Scotch Professors
Within the SFHG group there is deal of discussion of and, indeed, disagreement about the much-bandied term "Scotch Professor", whether he/they really existed at all and, if they did, what was their actual role and impact in early English, indeed, in British football.
The term seems to have come from a cartoon (See left) published in about 1882. For non-Scots the translation is:
Mrs. McKirdy (McHardy) "So, and how's your son, Johnny, getting on? Is he being more serious about work?".
Mrs. Thomson: Goodness, have you not heard about the great job he has managed to find. He's gone to England to be a Professor of football."
The first thing to bear in mind is that early football was a young man's game. The first clubs were often founded by teenagers. Often eighteen or nineteen year-olds were first-term players. And it is also important to note that the age of consent was then twenty-one so young men were often tied to home legally and financially, whether they liked it or not, until that age. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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