Sheffield FC and the Football Association, 1863

Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle 05.12.63

The above is a letter from W. Chesterman, the Hon, Sec. of Sheffield Football Club which was read to the meeting of the Football Association held on December 1st 1863.  Mr Chesterman makes observations and suggestions. The Sheffield Rules had been in operation since 1857, and, as was to be the case with the Association Laws of the Game, were evolving on a year by year basis.
By 1877 the Sheffield and Association rules had converged completely.

Bert Freeman

Bertram Clewley Freeman played a total of 321 league games, scoring 198 goals. He won 5 England caps between 1909 and 1912, scoring 3 goals. He scored the only goal of the 1914 FA Cup Final when Burnley beat Liverpool.
He began his professional carer with Aston Villa, but transferred to Woolwich Arsenal without ever having made a first team appearance. 
In 1908 Freeman was released by Woolwich Arsenal and joined Everton. This proved to be a shrewd bit of business on Everton's part, as in the 1908-09 season Freeman became the League's top scorer, with 38 goals in 37 games.  
Freeman scored 61 goals in 86 games for Everton (including 6 hat tricks). 
In 1910 he moved to Burnley, and was the  top goalscorer in the Second Division in both 1911-12 (32 goals) and 1912-13 (31 goals).

Montevideo v Buenos Aires 1889

In football the  Rioplatense rivalry, whether in internationals between Argentina and Uruguay or in club fixtures, is one of the oldest and most intense. 
The first known meeting between Uruguayan and Argentinian footballers was actually contested by 22 Britons. 
English (and Scottish) influence in the game on both sides of the River Plate persisted well into the 20th century. In the 1880s football in both states was an almost exclusively British affair. The game in question was billed as Buenos Aires vs. Montevideo. It took place on August 15th 1889 at Montevideo's La Blanqueada.
The Uruguayan team was organized by the Montevideo Cricket Club, and consisted of members of that club along with players from Montevideo Rowing Club.  Buenos Aires' players came exclusively from Buenos Aires F.C. 

Montevideo XI		Buenos Aires XI
Donovan	G		Carmichael
H.C. Alexander	FB		Crowe
C. Jefferies	FB		Paton
R. Marshbank	HB		M. MacAdam
C.E. Jewell	HB		Moser
A. Davie	HB		Phillips
Scoones	F		Guy
F.B. Faran	F		Morgan
W. L Poole	F		Hughes
R. Harris	F		Alexander
R.Penfold	F		Tudor

Alexander and Guy put Buenos Aires 2-0 up by half time. Scoones pulled one back for Montevideo before Hughes completed the visitors' 3-1 win.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh occupies a significant place in the pre-history of football, The Foot-Ball Club being active from 1824-1841. In the Association era, however, it was the west of Scotland that set the pace- the oldest clubs being Queen's Park (1867) and Kilmarnock (1869). The 8 clubs who formed the Scottish Football Association and the further 8 who joined them in the inaugural Scottish Cup (1873–74) were all from the west.

In order to spread the popularity of the game The Scottish FA arranged an exhibition match at Edinburgh. The game was played at Edinburgh Royal High School FP football ground (a Rugby ground) on  December 27th 1873. 

Morning Post - 20.12.73

Among those who witnessed this exhibition, the first time Association (the Queen's Park variant) had been played in the capital, were members of the Heart of Midlothian club. Originally a dancing club, the members had been playing a form of football in 1873 but now decided to adopt the Association rules. In 1875 the club became members of the Scottish Football Association and were founder members of the Edinburgh Football Association.

Tom Purdie, founder member and first captain.

Wisła Kraków

1907

Wisła Kraków was founded in May 1906 by students of the Second Practical School in Kraków, 
In 1925 they made the first appearance in the Polish championship, which that season was formed of 3 leagues of 3 teams followed by a round-robin final. Wisła  reached the final stage but finished bottom of the table. 
In 1927 the Championship took on a more familiar form. 14 teams took part and Wisła emerged as champions (scoring an average of 3.6 goals per game in the process). They repeated the feat the following season. 

Polish artist Wlastimil Hofman painted the 1927 team:

Amsterdam 1928

The Olympic Final, 1928. I believe that it's Fernando Paternoster out jumping Jose Nasazzi.  Jose Andrade looks on.

Major Marindin on the Association game

MAJOR MARINDIN ON THE ASSOCIATION GAME

A reporter has had an interview with Major Marindin, the president of the football association, who said at first he was opposed to the introduction of professionals, but he admits the result has been most satisfactory, for bona fide professionals it has been found do not play by any means so rough a game as do many so called amateurs. Many of them earn as much as £2 a week all the year round and their brilliant playing has certainly  done not a little for the game as a whole.  “The great curse of Association football at the present moment is the rough game adopted by a large number of clubs. We are determined to put this down.  Our rules are strong enough, but our difficulty is to get umpires with sufficient moral courage to stop rough play.  In any case I may remark that the Association is not so dangerous a game as Rugby. We get fractures and broken limbs, but we don’t get injuries to the neck and back that prove so fatal to the Rugby players.  As to betting at football, it is undoubtedly a great evil. It hardly exists in the South to such an extent as one finds it in the North.  There books are made on every great match, and a large amount of money without question changes hands.” “Is it for this reason” the Reporter asked “that such huge gates follow on great football matches?” “Hardly” replied the Major. “Football is rapidly becoming such a popular game that it is drawing even larger crowds than cricket. At the same time, I don’t think our clubs are making as much money as the public think.  You see they have to keep 11 or 15 players in service all the year round, and the travelling expenses of these are very large.  

Lancashire Evening Post, 20.11.88

1873

 We have previously alluded to the position of the Queen's Park club as a de facto governing body within Scottish football.

It comes as no surprise, then, to find that when steps were taken to actually form a Scottish Football Association that Queen's Park were the originators of the scheme. 

It all began with a proposal for a knock out competition along the lines of the FA Cup. On February 8th 1873 the committee of Queen's Park instructed the secretary, Archibald Rae to write to all Scottish clubs proposing a cup competition.

The resulting meeting on 13th March, 1873, was attended by representatives of  the following clubs (along, of course, with Queen's Park themselves):

 Clydesdale

Founded 1872, dissolved 1881, based in Kinning Park in south Glasgow (later home to Rangers).

Vale of Leven

Founded 1872, dissolved 1929, from Alexandria in West Dunbartonshire (to the west of Glasgow).In 1876 they became the first club to defeat Queen's Park ever! One of the first teams to seriously challenge the dominance of Queen's Park. Won the cup in 1877, 1878 and 1879.

Rovers FC

1873-78. Played at The Queen's Park , a public park in which Queen's Park had originally played. Rovers expressed an interest in the venture, but are not listed as founding members of the SFA.

Dumbreck

1871-79, based at Glasgow's Ibroxhill.

3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers

Founded in 1872, the Cathkin Park club survived until 1967. Their military connections were by then a distant memory. Cup winners in 1889 and 1905.

Eastern
Active from 1873-85 Eastern were another 'public park' team based in Glasgow.

Granville 
1872-78. This was Granville's only entry into The Scottish Cup. 3 of the players in Scotland's first international XI were members of the club (as well as being members of Queen's Park).

The resolution passed on March 13th was:

The clubs here represented form themselves into an association for the promotion of football according to the rules of The Football Association and that the clubs connected with this association subscribe for a challenge cup to be played for annually, the committee to propose the laws of the competition.

The first elected officials were: 

President: Archibald Campbell (Clydesdale) 

Hon. treasurer: Mr. William Ker (Queen's Park)

Hon.secretary: Archibald Rae (Queen's Park) 

Committee:James Turnbull (Dumbreck), Don. McFarlane (Vale of Leven), Eben Hendry (Clydesdale), W. E. Dick (Third Lanark), John Mackay (Granville), James McIntyre (Eastern), Robert Gardner (Queen's Park), and William Gibb (Clydesdale).

 A special mention is due to :

Kilmarnock

One of the oldest clubs in Scotland, founded in 1869, Kilmarnock were technically not founder members. They did, however, send a letter to the meeting giving their support to the proposals . They had to wait a while for their cup successes, which came in 1920, 1929, and 1997.

These 9 clubs were joined by the following 7 for the first round of the the first edition of the Scottish FA Cup in October 1873.

Alexandra  Athletic
1873-84- based in the East End of Glasgow.

Callander
1872-74- a short lived Glasgow club who were Rangers' first ever opponents.

Dumbarton
1872- present. Currently in the second tier of Scottish football. Appeared in 6 Cup Finals in the 19th century , winning in 1883.

Renton
1872-1922.  The Dunbartonshire club were one of the big names in 19th century game.  Played in 5 Cup Finals in the 19th Century, winning in 1885 and 1888. They were World Champions in 1888.

Blythswood
1872-79. From Kelvinside in Glasgow.

Southern
1872-75. Scratched from their only ever Scottish FA Cup match.

Western
1873-78. Another Glasgow suburban team.

Zestafoni

 These youthful looking players represented Zestafoni FC in 1923. Zestafoni is a city in western Georgia, which at the time was a part of the Soviet Union (from 1921 onwards). 

Between 1918 and 1921 Georgia was a Democratic Republic.

In 1918 the first club in Zestafoni was formed by high school students.

In 1920, during the period of The Allied Intervention (an unsuccessfulwestern scheme to undermine the  Revolution) Zestafoni played against a British Military team and won 2-1.

  In 1927 Zestafoni competed in the first republic-wide championship of Georgia.

A.H. Chequer

This rather solemn looking cricketer should be a familiar face to all students of Association football history. 
On March 16th 1872 at The Oval The Wanderers played The Royal Engineers in the first ever FA Cup Final. Fifteen minutes into the match Wanderers' 18 year old forward Robert Walpole Sealy Vidal succeeded in dribbling the ball a considerable distance into the Engineers' territory. Vidal centered and a teammate finished off the move from an acute angle.  The goalscorer was listed on the teamsheet as A.H Chequer. 
His actual name was Morton Peto Betts, known as Monty, a 24 year old  Old Harrovian and Cambridge University student. 
Bett's pseudonym arose from his membership of Harrow Chequers, It was common in the amateur era for players to be members of a number of clubs simultaneously.  As an Old Harrovian Betts was naturally a member of their old boys' side- the Chequers, founded in 1865. 
Chequers had been drawn to play against Wanderers in the first round of the FA Cup, but had withdrawn. There has been speculation that Betts chose his rather transparent alias to avoid being 'cup-tied.' It may, however, simply have been an example of the humour of the day. I note that in one early West Kent fixture one of the forwards is listed as A Chizelhurst- Chiselhurst  being the home of the West Kent club. I  can't help but wonder if this might also have been Betts!
Betts' name crops up frequently in the sporting annals of the 1870s and 1880s.
The earliest references I have found to him as a footballer come from 1870. His name does not feature in any reports of House matches at Harrow in the years when he would have been at school. In November 1870 he appears on a Wanderers line-up. Betts was also on a shortlist to represent England in the 2nd Alcock International on November 19th, but he wasn't selected and instead appeared in the role of Umpire (discharging  his duties with commendable impartiality throughout according to the press). December 1870 sees the first mention of Betts as a West Kent player, and he also played for South vs North during that month.
An example of multiple club membership giving rise to possible divided loyalties can be seen in January 1871. West Kent played Wanderers. Betts played for West Kent. In November that year Betts represented England in the 4th Alcock International. 1871 also saw the beginning of Betts' 20 years service as a member of the Board of the Football Association .
Betts' status within the game is reflected by his captaincy in 1872 of Middlesex (for a county game vs Surrey) and of Old Harrovians vs Old Etonians. This meant that he captained teams containing such natural leaders as Alcock and Kinnaird. 
Betts also featured regularly for London in their series of matches with Sheffield, and captained London in 1877.
By now Betts had 'matured' into a goalkeeper (although he does not appear to have been Old Harrovians' regular 'keeper in the 1876-77 season). On March 3rd 1877 Betts won his one and only official England cap when he played in goal against Scotland at The Oval.
Scotland won by 3 goals to 1. Contemporary reports attributed the Scots' success to combination play. England, on the other hand, retained the old singular approach.
This match did not signal the end of Betts' involvement with the international game. In 
1885 and 1888 he appeared as an Umpire in the  England vs Scotland matches.  

Association Football in The Wild West

In the 1880s the territory of Wyoming was a rough and ready place, small rudimentary settlements based on mineral mining and cattle driving. The sparsely populated  area was a refuge for outlaws such as The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang . 
As recently as 1876 there had been war  between 'settlers' and the indigenous people. The territory was not granted state status until 1890.
And yet against this frontier backdrop of riders and gunslingers Association football was being played.
I came across this fact in Andy Mitchell's First Elevens. 

Robert Smith, the former Scottish international had settled in Wyoming, where he established a business with fellow Queen's Park member William Klingner. Smith was a general trader, and was later involved in the newspaper business and politics. 
On July 4th 1883 Smith, who was then 35, arranged a match between  Green River and Rock Springs, Smith captained Green River. Rock Springs won 4-0. This appears to have been a one off, and football didn't really catch on in Wyoming. 

Smith was a founder member of Queen's Park and the first club captain.
He played in the 2nd,3rd and 4th  'Alcock Internationals' (the rarity of an actual Scotsman in the Scots XI). He represented Scotland in the 1st and 2nd official internationals whilst playing for South Norwood. Smith also played in the FA Cup for Queen's Park and was an FA committee member. 
He went to the USA in 1873.