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Heart Of Midlothian Football Club
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| The Origins of The Club | ||||
| The Heart of
Midlothian Football club was founded in 1874 by a group of young men who used to go to a
dance hall called the "Heart of Midlothian." The "Heart of Midlothian"
was also the local name for the Tollbooth, an ancient jail on the high street of
Edinburgh, where prisoners often awaited execution on the gallows in the grass market.
Demolished in 1817 the site of the Tollbooth is marked by a heart design (similar to the
club badge) inlaid in the cobbles of the high street outside the high court. "Heart
of Midlothian" is also a novel by Walter Scott with reference to the prison rather
than the football team.
When Hearts started playing football they played their games in the Meadows, a public park in Edinburgh. The strongest teams in Scotland at the time were teams from the west such as Queens Park, Dumbarton and Vale of Leven. Hearts were not strong enough to play these teams and played games against local teams such as 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers, Hanover and Swifts. Hearts originally played their games in the meadows in the centre of Edinburgh. Dozens of other teams played there so Hearts could not charge admission and spectators often interrupted games. In 1875 Hearts joined the Edinburgh Football Association and in this year their greatest rivals Hibernian were founded. |
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The Hearts team of 1875 |
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| In the 19th century many Irish
settlers had come to Scotland to escape the potato famine. The Irish people mainly lived
together in the same area on the south side of Edinburgh. Many of the young Irish men
started playing football with some of the local teams but when the local players
discovered they were Irish Catholics they were not to popular. At the time there was wide
spread sectarianism in Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole. Because of this the Catholic
Young men’s society which was attached to the local St. Patrick’s Church formed
their own team and named it Hibernian after the Latin name for Irishmen. At this time Hearts were one of the strongest teams in Edinburgh and in 1875 they first entered the Scottish cup. They drew two games with the 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers and because of the rules at the time both teams qualified for the next round. In the next round they lost to Drumpelier from Coatbridge. The following season after a spell of bad results Hearts disbanded for a short while, but then they amalgamated with another team called St. Andrews. They persuaded them to change the name to Heart of Midlothian and made their colours maroon and white. Hearts first ever trophy was won in 1878 , when they defeated Hibs 3-2 in the 4th replay of the final of the Edinburgh FA Cup. These 5 games caught the Edinburgh publics imagination and saw Hearts become the champions of Edinburgh. |
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Hearts with the Edinburgh FA Cup in 1878 |
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| In 1881 Hearts moved to a private field in
Gorgie that was on the western outskirts of the city. The extension of the Edinburgh
tramways to Gorgie made this possible. With their own ground Hearts could charge admission
and at their opening game against Hanover (which was won 8 – 0) admission was 21 p, Ladies were admitted free. In 1886 Hearts moved over the road to the site of the existing ground. Eventually grandstands and pavilions were built. In 1914 these were demolished and a new stand built at a cost of £12,000. To help pay for this striker Percy Dawson was sold to Blackburn for a world record fee of £2,500. In the 1880’s the standard of football in Edinburgh continued to improve but many players were lured to play professionally in England. In order to try and keep some players Hearts were forced to make illegal payments to some players although they were not the only team to do this. In a Scottish Cup tie against Dumfermline Hearts won 11-1 but Dumfermline protested to the SFA on grounds of professionalism. Hearts were found guilty and thrown out of the competition and banned by the SFA for a short while. In season 1886-87 Hearts played for the first and last time in the English FA Cup. They were drawn to play away against Darwen FC a professional Lancashire team. After taking an early lead Hearts eventually lost 7-1. At the time Darwen were one of the top three Lancashire teams along with Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn Olympic. |
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Many of Hearts best players headed
south to play for English professional teams. They were usually given a well paid job and
paid for playing football. One of the most famous Hearts players to go south was Nick
Ross. He was a stout full back who was also deadly coming forward. His tactics laid the
foundation of scientific soccer, particularly his use of the pass back to the goalkeeper.
Ross went south to join Preston North End who had just recently taken up football. Preston North End had tried various sports before taking up football. After beating a few local Preston teams they felt strong enough to take on Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn were far to strong for them however and beat them 16-0. The Preston chairman soon realised what made Blackburn and the other top teams so strong – Scottish players! He then decided that he would build his team around Scottish players. As most of the best players from Glasgow and the West had already been snapped up, he decided to concentrate on the top three Edinburgh clubs, Hearts, Hibernian and St. Bernard’s. |
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| Ross was his first and most important signing and he made him club captain. As captain he helped to pick the team and he was responsible for the teams tactics. Ross was joined at Preston by J. Ferguson and his brother Jimmy Ross from Hearts and along with Robertson and Drummond from St. Bernard’s, they helped to form the Preston Invincible’s who won the first English championship and the cup in 1888-89. Ross left Preston for a couple of seasons to play for Everton but returned to help them when they were in trouble. He was suffering from ill health however, and after leaving his sick bed to help Preston win a vital game he ended up in Hospital suffering from consumption. Preston sent him to Longridge in the hope that the fresh country air would help him recover, but tragically he died aged 34. | ||||
| While Hearts were having troubles losing
players in the 80’s, Hibs were going from strength to strength. As they were set up
by a Catholic organisation they had a rule that only practising Roman Catholics could play
for the club. This made them very popular in areas of Scotland where there was a large
Irish Catholic population and they would go to these areas to play charity games to raise
money for the poor immigrants. As a result of this these areas set up their own teams such
as Dundee Harp and Erin Rovers and sent their best players to go and play for Hibs. This
was not popular with the other Edinburgh teams who usually only played local players while
Hibs were getting players from all over Scotland. Hibs were not only the top team in
Edinburgh they were becoming the top team in Scotland and were the first team in Edinburgh
to win the Scottish Cup in 1886. Hearts got some satisfaction however by knocking them out
of the Cup 3-1 the following season. Hibs were however to be a victim of their own success. One of the most popular places for Hibs to visit for charity games, was the East End of Glasgow. A group of priests saw how successful Hibs were and decided to form their own club and name it Celtic. For their first ever game Celtic had to borrow players from other teams including Hearts, but most of the players came from Hibs. Unfortunately for Hibs nearly all these players then joined Celtic. Worse was to follow for Hibs, first their secretary ran off to Canada with the clubs funds, secondly the replacement secretary managed to lose lease of the clubs ground and thirdly he decided not to join the newly formed Scottish league. All the best Catholic players were now joining Celtic and Hibs were finding it difficult getting games against the top teams who were busy playing League games. As a result of all this Hibs folded and then reformed with a new constitution which allowed players of any religion to play for them. Hibs would never again be considered as Edinburgh’s top club. |
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The First Golden Era | |||
