association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
club from
Ayr
Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
The club claimed a foundation date of 1869, which would have made it the earliest football club in Ayr, although there are no recorded matches for the club until the 1873–74 season. The club played both association football and
rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
; as an example of the fluidity in codes, in October 1873 the club lost to
Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
in a game played to rugby rules. By 1874 the club had 73 members.
Proximity to Ayr Eglinton
The academy did not enter the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Ayr Eglinton club, which was formed in 1875. From the Ayr Academy cricket side, the King brothers played for Eglinton in the
1875–76 Scottish Cup
The 1875–76 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the third season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. The number of entrants nearly doubled from the ...
, and of the XI which played against the Ayr Volunteers in the 1875–76 season, two players (Sliman and Reid) played for Eglinton in the 1875–76 Cup, and another five (goalkeeper Gemmell, three members of the Highet family, and Craig) played for Eglinton in the
1876–77 Scottish Cup
The 1876–77 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the fourth season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Entries to the competition again increased with a total of 81 clubs ...
. Academy even played Eglinton in October 1875, winning 2–0.
Merger
The final Academy match was scheduled to take place on 14 October 1876, at Girvan. It is not clear whether this match took place. In a meeting at the Ayr Assembly Rooms that weekend, it was "unanimously agreed" to merge the academy and Eglinton clubs, to form a new club, Ayr Academicals.
Colours
Its colours were red cap, jersey, and stockings, with white knickerbockers, and a blue Maltese cross on the left breast.
Ground
The club played at the Low Green, using the Ayr Arms on the High Street for its facilities.
Notable players
*
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 194 ...
earned one cap for Scotland when registered as an Ayr Academy player