The Story So Far

4

The Birth of Hibernian Football Club

THE PLAYERS WOULD name the side Hibernian after the Roman name for Ireland, adopting the traditional Irish green as their colours. Regular training sessions were to take place the nearby East Meadows on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. In addition, the first club rules decreed that, as well as having to attend the general meetings at Buchanan's Temperance Hotel on the High Street on the first Monday of each month, failure to do so resulting in a fine of two pence, members were expected to provide, at their own expense, caps, a white Guernsey with a harp on the left breast and white trousers with green stripes. However, no evidence seems to exist that this strip was ever worn in a game, and it is generally accepted that the first jerseys were probably the now more familiar dark green and white hoops bearing HFC in large black Gothic letters on the chest and white pantaloons with a green stripe down each side.

Many of the early games took place on the East Meadows, a large tract of open land on the south side of the city. Although, it is likely that other games would have taken place beforehand. It was at the Meadows on Christmas Day 1875 that Hibernian would play their first ever recorded game against a side destined to become their greatest rivals, Heart of Midlothian, on a pitch believed to have been situated at the east end of the park. As would be expected, no sign of what would have been the site of the game remains. Today, tennis courts partly occupy the area; both the adjacent Archers Hall and the Boroughloch Brewery buildings however still survive, the latter now converted into private premises.

Before the game, the Hibs players were said to have changed in St Mary's School in nearby Lothian Street, Hearts in Anderson's Tavern in West Cross Causeway, before making their way to the Meadows carrying the goalposts. Despite their opponents having played with only eight men for the first 20 minutes or so, Hearts had still managed to record a slender 1-0 victory over the Irishmen. The game between the two recently formed sides however seems to have failed to capture the imagination of the Edinburgh public, the report in the Scotsman on the Monday morning allocating a mere three lines to the event.

On Saturday Hibernian and the Heart of Midlothian played in the East Meadows resulting in a win for Heart of Midlothian by one goal to nothing. Cavanaugh and Byrne played well for the Hibernians: Wylie and Laidlaw for the Mid-Lothian.

Since the early days both clubs have shared an at times turbulent but often successful history. Destined to become great rivals, they would soon become the dominant sides in the city and later among the best in Scotland, both having a defining part to play in the development of a game that from its humble beginnings has since spread throughout the world.

An attempt by Hibs to join the recently formed Edinburgh Football Association had initially been turned down, supposedly because of opposition from, amongst others, the staunchly Protestant 3rd Rifle Volunteers, the EFA now stating that they could not admit a club that was not already a member of the Scottish Football Association. However, on applying to the SFA they had also been refused admission on the grounds that the national association was for Scotsmen not Irishmen. Another attempt to join the Edinburgh Association had once again been turned down. After a petition signed by several of the more prominent players in the area, including some from Hearts, reason would eventually prevail and the club allowed to join both organisations. Acceptance however had come too late to take part in that seasons Scottish Cup competition as the first-round draw had already been made.

Now fully accepted members of the Edinburgh FA, Hibs first took part in the local Association Cup in October 1876, a knock-out tournament that had been inaugurated only the previous season and contested by teams from Edinburgh as the name would suggest but also various sides from East and West Lothian, the Borders and Fife. Losing 2-1 to the eventual cup winners Thistle in the opening round at the Meadows, the game, according to contemporary reports, ended in controversy. At that time there were no pitch markings, the dimensions of the playing area identified only by markers at each corner and it was not all that unusual for spectators to encroach onto the pitch, often making it difficult for the referee to confirm if a ball was in or out of play. With just a few minutes remaining, Thistle had been leading 2-1 when Hibs appeared to have scored an equalising goal. Claiming, in the days before goal nets, that a spectator had kicked a ball that had seemingly already crossed the goal line back into play, the players' furious appeals for the goal to stand was waved away by the referee. Although an official letter of complaint had been sent to the Edinburgh FA the appeal had been dismissed by the authorities insisting that the referee's decision must be upheld at all times regardless of circumstances.

Of the remaining nine games that season, all taking place on the Meadows, four would end in wins with one drawn, including two 1-0 victories over Hearts. However, a little-known tragedy was to strike the club on 4 November 1876. After a 2-0 defeat by Swifts in a friendly match at the East Meadows, the Hibs player Andrew Hughes along with some of his teammates and friends were making their way home when they came across a woman being assaulted by a male near Nicolson Square. Attempting to intervene on the woman's behalf Hughes had received a blow to the side of the head from a heavy stick requiring immediate treatment at the nearby Royal Infirmary where unfortunately he would die a few days later. The following week his attacker would be fined just 5/- (25p) at the Burgh Court with the option of three days' imprisonment, a surprisingly lenient sentence, although at the time of the trial Hughes would not yet have passed away and presumably the incident would have been treated as common assault. It would appear however that his attacker, who lived in the same common stair in the Cowgate as Hughes, had got away lightly and it's not known if he ever faced further action. According to a newspaper report at the time:

following a service at St Patricks Church that was attended by several hundred mourners, a large number from the Catholic Young Men's Society of which he was a member and also by members of his football team, Hughes was interred at the Grange Cemetery.

At the start of the following season, after 1-0 victory over Hanover in the Edinburgh Cup, Hibs would now come face to face with Hearts in the opening round of the Scottish Cup, their first ever meeting in the national competition. The first game ended goalless before finally overcoming their city rivals 2-1 in the replay in front of a 'big crowd'. Progressing into the next round after defeating Hanover, they were eventually to lose to 1-0 to Swifts. In those days, presumably because of the potential travelling difficulties, the early rounds of the competition had all been local, but in their first ever competitive game to take place outside the Edinburgh area, Hibs would make their way to Pollokshaws to play Thornliebank in the fourth round. Hibs' eventual 2-1 victory however would mean little. A later protest from the home side that the referee had disallowed a perfectly good goal was upheld, resulting in a replay, this time at Hibs' new ground at Mayfield in Edinburgh, had also ended all square. The rules at that time stipulated that in the event of a drawn replay then both sides would progress into the fifth round, when Hibs would eventually be defeated 3-1 away by Glasgow South Western.

With the game still in its infancy there had been relatively few public places to play and with several of the recently formed clubs now also using the Meadows, the area would soon become overcrowded making it imperative that the more ambitious sides acquire their own home grounds elsewhere. Just under a mile from the Meadows and a few hundred yards from the Old Toll on Mayfield Road lay the district of Powburn, where in 1869 a spacious field had been leased by a syndicate of enthusiasts from the Southern Athletics Society specifically for the then popular sport of pedestrianism or what is better known today as athletics. Named rather grandly 'The Royal Hippodrome' or the 'Newington Running Grounds', the venture had not proved a great success and after only a brief period would pass out of existence, probably not helped by its, at that time, inconvenient location just outside the city boundary. In 1874 the site had briefly been home to the 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers, who, probably influenced by the earlier historic game at Raimes Park, were said to have been the original pioneers of the association game in Edinburgh. In 1877 the volunteers had moved to a ground in the Stockbridge area of the city before eventually disbanding completely, with Hearts briefly taking over the lease of the Powburn ground. Today the houses at West Saville Terrace and McDowall Road partly occupy the site of what had once been the playing area.

Hibs themselves had also been looking to move and between 1877 and 1878, and again for short time the following year, they would play their home games at a ground at Mayfield. Situated just to the east of Craigmillar Park at the end of Crawfurd Road and East Suffolk Road, its location was close to the suburban railway station and tram terminus at Newington making it easily accessible for the fans.

After a 1-0 victory over Hanover in that season's...