Third Lanark are often named by wistful journalists as one of the great indicators of football’s decline. Since their inception in 1872 until their dissolution in 1967, Third Lanark were almost as synonymous with football in Glasgow as their Old Firm neighbours.
The club was founded by the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, an army regiment which was part of the Volunteer Force. Its original (and ever-imaginative) name 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers Football Club was changed to Third Lanark A.C. in 1903 when the club severed its military links and was incorporated as a company in the same year, funded mostly by middle-class fans.
Their home was the site of the second Hampden Stadium and had previously been leased by Queens Park from 1884 until 1903. Third Lanark moved in in 1903, deciding to rename the stadium New Cathkin Park.
Although the stadium would later revert simply to Cathkin Park, it is actually the second home of the Thirds with them previously having played at a site closer to Cathcart Road.
Cathkin Park is now a municipal park but many question the reason for the name and it all harks back to the roots of the club as the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifles. It is thought that the regiment had its firing range up on the Cathkin Braes and the name derives from this.
The Warriors, The Redcoats or The Hi-Hi (a nickname which derives from a defender kicking a ball so high that people began chanting it) remained at Cathkin Park until they were put of business in 1967.
The story of Third Lanark’s liquidation through board corruption and in-fighting which often resulted in players getting paid late and in coins instead of notes is one for another time but Cathkin Park’s fate was all-but sealed.
The football landscape of 1967 was different to the early days of association football in Scotland. There were no newly formed clubs which would swoop in and take Cathkin Park off the hands of its board and most football fans in the city had already sworn their allegiances.
During the 1967 close season, in a move that will be familiar to many modern football fans, Cathkin Park was sold off for development and houses were planned to be built over the site. However, Glasgow City Council refused planning permission and the site was left to rot.
Over time the assets of the stadium were removed and it was left as what you see today, a football pitch surrounded by the ethereal remains of a football heritage which is still lamented today. You can still visit the tomb of Third Lanark AC today but if you can’t then this atmospheric video from Abandoned Scotland might give you an idea of what you’re missing.
The collapse of three-time champions Third Lanark won’t be forgotten by the chroniclers of Scottish football and their home which once held 50,000, nestled in a residential area just a stone’s throw away from Hampden will remain a monument to what can go wrong.
This post can also be found at Old Glasgow, a blog all about mind blowing things that don’t exist any more.
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