Andrew Watson (top centre) with
members of the Scottish team that played against England at the Hampden
Park on the 11 March 1882. Scotland played in blue and white hoops.
- The Glasgow Story
The international
football match between England and Scotland, under Association rules,
was played at Glasgow on Saturday before 15,000 spectators. Both
countries were well represented, but the Scotchmen were the favourites.
A stiff breeze prevailed during the progress of the game, but even with
this advantage in their favour the Scotchmen did not make much of it,
half-time being called with the score at - Scotland, two goals; England,
one. The second half, however, proved disastrous to the Englishmen, who
seemed to have shot their bolt in defending their goal in the first
half, because they did not play so well and could not retain the ball
when they did get possession. The consequence was that a third goal was
soon added, and in a short time a fourth fell to the Scotchmen, who,
hemming in their opponents, surrounded their goal continually. Five
minutes before the call of time a fifth goal fell to Scotland, and the
match was brought to a close before the Englishmen could increase their
score of one goal. -
The Times - Monday
13th
March, 1882
There can be
little doubt, if the contest had been played under Scottish rules, it
certainly would have been a much prettier game to look at... -
North British Daily Mail
- Monday 13th
March, 1882
Andrew
Watson was born in May 1857, in Demerara, British Guiana and died in
Sydney, Australia, date unknown, was the world's first mixed race
International football player, capped three times for Scotland between
1881 and 1882 and considered one of the top ten most important players
of the 19th century.
He was the son of a wealthy Scottish sugar
planter Peter Miller and a local girl called Rose Watson, making him a
British citizen of mixed race. He was educated at King's College School,
where records show he excelled at sports including football. He later
studied philosophy, mathematics and engineering at University of Glasgow
when he was 19, where his natural love of football blossomed. He played
in the side back position, on either the right or the left flank.
After first playing for Maxwell F.C., in 1876
he signed for local side Parkgrove F.C. where he was additionally their
match secretary, making him the first mixed race administrator in
football. On April 14th 1880, he was selected to represent Glasgow
against Sheffield - Glasgow won 1-0 at Bramall Lane. After
marrying in Glasgow, he soon signed for Queen's Park F.C. – then
Britain's biggest football team – and later became their secretary.
He led the team to several Scottish Cup wins, thus becoming the first
mixed race player to win a major competition. Soon Watson won
three international caps for Scotland.
In 1882, he was the first mixed race player to
play in the FA Cup when he turned out for Swifts F.C.. In 1884 he was
the first foreign player to be invited to join the most exclusive of
football teams, a team that allowed only 50 members of high elite to
join – Corinthians F.C. – created to challenge the supremacy of Queen's
Park and the Scottish national side. This included an 8 - 1 victory
against Blackburn Rovers, who were at that time the English Cup holders.
Watson's entry in the Scottish Football
Association Annual of 1880-81 reads as follows:
- "Watson, Andrew: One of the very best backs
we have; since joining Queen's Park has made rapid strides to the
front as a player; has great speed and tackles splendidly; powerful
and sure kick; well worthy of a place in any representative team."
There is almost no record of his later life,
though it is known that Watson later emigrated to
Australia, as he died in
Sydney and is buried there.
In 1926 the sportswriter J.A.H. Catton, editor
of the Athletic News, named Andrew Watson as left back in his
all-time Scotland team – a remarkable endorsement of the talent of a
footballer who had played at such an early date, from a man who had
watched almost every England-Scotland international over the preceding
50 years.
Scotland -
William Harrower
(15), George Ker (43, 70), Robert McPherson (46),
John Kay (85); 
Scotland
Team
England
Team