FIRST SCOTTISH FINAL
— "Bauldie" | 16/12/1901 —

Having given you the first international, it is fitting that I should come along now with the first Scottish final. As a preliminary to dealing with this very interesting event, I place in the forefront the names of the clubs and players who took part in it. These being —

Queen's Park: Goal, J. Dickson; backs, J. Taylor and R. W. Neill; half-backs, C. Campbell and J. J. Thomson; forwards, J. B Weir, T. Lawrie, A. M'Kinnon, W. M'Kinnon, Leckie, and H. M'Neil.

Goal, R. Gardner; backs, D. Wotherspoon and J. M'Arly; half-backs, A. H. Raeburn, and Eben Hendry; forwards, F. Anderson, W. Gibb, J. R. Wilson, J. Lang, J. M'Pherson, and J. Kennedy.

Umpires: T. Haswell, 3rd L.R.V.; and H. N. Smith (Queen's Park).

Referee: J. M'Intyre, Eastern F.C.

It was on a cold, bleak, blustery Saturday on the 21st March, 1874, that our first Scottish finalists met under the shadow of the renowned classic slopes. On October 25 of the preceding year the Queen's Park opened Old Hampden with a cup tie v. Dumbreck, whom they vanquished easily by 7 goals to 0, that being the top score in the competition of the first Association campaign.

For the edification of those unfamiliar with primitive Hampden. I may say that the Queen's first home was practically in the country. There were no railway trains and no electric cars in these early, slow-going days, the slumbering, lumbering Cathcart 'bus being the only conveyance that passed the field. The appearance of first Hampden was very rustic, a large, straggling hawthorn hedge bounding it on three sides, and helping thus to obscure the arena from the eye of the then curious as to the merits of football, which was practically a new game. As an evidence of Hampden's rusticity, I remember previous to a match starting on it one Saturday afternoon seeing a hare calmly scamper  down the playing pitch quite oblivious to the gathering crowd, who at first took it for the proverbial Derby dog without which nowadays no big match is complete. On early Hampden there were, of course, no terraces, stands, nor yet pavilion or pay boxes. A rope entwined round posts here and there kept out the spectators, who stood then quite close to the players, and had during the play little "tete-a-tetes' with the favourites of the day. James B. Weir, then an apprentice joiner with his father in Crosshill, it was who put up Hampden's first barricade, to see over which your humble servant and some who are now Bailies and Councillors and merchants in the city mounted and sat upon the large stone wall that surrounds a stone bing on the northern border of the ground. That interesting landmark still stands, and I hope to reproduce it shortly as an interesting reminiscence of the enlarged tailor's bills of those who used it.

It was in a rustic scene such as this that the Queen's appeared in the now famous black and white colours the first time, their colours previously having been dark blue. With striped jerseys and hose (not socks) to match, it was the zebraic appearance of the "Queen's Own" that gave rise to the cognomen of "Spiders," which their favourites afterwards bestowed upon them. I should say en passant that the Scottish Football Association owes its existence to Mr Archie Rae, of Queen's Park, a gentleman whose work as a football missionary cannot be too highly valued or too much appreciated by the millions who since his pioneer day have been delighted and thrilled by Scotia's grandest winter pastime. To him and to such as Mr Rae it was with peculiar pride that they witnessed the first Association final as the crowning outcome of all their unselfish and praiseworthy efforts to found and popularise the game. If there was a fly in the ointment of their unctuous satisfaction it was to see opposed to Queen's Park two old members of the black-and-white brigade, viz., Robert Gardiner and D. Wotherspoon.

This feeling might have been deepened, but the defence of Gardner in goal prevented Queen's Park scoring, and the spirited attack of Clydesdale been successful in lowering the Queen's colours for the first time in their history. That calamity, I may tell you, almost befel the Queen's; in fact, the first exciting incident of this final was the claiming by Clydesdale for a goal, on the ground that stalwart John Dickson was through below the tape when he saved from a magnificent attack on his shaky standard, in which Gibb (who played in cricket trews). Anderson, and Wilson were most conspicuous. Umpire Haswell sided with this claim, but Umpire Smith did not, but on appeal to referee M'Intyre he decided no goal. His decision was, no doubt, based on the rule that stands at present, viz., that if there be a doubt on a point of fact with the play going on, the referee shall give the benefit to the defending side. Queen's had the benefit, and so they were saved the humiliation of losing the first goal at the hands of Clydesdale. As there was no half-time in this first final, in these days one had not the chance they have now at the interval of weighing up the teams or taking in the situation. When a goal was scored the teams changed ends. 

Favoured with the wind, the Queen's training and experience and combination told upon their rawer yet eager opponents. W. M'Kinnon, after one of his brilliant, bustling, sturdy runs, had the honour of beating his old clubmate, Gardner, much, need I say, to the latter's chagrin and disgust. The bulk of the 2,000 present applauded the deed, which took place, let me say, twenty minutes from time. Wheeling around to face the wind, Queen's stamina stood them; closely and combinedly they stood to each other, and as a wedge the six bore down in the teeth of the breeze upon Gardner again. H. M. M'Neil, the funniest and most comical of all Scottish forwards, cut some clever capers. Even on the long, uneven turf and against the wind, solidly, resolutely, and determinedly this red-haired light-weight was supported by J. B. Weir (acknowledged by such a back as Tom Vallance to be the ablest and most powerful forward Scotland has reared), fortified by the two M'Kinnons (not brothers, by the way), after a piece of fine passing between M'Kinnon, Weir, and Leckie (the last-named a grand forward) also had the honour of scoring the second goal at ten minutes from time. Clydesdale's defence was thus worsted in the brave encounter, the attack being thwarted at all points by the backs and half-backs, Charles Campbell's head play being a distinct feature. And so Clydesdale — like many before and after them in the national competition — had to acknowledge themselves baffled and beaten, and own the Queen's Park their superiors. Clydesdale in the following year were also beaten in the cup ties by the Queen's by 1-0. The victory was received, needless to say, with uproarious delight by the then Hampdenites, whose joy I may indicate by using the following from the first "Poet Laureate" of the game, who in 1868, on a visit of Queen's to Hamilton, sang thus—


"Loud the acclaim that ends the game,
The Queen's Park men have won; 
So well they wrought, so well t'was fought,
And not too cheaply victory bought, 
Right well, in sooth, 'twas done, 
The laurel they may proudly wear,
Which from that field of fight they bear."


I shall not deal with the heroes of the first cup victory individually, but content myself by saying that two of them, Thomas Laurie and Charles Campbell, became distinguished presidents of the Scottish Football Association. As the results of this first competition may be interesting, I append them, a curiosity in them being that none of the losers scored a goal.