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Home , Cathkin Park, Celtic Park, Celtic Park (1888–92), Glasgow Cup, Ibrox Park (1887–99), Old Firm

Season 1918-1919

St Mirren FC.

The season opened on 17 August with victories for Rangers, Celtic and Morton. These three clubs would dominate the final wartime season. By the end of September, Rangers had full points from their first seven games, with Celtic and Morton one point behind after these sides drew 1-1 in August. Rangers did not drop a point until the last game in October, when a 0-0 draw with Motherwell still kept them three points ahead of Celtic after ten games. By the turn of the year Rangers still led the table with 32 points from 18 games, closely followed by Morton and Celtic. Rangers won the Cup on 5 October against Celtic. In an ill-tempered match, both Peter Pursell and Jimmy McColl were sent off by the referee G W Hamilton.

After an intense year of fighting, the Germans having a final Spring Offensive and the Battle of the Marne, World War One came to an end in 1918, with the signing of the Armistice. The negotiations were carried out in Ferdinand Foch’s railway carriage headquarters at Compiegne. Kaiser Willhelm II abdicated on 7 November and three days later he fled to Holland, on the same day that the German Republic was founded. The fighting ceased the following day on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. The treaty of Versailles would officially end World War One on 28 June 1919. As the brave soldiers returned home, another horror was just beginning for them. Great Britain was in the grip of a terrible flu epidemic – later known as Spanish Flu – which could kill a victim in less than a day. Worldwide Spanish Flu was estimated to have killed between 50 and 100 million people. With World War One ending soon after the start of the 1918/19 season, it was too late to restart the competition that had been suspended since 1914. Instead the Scottish FA would organize a Victory Cup tournament, with the entrants being drawn from the Scottish and Western Leagues. To help the non-League sides, they would be able to give up a home draw for a £50 fee if they so wished. The trophy was won by St Mirren, who defeated Hearts in the final at on 26 April 1919. The Saints needed extra time to win, but they did so convincingly by 3-0, with goals coming from Sutherland (two) and Hodges. On the road to the final St Mirren had some good results, defeating Dumbarton (after a ), Clyde, Celtic and Hibernian.

On 4 January 1919 it was agreed at a meeting that the £1 per week wage cap would stay in place. The only change was that clubs could now pay an end of season bonus of up to £3 per week. The Scottish League decided against bringing back the Second Division for season 1919/20, instead opting to extend the first division to 22 clubs. With , Dundee and Raith Rovers being invited back in after years away. Albion Rovers were given the final place after a tie of ten votes each with Cowdenbeath. League Chairman Thomas Hart (St Mirren) voted in favour of the side. A rival Central League would soon crop up, mainly made up of clubs not invited to participate in the one tier of the Scottish League.

The Hibernian manager, Dan McMichael, was a victim of Spanish flu in 1919. He collapsed on the way home from a 1-1 draw with at Brockville on 1 February 1919, and died at home five days later. It was only discovered recently that Dan McMichael was buried in an unmarked grave behind the "Famous Five" stand. A funding campaign to erect a proper gravestone was mounted. McMichael was the last manager to lead Hibernian to the Scottish Cup, which he did in 1902 v Celtic. The match was played at , as was being built, and was unavailable after the first Ibrox Disaster in which 26 people lost their lives. The following season McMichael led Hibernian to the First Division Championship. He also led Hibernian to the Scottish Cup Final in 1914 - against Celtic again – but this time they were losing finalists.

There was an exciting finale to the season as Celtic went into the final round of games on 10 May one point ahead of Rangers. Celtic defeated United 2-0 in front of 10,000 at . Clyde had their match with Rangers switched to Celtic Park, and a crowd of 35,000 watched Rangers win 4-0, with David McLean hitting a hat trick. Celtic won the title after an impressive unbeaten run of 20 league matches between December and May. Now that the War was over, people were coming back to watch football in their droves, as was proved by the 17,000 crowd at Hampden Park on the same day as the championship deciders. The match in question was the Schools international between and England (which the Scots won by 5-0).

The top goalscorer in the Scottish League of season 1918/19 was David Prophen McLean, a man of many clubs, but playing with Rangers in this particular season.

One of the few men to have played for both sides of the "", McLean had an excellent scoring ratio as he only needed 24 appearances to score his 29 league goals. Born in Forfar, he started out with Forfar Athletic before joining Celtic in 1907. While a Celtic player he scored 19 times in 28 league matches. He soon left for Preston North End where he played 49 league games, scoring 25 goals. A spell at Sheffield Wednesday followed, and this was when McLean won his only Scotland cap, against England in 1912 (1-1). He left Sheffield Wednesday with an impressive 88 goals in 132 starts. By 1917/18 he was at , where he scored 31 league goals in just 28 league games. David McLean later had a spell with Dundee (114 appearances/43 goals) before moving back to play with Forfar Athletic, which is where he died on 23 December 1967.

A replay was needed to decide the for 1918/19 after St Anthony’s and Glencairn drew 1-1 at Hampden in front of 40,000. A goal by Gordon was enough to give Rutherlen Glencairn a 1-0 victory in the replay, which was also played at Hampden.

Several International representative matches were played in 1919. In February the English League won 3-1 at Birmingham, the first Inter-League match since 1914. In March a 50,000 crowd at Ibrox saw Scotland defeat Ireland 2-1 with two goals from Andy Wilson. At the return Inter-League match with the English League on 5 April, 70,000 spectators filled Ibrox as the Scottish League ran out 3-2 winners. April also saw Scotland draw 0-0 with Ireland at Windsor Park and a 2-2 draw with England at . A classic match was played at Hampden Park on 3rd May, when England narrowly won 4-3 in front of a massive 80,000 crowd. Proof that people were coming back to football in their droves after the end of hostilities. The season ended with the Glasgow Charity Cup final, which Rangers won 2-1 over Queen’s Park.

Referee Tom Robertson retired from the game at the end of the season after a long and illustrious career. As a young lad he played for Possil Bluebell, then with Northern, and later with Cowlairs, the team in the district where he resided. He was a Cowlairs player when they won the Exhibition Cup in 1888. He then joined Queen’s Park, and his association with the amateur club remained up until his death. He also helped St Bernard’s to win the 1895 Scottish Cup. He played at right-half in the International v England in 1890. Tom Robertson took charge of dozens of Scottish League, Scottish Cup, International matches, and is said to have refereed English League matches. After his refereeing career came to an end, he became the Chairman of the Scottish League in 1919, succeeding Thomas Hart. He died of heart failure in January 1924.