Glasgow Academicals RFC

The Glasgow Academical Football Club is the third oldest rugby football club in Scotland. The club was also a founder member of the Scottish Football Union (the future SRU) in 1873. History Glasgow Hawks In 1997 the decision was made to combine the first XV's of Glasgow Academicals and close rivals Glasgow High Kelvinside (themselves a fairly new club having been formed when the struggling Glasgow High FP and Kelvinside Academicals clubs combined in 1982), something that was predicted would happen only after "hell freezes over". The combined team was named the Glasgow Hawks. The Hawks won the second division championship and the Scottish Cup in their first year and have since continued in the first division - winning the league in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and the Cup again in 2004 and 2007. Glenn Metcalfe together with Derek Stark and Gordon McIlwham became Scottish Internationals while Mike Beckham and Tommy Hayes played for the Cook Islands. Glasgow Academicals With the advent of the Hawks, the Glasgow Academicals lost many of their strong first XV but made the decision to continue as a league side for the following year - which under SRU rules meant that they had to rejoin the lowest league of Scottish rugby. In 1998 the club competed in Glasgow District division 3. The club raced back up through the leagues, being promoted as league champions five years in succession. In 2016, their 150th year, they won West Regional League Division One giving them promotion to Scottish National League Division Three for 2016/17, after only losing one league game all season. Of the 157 clubs in the National and Regional leagues in 2015–16, only three had a winning % record which bettered Accies. Success came on the 9 April 2016 with a 26–7 win over Allan Glens at the Bearyards. Days after winning the league, the 150th year of the club was celebrated in April 2016, with a 1st XV match against a team mainly principally from West of Scotland F.C. but including representatives from the other six clubs who, along with Accies and West, had founded the SRU in 1873. In recent years, the club has toured overseas to destinations including Zimbabwe (defeating leading province Matabeleland), United States (Carolina), Poland, in the 150th year Luxembourg, and most recently Budapest in 2017. In 2017 the club finished third. They did win 13 games in a row, including a 163–10 defeat of Livingston, followed up by 95–0 against Greenock Wanderers the following week. The final “points for” tally in the league was 930 from 22 games – the highest in the national leagues – with a points difference of 600. In April 2018, Accies secured promotion to National 2 with an 8-try win at Murrayfield Wanderers. Glasgow Academicals Sevens The club run the Glasgow Academicals Sevens. Their first Sevens tournament was in 1908 to raise funds to pay for their pavilion, but their Sevens was re-started in 1969 as an annual tournament. Honours Scottish Unofficial Championship Champions (14): 1871–72, 1872–73, 1873–74, 1875–76, 1876–77, 1882–83, 1903–04, 1904–05, 1912–13, 1921–22, 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1929–30 Scottish National League Division One Champions (2): 1983–84, 1985–86 Scottish National League Division Two Champions (4): 1979–80, 1995–96, 2003–04, 2022–23 Scottish National League Division Three Runners-Up: 2017-18 Glasgow District 3 Champions: 1998-99 Glasgow District 2 Champions: 1999-2000 Glasgow District 1 Champions: 2000-01 Scottish National League Division Five Champions: 2001-02 Scottish National League Division Four Champions: 2002-03 BT Shield Runners-up: 2003-04 West League Champions: 2015-16 Glasgow Academicals Sevens Champions: 1971, 1992 West of Scotland Sevens Champions: 2018, 2019, 2025 Lochaber Sevens Champions: 1993 Kelvinside Academicals Sevens Champions: 1976 Arran Sevens Champions: 2017 Hillhead HSFP Sevens Champions: 1969 Glasgow University Sevens Champions: 1941, 1962, 1964, 1969, 1982, 1999 Clarkston Sevens Champions: 1962, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1969 Bearsden Sevens Champions: 1977 Strathendrick Sevens Champions: 1992, 1993 Allan Glen's Sevens Champions: 1977, 1982, 1986 Ayr Sevens Champions: 1966, 1969, 1984 Greenock Sevens Champions: 1976 Hawick Sevens Champions (1): 1939 Gala Sevens Champions (1): 1939 Kilmarnock Sevens Champions: 1942 Helensburgh Sevens Champions: 2022 Dundee City Sevens Champions: 2022 SRU presidents 15 Glasgow Academicals have been President of the SRU: 1874–75 Albert Harvey 1878–79 George Raphael Fleming 1880–81 David Watson 1882–83 William Cross 1884–85 Malcolm Cross 1886–87 James S. Carrick 1903–04 Robert Greig 1911–12 William Andrew Walls 1924–25 Robert Campbell MacKenzie 1933–34 John MacGill 1953–54 Malcolm Allan 1956–57 Max Simmers 1963–64 Herbert Waddell 1969–70 George Crerar 1977–78 Frank Coutts International players Eighty-four players have played for Scotland, with five also playing tests for the British Lions. The team has also provided internationalists for New Zealand and Sweden. References Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6) External links Official website