The Perthshire Trail
(and north Stirlingshire)

As the map below shows, in terms of players Perthshire, in particular the rural parts of the county, has produced comparatively few with the exception of the Young brothers of Auchterarder, John and notably Robert, with his fifteen year contribution at Queen's Park. And the same is true of the parts of rural Stirlingshire that border it, again with one exception and this early on with Callander the birth-place of Rangers' founder, Peter McBeath. But the same cannot be said of Dunblane and of Perth itself, perhaps a comment on opportunity rather than necessarily talent with two 

However, when it comes to literally game-changing administrators there is not a county that is comparable and in that lies its major contribution to the British and global game, not just once but three times over, and to competitive sport in general. First there was Arthur, Lord Kinnaird. Whilst he was born in London an heir to a banking fortune and died there too he had his family seat in the hills that climb up from the Tay valley to the Sidlaws and that is where, in Inchture, by Kinnaird, he is laid to rest. But in his footballing lifetime, lierally since he died in harness, he had gained three unofficial caps for Scotland, one official cap, won the FA Cup Final five times, lost it four more times , was a Football Association committee member for fifty-five years, thirteen as Treasurer and thirty-three as President. The only problem was that it was the English FA. Then there was William McGregor, never a player, born in Braco turned Birmingham haberdasher, member of the English FA once more and in essence the founder of the Football League, the model for all competitive sporting leagues worldwide. And finally there was Robert Campbell, the son of a policeman, who was a player for and chairman of Perth's St. Johnstone F.C. for almost forty years, seeing it to both professionalism and First Division status. And in that same period he President of our Football Association, the SFA, for six years. As such he was Chair of the selectors that chose the Wembley Wizards team in 1928, got Scotland finally to play its first international outwith the Home-Nations and face and resolved the crisis over international selection of Scots players contracted outwith the Scottish League, effectively any player contracted outwith his and now her home-league. In other words he save international football when it was sorely threatened by the ckub game. 

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