Moreover, the quintet was soon to be added by a sixth with the arrival of younger brother Moses, with which the ingredients were in place for the formation in 1872 of a football club. Peter and Moses were two of the four founders. They were joined by Peter McBeath, who lived across the landing from another elder brother, and Peter Campbell, from Garelochhead itself and an exact contemporary of the two McNeils. Simply put they were sixteen and seventeen year-old pals, who, when walking through Kelvingrove Park near where they lived, came up with an idea that fate gave wings.

Peter McNeil took part in the first Rangers match, against Callander in May 1872. He seems then to have played until 1876, captaining the side at times. But when his First Team boots were hung up he continued to be an integral, indeed underestimated part of the club off-field. He was honorary Secretary from 1876 to 1883, served as Treasurer to the SFA from 1879 to 1883 and back at the club was Vice-President from 1886-1888. By then, indeed by 1879, he had gone into business as a "Glover and Hosier", essentially a men's outfitters, specialising in sportswear, with his brother Henry with premises in Glasgow's centre. And in 1885 he married Jeanie Fraser, finally moving out of what was with his sister and William still the McNeil family home in Glasgow, also shared in 1881 with James Campbell, Peter Campbell's elder brother.

Peter and Jeanie McNeil were to have two children, a boy and a girl and remained living close to the rest of the family in Kelvin. But at some point the relationship with brother Harry changed. The latter lost his first wife in 1889 and rapidly remarried. The McNeil parents both died in 1890. Harry himself relocated firstly to Rutherglen and then Bangor in Northern Ireland to run an hotel there. The siblings' business partnership clearly broke up never to be resumed. Harry's first wife died in 1895, he returned to Scotland but to Rutherglen once more.