rangers' increasing stature and associated with the celebrated Scottish stadium architect Archibald Leitch. It represented both the extraordinary growth of Rangers and the wider transformation of association football from an amateur recreation into Britain's great spectator sport.

Little more than two years later, however, Ibrox became the scene of one of the darkest days in the early history of British football. On 5 April 1902, Scotland met England there in the British Home Championship. During the match, part of the wooden terracing collapsed beneath the enormous crowd, sending hundreds of spectators falling through the structure. Twenty-five people died and more than 500 were injured.

The disaster sent shockwaves through British football and inevitably raised questions about the construction and safety of the rapidly expanding grounds required to accommodate the huge crowds the game was now attracting. It would contribute to important changes in stadium construction and terrace design. For Rangers, whose new home had represented the remarkable progress made since the days of Glasgow Green, the tragedy became an indelible part of the history of Ibrox.

Rangers in the New Century

Success on the football field nevertheless continued. Rangers won the Scottish Cup again in 1903, their fourth triumph in the competition following victories in 1894, 1897 and 1898. Remarkably, they would then wait another twenty-five yearsbefore lifting the trophy again, eventually securing their fifth Scottish Cup in 1928.

League success returned considerably sooner. Rangers were Scottish champions in 1910–11, 1911–12 and 1912–13, completing three consecutive League titles, and won the championship again in 1917–18. The club's visual identity was also continuing to develop. From 1904, Rangers generally wore the distinctive combination of black and red socks, reflecting the colours of the Burgh of Govan in which the club had established its home. Together with the royal blue jersey, they helped create an appearance that would become instantly recognisable.

From Glasgow Green to Ibrox

The rise of Rangers during the club's first generation was extraordinary. In 1872 there had been no Ibrox, no League championship, no Scottish Cup victories and no great Glasgow rivalry. There had simply been five young men — Moses McNeil, Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell, William McBeath and David Hill — and a desire to play football.

From the open spaces of Glasgow Green, their club moved through the formative years of organised Scottish football, survived disappointment in the Scottish Cup, produced international players, helped establish the Glasgow Football Association and became a founder member of the Scottish Football League. By the beginning of the twentieth century Rangers possessed one of Britain's great football grounds, commanded an enormous following and had accumulated League championships and Scottish Cups.

Royal blue had become their colour and the Light Blues their enduring nickname. What had begun with five young men playing football on Glasgow Green had become Rangers Football Club, one of the great institutions of the Scottish game.

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