‘Ludere Causa Ludendi’ - to play for the sake of playing - has been the motto of Queen’s Park for nearly 150 years.
The Glasgow club have made headlines in recent times due to their production line of talented young players and Gus MacPherson’s side also moved to the top of League 2 on Saturday.
Here are 10 random facts about the Spiders:
1 The club was formed on July 9, 1867, with the words: "Tonight at half past eight o'clock a number of gentlemen met at No 3 Eglinton Terrace for the purpose of forming a football club." The club was formed as an amateur club and remains so to this day, with players only receiving expenses for their travelling costs to training and games.
2 Queen’s Park supplied all the players for Scotland’s first ever game against England in 1872.
3 Queen’s Park are the only Scottish club to have played in the final of the FA Cup in England. They did so in 1884, losing 2-1 to Blackburn Rovers and again in 1885, when they lost 2-0 to the same team.
4 Queen’s Park are third in the list of all-time Scottish Cup winners, with 10 successes from 12 finals, but their last win was in 1893 and their last final was in 1900.
5 Queen’s Park are the owners of Hampden Park, which is the third ground the club has used with that name. Their first home was at Queen’s Park Recreational Ground from 1867 before they moved to their first Hampden in 1873, with a switch to the second Hampden (which eventually became Third Lanark’s Cathkin Park) in 1884. The present site has been their home since 1903.
6 Former Queen’s Park player Robert Smyth McColl played for Scotland 13 times, and scored 13 goals, but is better known for lending his name to the newsagent chain RS McColl, which he set up in 1901 with his brother Tom.
7 Queen’s Park were not founder members of the Scottish Football League as they were opposed to the professional nature of the organisation. They relented and joined in 1900, a decade after it was formed.
8 A famous former Spider is Sir Alex Ferguson, who made his debut in November 1958 aged 16 in an away match at Stranraer and scored in a 2-1 defeat.
9 Ross Caven is Mr Queen’s Park, having played in 592 games for the club, during a 20-year spell that started in 1982, and scored over 100 goals. After retiring, Caven joined the club’s Committee and recently had a spell as Club President.
10 The new youth and community building at Lesser Hampden is named the JB McAlpine Pavilion. McAlpine played for Queen's Park from 1919 until 1933, making a total of 547 appearances and scoring 192 goals. He then returned to serve as a Committee member, taking on the role of Club President from 1953 to 1955.
Craig Stewart
