This is a blog about four men, footballer Gil Heron (1922-2008), his son the musician Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011), publisher Jamie Byng (1969-) and TV executive and football pundit Stuart Cosgrove (1952-). These men’s lives and the points where they crossed over tells us something about Scotland and its relationship with African-American culture over the last […]
Tag: Football
‘He’s done it! Oh, a great goal! Oh, superb!’*
If ever a moment defined the joy and frustration of supporting Scottish international football it was probably Archie Gemmill’s World Cup goal against the Netherlands. “That” goal, in the sixty-eighth minute of their final Group 4 match played in Mendoza, Argentina, on 11 June 1978. By then, after all the hype and euphoria about being […]
Argentina here we come!
From the moment Kenny Dalglish’s head met Martin Buchan’s cross to score the second in Scotland’s last World Cup qualifier at Anfield in October 1977 there was fervent optimism that the national team was going to do something special in the coming World Cup in Argentina. Unremarkable results in the British Home Championship did […]
Tracing your family history through football
Did your grandfather referee the Junior Cup final? Did your father play inside left for Third Lanark? If so you may just be able to further your family history research using the newspaper resources that we offer at the National Library of Scotland. The National Library of Scotland has a large collection of microfilms, a […]
Scotland’s football hit parade
“A football compendium” edited by Peter J. Seddon and published by the British Library in 1999 is one of the great football reference works and is available for consultation in our Reading Room. Over nearly 900 pages it lists all books or magazines published about football in the UK and Ireland up to the […]
Bobby Moore’s 1966 autobiography was written by a Scotsman
As it is the 50th anniversary of England winning the World Cup in 1966 we thought we would highlight a Scottish literary connection to England’s triumph. England Captain Bobby Moore’s autobiography “My soccer story” was ghost written by a Scotsman who would go onto to become a Booker Prize shortlisted author and be involved in […]
Fanzines here, fanzines there!
While the National Library of Scotland has the privilege to collect material published in the UK free of charge, knowing of a publication’s existence is sometimes problematic. When it comes to collecting almost ephemeral material such as Scottish football fanzines the task becomes a major challenge. In spite of this obstacle the Library has acquired […]
Celtic Opus
(Photo credit: The Official Celtic Opus. Images above show the green leather cover of the book and the clamshell case it is housed in) This giant volume (838 pages edged in silver leaf measuring 52cm x 52cm) tells the inside story of Celtic FC from its formation in 1888, via Jock Stein’s heroes of 1967, […]
African soccerscapes: how a continent changes the world’s game
(Photo credit: Hurst & Co.) (Image above shows cover image of the book which is the title, African soundscapes: how a continent changed the world’s game, and images of stamps representing African soccer players) As evidenced by this years World Cup, Africa has a passion for soccerball. Soccer (or football) is the most popular sport […]
New at NLS : Football in verse
A rare 1923 publication has just arrived here at NLS, Football in verse containing over 90 poems by J. Aitken Brown, mostly about Edinburgh’s favourite teams Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian.