The Moonlighter

Tickets still available for this event.

Adults : £25 Children (under 16) and Senior Citizens £18. Please reserve your seats here. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/book-online For further information please call 0790 2855536.

Would all who are booked on Sunday's Tour please note that there will be a Founders Trail welcome desk available within the Ibrox Megastore from 11.15am prior to our 12pm departure directly across from the Megastore This will give us an opportunity to greet you, check you from our loading chart and distribute our travel packs. Parking is available throughout the day around Ibrox Stadium. If you have any questions before the tour please don't hesitate in contacting us on 0790 2855536.

Because of the cries and shouts of our lads late into the night it was said that the Kinning Park residents initially thought that the ground was haunted.

Rangers first Trophy win. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/the-rangers-first-trophy

During the course of our research we recently located the final resting place in Craigton Cemetery Glasgow of Archie Steel. Archie Steel joined Rangers in 1876 and was a member of the first Rangers team to win a Trophy, the Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup in 1879. That Trophy is today on display within the Football Museum at Hampden. Archie played for the Club for 6 seasons. While we were at Kinning Park Archie was one of ‘’ The Moonlighters’’ . This was a name given to the Rangers players by the locals as our lads often trained late into the night honing their skills. Using the pen name Old International he wrote a wonderful book 25 Years of Football which was published in 1891. He died on 17th April 1928, three days after the Rangers ended a 25 year wait for the Scottish Cup after beating Celtic 4-0. It will be an honour to restore the final resting place of Archibald Barnet Steel. If you’d like to donate to the Restoration of Rangers Graves Project please use the link here on our website. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/the-restoration-of-rangers-graves

Still time to book your seat.

Still time to book your place on next Sunday's Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/book-online For further information please call 0790 2855536.

These are our remaining Tour dates and available seats for 2017. Sunday 24th September – 7 Seats. Saturday 7th October - Sold Out Sunday 22nd October Sold Out Sunday 5th November 24 Seats Sunday 19th November 20 Seats. Adults £25 Children (under 16) and Senior Citizens £18 Group discounts are available upon request. Reserve your seat now by clicking here http://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/book-online For further information phone: 0790 2855536.

We still have seven seats available for our next Founders Trail and Ibrox Stadium Tour.

With winter fast approaching get yourself wrapped up in one of our trendy popular scarves and in turn support the Founders Trail. They are only £12.00 (+ £3.00 P&P) and can be purchased directly here on our website https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/shop

A number of seats have become available for our next Founders Trail on Sunday 24th September. Adults : £25 Children (under 16) and Senior Citizens £18. Please reserve your seats here. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/book-online For further information please call 0790 2855536.

Today at 12pm. If in the area give us a call on 0790 2855536.

The Restoration of Rangers Graves Project Tour of Craigon Cemetery Tomorrow at 12pm. https://rangers.co.uk/news/club/matchday-cemetery-tour/ …

Yesterday we highlighted the historical link with the Viceroy Bar at 22 Paisley Road West and Rangers Legend Tom Vallance’s Club Restaurant. Here’s a gem of a story of an ‘’Urchin’’ who raced from Hampden to Tom’s restaurant to tell those gathered outside some wonderful news. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/single-post/2017/09/06/%E2%80%9CStrike-me-deid-if-it%E2%80%99s-no-true%E2%80%9D

That stained glass window is a gem. The door here on the lane was the entrance to The Club Restaurant.

Rangers Welcome The Family Of George Gillespie. https://rangers.co.uk/news/club/gers-welcome-gillespies-family/

Tom Vallance was Rangers Captain, Player and President. He had a 60 year association with his Club that he’d helped form and nurture and was awarded life membership. Tom was a guest of the Club at a match at Ibrox Stadium in 1933 when we faced Sporting Club of Vienna and also at the New Year’s Day game against Celtic. The lad who was present at Fleshers Haugh was now attending Ibrox where his Club were now playing in front of huge attendances. Tom was a very successful business man and in 1890 opened the Club Restaurant at 22 Paisley Road West which today is The Viceroy Bar, a popular pre and after match venue for us Rangers supporters. Tom’s Club Restaurant business was so successful that he was to expand into the building across the lane. This sketch of the Dining Room was done by Tom’s own hand. Today it’s wonderful to see that Peter ,the current owner of The Viceroy Bar, has paid tribute to Tom Vallance by adding this sign above the main entrance. The Viceroy has a fantastic link with the Rangers early years and is well worth a visit.

The owner said he found it lying in the street, he doesn't know how it got there.

The owner has. He's hoping to find out who this originally belonged to.

Thanks to those who are taking the cemetery Tour with us on Saturday If you'd like to join us please send an email to thefounderstrail@gmail.com or call 0790 2855536.

A fellow supporter has asked us to try and get some more information on this historical gem that was found 8 years ago in a street in the east end of Glasgow. It’s from the Scotland Tour of Canada in 1927. Among the names listed are our own, Sandy Archibald Andy Cunningham Thomas Hamilton Thomas Craig James Simpson. If you have any information on this please send an email to thefounderstrail@gmail.com

Would all who are booked on tomorrow's Tour please note that there will be a Founders Trail welcome desk available within the Ibrox Megastore from 11.15am prior to our 12pm departure directly across from the Megastore This will give us an opportunity to greet you, check you from our loading chart and distribute our travel packs. Parking is available throughout the day around Ibrox Stadium. If you have any questions before the tour please don't hesitate in contacting us on 0790 2855536.

On the 1st September 1928 our own Tom Vallance and members of the Vale of Leven team whom he’d faced back in 1877 met for one of their regular reunions at the Rowerdennan Hotel. Incredibly this event was caught on camera which my colleague Gordon managed to locate three years ago. The series of games that was the 1877 Scottish Cup Final not only created a fierce rivalry between Rangers and Vale of Leven it also cemented great friendships that would last for over 60 years. As late as the 1930’s the surviving team members including our own Tom Vallance would often take a sail up Loch Lomond from Balloch and stop off for lunch and a few drinks at a Hotel. On the journey back down the Loch the boats engines would be stalled opposite Tarbet and speeches were made, on one occasion on Saturday 1st September 1928 after visiting the Rowerdennan Hotel 72 year old Tom Vallance had this to say. ‘’The decade that I spent playing with the Rangers were the best years of my life, I mentioned this to my wife the other day and she commented that I should still be playing. I wasn’t sure if that was sarcasm or not but with this in mind I went to the manager of Rangers and asked if he could find me a place in his team. There was laughter as Vallance admitted Bill Struth had asked him for a fortnight to consider his request and that several months on he was still waiting on his reply’’. Incredibly this very event at Rowerdennan was captured on a home movie. After extensive research Gordon, managed get his hands on a copy and this has since been shown via a link on our own and the Rangers Official Club websites. This is moving images of Tom Vallance who was present at Fleshers Haugh. The Rowerdennan Reunion. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/single-post/2017/08/28/The-Rowerdennan-Reunion The home movie. https://www.thefounderstrail.co.uk/single-post/2017/08/28/Home-Movie-of-Gallant-Pioneer-Tom-Vallance