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 in 1873.
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History

Glasgow Hawks

In 1997 the decision was made to combine the first XV's of Glasgow Academicals and close rivals Glasgow High Kelvinside, 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, United States, 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 β€œpoints 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 : 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 : 1983–84, 1985–86
  • Scottish National League Division Two
  • *Champions : 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 : 1939
  • Gala Sevens
  • * Champions : 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:

International players

Eighty-four players have played for, with five also playing tests for the. The team has also provided internationalists for and.
All six of these players played in the first ever rugby international -
on 27 March 1871 - when Scotland beat England by 1 goal to nil.