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The Glasgow Schools' Football Association and the Scottish Schools' Football Association have always been closely linked. In 1903 the Scottish Schools' Football Association was formed with most of its members from Glasgow, and the following year, 1904, saw the birth of the Glasgow and District Secondary Schools' Football Association. Here is an extract from its first annual report:
"The league instituted in October 1904, for the purposes of organising and controlling schools' football, has had a very successful first year.
"Fifteen secondary schools in Glasgow and district entered teams and one hundred and two matches were played in which over 300 boys took part. The First Division was won by Allan Glen's, and the Second Division by Queen's Park.
Representative matches were played against Edinburgh, London and Dumbarton, with Glasgow winning all three."
Challenge Shields
Challenge shields were presented by Queen's Park Football Club for competition to both Glasgow and Scottish Associations, and Queen's Park appointed two members to each association.It is interesting to note the names of some of the schools which were in at the beginning:
Allan Glen's, Bellahouston Academy, Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar, Paisley Grammar, Whitehill, St Aloysius' College, Whitehill, John Street, North Kelvinside, Queen's Park, Shawlands, and Woodside.
The Finances
In 1908 the Association rented a room for £12 per year, furnished it, and to help pay the rent, let it out for 2/- (10p) per meeting to the SSFA, GFPA, and church associations. They continued to rent this room until 1917. In the year 1908, they helped to start the Glasgow & District Elementary Schools' Football Association. Some of the items of expenditure during this time are worth noting: Six policemen for stewarding 4/11d each - total cost £1.4s 6d (£1.23p). Postage, consisting of 61 letters, 39 postcards and one telegram - a total of 7/2d (36p), and one football 8/6d (43p). Income tax of 1/3d was paid to the Inland Revenue at this time as well as super tax of 5d.
Representative Matches
The Association continued to play matches against London, Edinburgh and Dumbarton until the 1914-18 War. After the War, Dumbarton joined the Glasgow and District Schools' Football Association, and the London and Edinburgh matches were restarted. A new fixture was added around this time: Glasgow v The Rest of Scotland. This match continued for a long time, and was eventually used as the final trial for the Scotland v England Internationals. The London match was played until 1966 when it was discontinued because of the London Association's shortage of money. For a long time London Schools' FA was sponsored by the London Star newspaper, and when sponsorship was stopped, the London schools found it difficult to fulfil their representative matches. The Edinburgh match has now also been discontinued, although it was never played every year at any stage.
In the 1925-1926 season, Glasgow played Bradford, and the match at Hampden in April this year was the sixty-sixth game between the two associations. The game was not played during the war years. We have been asked many times, "Why Bradford?" It all happened because George Forrester, a teacher in St Mungo's Academy, transferred to Bradford, and asked Glasgow for a match between the two associations. Many other representative matches have been played, such as Leeds, London Grammar schools, Liverpool, Brighton and of course the matches against Lanarkshire, Paisley, etc. In 1956, Glasgow broke new ground for any association by playing North of Scotland at Brora, and playing the return match in 1957. As a result North of Scotland were admitted to the Scottish Schools' FA, something which they had been trying to do for some time.
From far and near
Amongst the schools which have played in the Glasgow Schools' FA and which now play in their own local associations are Hamilton Academy (were members of Glasgow for over 20 years after the Lanarkshire Association was formed), Dalziel, Coatbridge High, Falkirk High, Grangemouth, St Modan's, Lindsay High, St Mary's (Bathgate), McLaren High, Irvine Royal Academy, Dunoon Grammar, Kyle Academy (Ayr), Greenock High, St Columba's (Gourock), and most of the Paisley, Cumbernauld and East Kilbride schools.
In 1910, the Scottish National Schools' Football Association was formed and internationals against England were arranged. However, Glasgow secondary catered for older boys and they did not join the new association. But the Glasgow elementary schools did so, and this eventually caused complications, and later on, friction, between the two Glasgow associations and the two Scottish associations. The elementary schools took the boys who had left their school to go to secondary, and played them in their school teams. This enabled these boys to get trials for the Scottish National International despite the fact that their secondary school was not in membership. However, after long deliberation, the two Glasgow associations were united in 1959, and a year later the two Scottish schools' associations became the Scottish Schools' FA. To celebrate, Glasgow hosted the first international against a continental side in May 1960, when Scotland played Germany at Ibrox Park before a 19 000 crowd.
GSFA may have begun with only 15 schools, but by the 1960s it had over eighty secondary schools and over sixty primary schools. Today there are 44 secondary and 56 primary schools in membership. With a "pool" size of about 16 per team, this should mean an involvement in schools' football for some 2 300 boys. In 1996, girls' football was introduced, and currently there are eight secondary schools offering Soccer Sevens to the girls.
Past Players
No history of the Glasgow Schools' Football Association would be complete without mentioning anything about players. Many top players began their career in the GSFA. The players of today who are in the Word Cup squads, and who began in GSFA are Kevin Gallacher, Tosh McKinlay, John Spencer currently, and in the recent past there were Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Pat Nevin, Ally Brazil, and Andy Gray. Managers Walter Smith, Alex Ferguson and European Coach, Andy Roxburgh all started with the GSFA. The committee now forming the GSFA is made up of a number of teachers who played in representative teams in Glasgow.
Queen's Park Football Club
In conclusion, it must be said that GSFA owes a great deal of debt and gratitude to Queen's Park Football Club, for, without their support at the beginning, the Association would not have been formed. Without their continued support in granting us the use of Hampden Park all those years we would have found it difficult to continue. If Hampden Park had gone, then GSFA as well as the SSFA and many amateur associations would have been the losers.