Crawford Findlay was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He became an international

referee. He later was the 53rd

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Findlay was playing for West of Scotland but a knee injury in 1895 forced him to go to a specialist in London.

Referee career

For the season 1895-96 Findlay started refereeing. He was refereeing in the

Scottish Unofficial Championship The Scottish Unofficial Championship was the top league of Scotland's best amateur rugby union clubs. The Championship was 'unofficial' as the Scottish Rugby Union held that the sport should remain amateur and at the time did not sanction competi ...

. Reports state he gave 'every satisfaction' as a referee. He was still refereeing that league in 1898. Findlay was nicknamed the 'Penalty King' as he frequently gave penalties for infringements that other referees would overlook. When refereeing the England versus Wales match in 1904, after Findlay gave numerous penalties for scrum infringements, the Welsh scrum half, Swansea player

Dicky Owen Dicky Owen (17 November 1876 - 27 February 1932) was a Welsh international scrum-half who played club rugby for Swansea RFCSmith (1979), pg 132. Owen is seen as one of the greatest Welsh scrum-halves and won 35 caps for Wales between 1901 and 1 ...

, gave the ball to the English scrum half to feed the scrum on Welsh put-ins. Some Welsh felt that Findlay carried 'social prejudice' against them: Findlay had previously made a comment about the number of Welsh working men playing

instead of

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

. The Welsh centre

Rhys Gabe Rhys Thomas "Rusty" Gabe (22 June 1880 – 15 September 1967) born as Rees Thomas Gape,Jenkins (1991), pg 60. was a Welsh rugby union player who played club rugby for Llanelli, London Welsh and Cardiff and gained 24 caps for Wales, mainly as a c ...

said that Findlay told him that he was surprised that the Welsh picked the working class of miners, steelworkers and policemen and felt they should join the Northern Union instead. On a particularly foggy day when it was difficult to see the posts, Findlay was refereeing the match between Oxford University and Cambridge University at the end of the 1907–08 season. The match was tied at the end of the game and the Scots centre K. G. MacLeod, playing for Cambridge, tried a last-gasp drop kick to win the match. Findlay could not see the posts or where the ball went. He asked MacLeod how his kick went. MacLeod replied 'No goal'. He felt the ball swerved just outside.

Administrative career

When his brother Graham Findlay was promoted to President of West of Scotland in 1894, Crawford was then elected as secretary. He was re-appointed secretary of the West of Scotland in 1898. He moved to the board of London Scottish in 1931. He was elected vice-president of the SRU in May 1931. Findlay was then elected

President of the Scottish Rugby Union The president of the Scottish Rugby Union is the figurehead of rugby union in Scotland. Origin In 1873, and directly after the Scotland versus England international match, representatives from eight Scottish rugby union sides came together in Gl ...

the following year in May 1932. As SRU president he opened the

Watsonians Watsonian Football Club is a rugby union club based in Edinburgh and part of the Scottish Rugby Union. The club is connected with George Watson's College as a club for former pupils, and changed its policy in the 1980s to be a fully open club, ...

grandstand in 1933.

Law career

Findlay went to the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

where he got his MA in 1891 and studied law and received his LLD in 1894.University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of James Crawford Findlay
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Findlay, Crawford 1871 births Rugby union players from Glasgow Scottish rugby union players Scottish Unofficial Championship referees Scottish rugby union referees Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union West of Scotland FC players Year of death missing