football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club from north-west
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
.
History
Temperance Athletic, also known as Glasgow Temperance Athletic, was one of several clubs formed in the 1880s by those who adhered to the
Temperance movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...
. The club's existence overlapped with that of United Abstainers of Crosshill, which diluted the potential membership pool.
The club was formed in June 1887 for total abstainers, as a general athletic club, aimed also at playing
rounders
Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a wooden, plastic, or metal bat that has a cylindrical end. The players score b ...
and
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
; indeed the club's first fixture was a rounders match against Citizen at Ruchill Park. Its first recorded football match was a 6–0 defeat at Southern Athletic in autumn 1887.
Despite a run of unimpressive results in 1887–88 (its only win of any note being 2–1 at Carlton in February), the club turned senior in August, and entered the
1888–89 Scottish Cup
The 1888–89 Scottish Cup was the 16th season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. Third Lanark A.C., 3rd Lanark RV beat Glasgow rivals Celtic F.C., Celtic (making their Cup début) 2–1 in a repla ...
and
Glasgow Cup
The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...
. The club may have been hoping to spread the message that teetotalism was not an impediment to athletic performance, given attempts to set up Temperance Athletic clubs by its Glaswegian members elsewhere in Scotland. However, as far as the Scottish Cup was concerned, the message backfired, as neighbours
Cowlairs
Cowlairs () is an area in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde, between central Springburn to the east and Possilpark to the west.
Administratively, in the 21 ...
inflicted on the club the biggest defeat of the first round, by a score of 18 goals to 2. A fortnight later the club recovered enough to lose only 3–2 against Southern Athletic, the outcome perhaps tempered by it being the visitors' only ever competitive victory.
In the first round of the
1889–90 Scottish Cup
The 1889–90 Scottish Cup was the 17th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Queen's Park defeated rivals Vale of Leven
2–1 in a replayed final.
Calendar
Teams
All 158 teams entered the competition in the ...
, the Athletic scratched to Summerton Athletic, and the club also scratched to Carrington in the first round of the Glasgow Cup. There is no further record of the club; an 11–6 win at the obscure Vale Rose club at the end of the year appears to refer to a club from Alexandria, Dumbartonshire. Unsurprisingly the club did not renew its Scottish FA membership for the following season and it was also removed from the Glasgow FA roll.
Colours
The club wore blue and white vertically striped shirts with blue knickers. The colours may have been inspired by the blue ribbons worn by those who had taken the pledge.
Ground
The club's original football pitch was
Ruchill Park
Ruchill Park is a public park in Ruchill, Glasgow, Scotland, approximately north-west of the city centre. It is adjacent to the former location of Ruchill Hospital on Bilsland Drive.
History
In 1892, Glasgow Corporation acquired the site of ...
, which was (and is) a public park. In order to turn senior, the club needed a private ground, and it obtained the use of Saracen Park, which had been the ground of