Club History

Glasgow Rangers FC started life as Argyle, founded by the McNeil brothers, Peter and Moses. They were joined by friends, Peter Campbell and William McBeath. Argyle were renamed Rangers, after an English Rugby club.

The club were founded in 1873 after the club officials were elected, at the first ever club meeting. Fleshers Haugh, on Glasgow Green, was the first choice as the home of the light blues. This was to last for only 2 years, when they then moved to Burnbank.1 year later, the club upped sticks again and moved to Kinning Park, which ended up seeing 11 great years of football, before the blues finally found, what was to become our home. Ibrox was found in 1887 and used until the Stadium was built in 1899.

The football in the early years took a turn for the better in 1877, when Rangers were the beaten finalists in the Scottish Cup Final second replay, 3-2 to Vale of Leven.

The first League game was played on the 16th August 1890, against Hearts. The score on the day was a victorious 5-2 in Rangers favour, and was the best possible start; as they went on to share the honours with Dumbarton.

They achieved success in the Scottish Cup beating Celtic 3-1 in the 1894 final, Dumbarton 5-1 in 1897 and Kilmarnock 2-0 in 1898. In 1898-99 Rangers won their first Championship in style winning all eighteen of their games – a unique achievement. This was the first of four successive title wins. After World War I, Rangers dominated Scottish football winning the championship 15 times in 21 years, under the managership of firstly William Wilton and then the legendary William Struth. Struth managed the club for 34 years winning 18 League Championships, 10 Scottish Cups and two League cups. In 1927-28 they won the double for the first time.

The Scottish League Cup was introduced after World War II and Rangers became the first team to achieve the illustrious Treble, in 1849.

The club played in Europe for the first team in 1956-57 when they participated in the European cup. In 1961 they became the first Scottish side to reach a European Final when they lose 1-4 on aggregate to Florentina. In 1967 they lost 0-1 after extra time to Bayern Munich in the Cup Winners Cup final.

1971 was to witness a Disaster at Ibrox. Saturday, 2nd of January was the day all Rangers fans will never forget, as Celtic were the visitors, to an 80,000 sell-out Ibrox. Colin Stein equalised in the 89th minute, of an amazing game, but the delights of the Rangers fans were soon to be turned into despair. Staircase 13 of the East Terrace was to become the scene to one of the worst Disasters witnessed in British Football. The exit of the fans was to become a devastating crush, causing 66 lives to be lost and a further 141 left injured.

The 1971 Tragedy had a massive impact on the Rangers players, and to this day, the Players of past and present, have pledged their support to the families and victims.

Although 1971 will never be forgotten, the Players gave something back to the fans the following year. The European Cup Winners Cup was to be a hotly contested competition, seeing Rangers becoming outright winners, defeating Moscow Dynamo 3-2 in the final. It was however, a very shaky start, when Rangers were all but out in the Second round. The tie with Sporting Lisbon ended in a stalemate at 6-6. The home leg was won 3-2 and the away leg was a close game, finally ending 4-3 to Sporting. Sporting won the resulting penalty shootout, but Waddell was soon to point out the mistake made by the Referee, with Rangers winning on the away goal rule.

With a European Trophy in the cabinet, it was clear that the new challenge was to overcome the Celtic domination on the domestic front. Jock Wallace was keen to grasp the challenge as Manager, and succeeded in the '74-'75 season.

This was the to become the last Division 1 trophy for the club, as the top flight became the Scottish Premier League for the '75-'76 season.
The first Premier League title came to Ibrox, along with the Scottish and League Cup Trophies.

Honours became to dry up after Jock Wallace resigned from the club he loved, and the drought was to last until David Murray became Chairman and Graeme Souness joined as Player/Manager. The Souness era was an exciting time for Rangers fans, and the success was continued by Walter Smith, when Souness decided to take up the challenge of Managing Liverpool. The combination allowed Rangers to equal Celtics 'Nine in a row' achievement.