Forgotten Football Clubs could be a mystery topic to search. A club of great tradition and part of the Scottish top flight for many seasons, Third Lanark, played their last ever season in professional football back in 1966/67.
A book named, The Ghosts of Cathkin Park, said to be a must read for anyone who loves Scottish football, but it should also be a fascninating story for every football follower with a love for the game in general.
The summer of 1967 was Scottish football’s finest hour. Celtic won the European Cup. Rangers reached the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Kilmarnock got to the semis of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Scotland defeated World champions England at Wembley. It was the best of times. With one exception. Third Lanark Athletic Club, one of the country’s oldest and most successful football teams, a founder member of the Scottish Football Association, and to date one of only four teams to defeat both Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final, played its final game. And hardly anybody seemed to notice. Why?
Michael McEwan brings rich archival research together with interviews with the key surviving players in the Third Lanark squad from that final season, as well as opposition players and other relevant figures from the era.
Over 50 years on, the demise of Third Lanark remains one of Scottish football’s darkest hours – and, by ludicrous coincidence, it occurred in the midst of one of its brightest.
Third Lanark had a grand tradition of bringing forward good players that became interesting signing objects for English clubs. Many famous players featured for the Hi Hi, Jimmy Mason, Jockey Robertson and Ally McLeod to name a few. As well as good players, Thirds have been managed by well recognised Scottish football figures such as Bob Shankly, George Young, Bobby Evans and Bobby Shearer. Shankly speaks of his time at Third Lanark sharing ‘I enjoyed my spell with the Thirds more than any other club I have been with. I was sad to move to Dundee when asked to do so, as at that time Thirds were one of the best teams in the league and were very popular with the crowds, both home and away’.
In the early days of football, Third Lanark also had a number of exports. Right half, Bob Stevenson made his move from Third Lanark to Arsenal. That happened in 1894. Stevenson played 7 times for what then was Woolwich Arsenal. Hugh Curran is another major player with his past at Cahtkin Park, known mostly for his time at Norwich and Wolves.
The history is astonishing with their last ever season, 1966-67, played in the Scottish 2nd tier, ending 11th. They ended as high as 3rd in the 1959-60 season, just behind Celtic and Rangers.
The club was founded in 1872, and had a grand history winning both the FA Cup and Scottish League. Third Lanark played at the original Cathkin Park from their foundation until 1903, at which time they took over Queen’s Park’s Hampden Park ground, renaming it New Cathkin Park, while Queen’s Park moved to a new Hampden Park in Mount Florida.[6][42] New Cathkin Park is currently owned by Glasgow City Council, and large areas of the terracing remain intact on three sides of the ground.
After Third Lanark went into liquidation, some Third Lanark fans began supporting other local clubs such as Queen’s Park or Clyde, and others began supporting the Old Firm. The nearby Junior club Pollok also received many new fans. Although most other Scottish teams that went into liquidation were later reformed as amateur sides, there was no such resurrection for Third Lanark for many years. It has been suggested that this was because there was such a prolonged period of downfall for Third Lanark that many fans felt too tired of what had gone on at the club to try to bring it back.
A youth team later adopted the name “Third Lanark Athletic” (playing at Rosebank Park), as did a ladies’ team. Occasionally exhibition matches were staged at Cathkin with a scratch Third Lanark team. Former Glasgow MP Sir Teddy Taylor bought the company name “Third Lanark Athletic Club Ltd” from the sequestrators in 1967, when there remained the possibility of the club continuing in another form.
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