THE MEN WITH 'EDUCATED FEET.'

Have you heard of Junior Omand, ‘Mutt’ McAlpine or Alan Morton? I thought not. But you may have heard of Andy Robertson and Sir Alex Ferguson. They all played for a Glasgow football club called Queen’s Park, ten times winners of the Scottish Cup. The team of the Century. Unfortunately that was the 19th century.        
    In their first seven years the ‘Spiders’ formed in 1967 did not concede a single goal. We were at the forefront of organised Association Football. We supplied the whole Scotland team for the world's first ever international match against England in 1873. We even pioneered the weaing of jerseys over the shorts! (See 1st extra)
    By the 1890s football was becoming professionalised, but Queen’s remained defiently amateur, ‘playing the game for the game’s sake.’  Nevertheless early in the 20th century the club built what was until 1950, the biggest football stadium in the world, Hampden Park. (We still play there.) We pioneered ‘the passing game’ and devised many of the rules of the current sport.
    Why is our nickname the Spiders? Because like the spider King Bruce observed while hiding out in his cave; We try and we try, and if we don’t succeed, we try again.
Main photo: QP with Scottish Cup, 1874
1st extra: Junior Omand in action against Third Lanark, 1958.
2and extra: The current Hampden Park.