Rangers Football Club, formed in 1872, is an association football club in Scotland. Rangers was the first club in the world to win more than fifty national league titles, although their record has since been broken by their Glasgow rivals Celtic.

This article covers the club's beginnings, while also documenting its European Cup Winners Cup success, the 1902 and 1971 Ibrox disasters, the nine-in-a-row league championship win, its financial insolvency of the early 2010s and subsequent rise through the lower leagues, and its first top-flight championship since 2011.

Formation and early years (1872–1899)

In March 1872, Rangers Football Club was formed by brothers Moses McNeil and Peter McNeil, Peter Campbell, William McBeath and David Hill, a group of rowing enthusiasts.

The team's first game was a goalless draw against Callander on Glasgow Green's Flesher's Haugh in May 1872. Moses McNeil suggested the name Rangers after seeing the name "Swindon Rangers" in a book about English rugby.We belong to Glasgow ... sort of, Swindon Advertiser, 3 September 2013 Rangers played two matches in their birth year; their second, with the team wearing light-blue shirts, was a comprehensive 11–0 win over a team named Clyde (not the present Clyde).

For the 1875–76 season, Rangers moved to Burnbank Park.

Rangers began to grow into a more formal football club, and in 1876 their first player was called up to play international football. Moses McNeil made his Scotland debut against Wales. In 1883, the Glasgow Football Association was formed, with Rangers one of its six founder members.Chapter XXV—Glasgow Association, History of the Queen's Park Football Club 1867 - 1917 (via Electric Scotland)

In 1888, the Old Firm fixture was born when Rangers met Celtic for the first time in a friendly match. Celtic won 5–2.

The 1890–91 season saw the inception of the Scottish Football League, and Rangers were one of its ten original members. By this time, Rangers were playing at the first Ibrox Stadium. Their first-ever league match took place on 16 August 1890 and resulted in a 5–2 victory over Edinburgh club Heart of Midlothian. After finishing joint-top with Dumbarton, a play-off was held at Cathkin Park to decide the championship. The match finished 2–2, and the title was shared for the only time in its history. It was the first of Rangers' world-record 55 championships.

Rangers lost their first two Scottish Cup Finals, to Vale of Leven in 1877 and 1879, but lifted the trophy in 1894 for the first time after a 3–1 win over Celtic. Rangers even came close to winning the English FA Cup in 1887, when they lost to Aston Villa in the semi-final.

Rangers enjoyed further Scottish Cup wins in 1897 and 1898.

The Wilton years (1899–1920)

Rangers formally became a limited company on 27 May 1899, and their match secretary William Wilton was appointed as the club's first manager. Today's Ibrox Stadium (known then as Ibrox Park) was constructed the same year. The club also appointed its first board of directors under the chairmanship of James Henderson.

Rangers were in the ascendancy at the turn of the century, winning the championship seven times between 1900 and 1918 (including four in a row). The 1898–99 season saw the Gers win all eighteen league games to establish a perfect record. This feat has yet to be repeated by the club, although the team did go through the 2013–14 and 2020–21 seasons unbeaten.

Between 1902 and 1910, Celtic became the dominant force, and though Rangers had the chance to foil a third league and cup double in 1909, the Scottish FA withheld the cup due to a pitch invasion by supporters. Both clubs were ordered to compensate hosts Queen's Park for the damage caused by the fans.

Having lost the title in 1919, Rangers responded in 1920 with one of the best seasons in their history as Wilton and his right-hand man Bill Struth retained the title, with the club scoring 106 goals in 42 league games.

Wilton died in a boating accident in May 1920, and Bill Struth was appointed manager.

Struth's era (1920–1954)

The key statistic of the 1930s was three consecutive Scottish Cup wins between 1934 and 1936. Rangers then lost in the first round of the 1937 competition to Queen of the South. This was the first Rangers game ever to be captured on film.

The post-war seasons saw Rangers dominate, but not before a boardroom coup in the summer of 1947. The board of Rangers had previously been an amateur body made up of former players, but when chairman James Bowie suggested a 71-year-old Struth retire in order to allow a younger man to take charge, a revolution occurred. Bowie was forced out the chair and was said never to have set foot in Ibrox ever again, such was his disdain for the circumstances of his departure.

Struth went on to steer Rangers to eighteen league championships, ten Scottish Cups and two League Cups in his 34-year tenure as manager. He was also the first manager in the history of Scottish football to win the domestic treble, in season 1948–49. The success was based on the so-called Iron Curtain defence, which remained virtually unchanged from 1946 to 1953.Rangers History #5: Blue Steel , Rangers FC, 1 January 2016

Under Struth's reign, Rangers managed to set a new record of becoming the first club in Britain and second club in Europe (after MTK Budapest) to win nine consecutive league championships (from the 1938–39 to 1946–47 seasons), although the middle seven were wartime competitions considered to be unofficial.

After Bill Struth collected two more domestic doubles, in 1950 and 1953, Scot Symon was appointed as Rangers' third manager on 15 June 1954.

Under Symon (1954–1967)

Symon continued Struth's success by winning six league championships, five Scottish Cups and four League Cups. He also became the second manager to win the domestic treble, in season 1963–64. Another purple patch began at the end of the 1950s: from 1957 until 1965, Rangers achieved four league titles, plus an equal number of wins in both the League and Scottish Cups. Jim Baxter was a notable Rangers player during this period.

Baxter departed for England in 1965, but the void he left was filled by John Greig, and although Rangers finished the decade in the shadow of their European Cup-winning neighbours, the foundations were being laid for future success.

In the 1956–57 season, Symon took Rangers into the European Cup for the first time, but it ended quickly when they were knocked out by Nice. The following season saw Rangers suffer their worst-ever defeat by their arch rivals, with Celtic beating them 7–1 in the 1957 League Cup Final.

Rangers reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1960, losing to Eintracht Frankfurt by a record aggregate for a Scottish team of 12–4. In 1961, Rangers became the first British team to reach a European final when they contested the Cup Winners' Cup Final against Fiorentina. They lost 4–1 on aggregate. Rangers reached the final again in 1967, losing 1–0 after extra time to Bayern Munich.

Following the death of incumbent chairman John Wilson in 1963, Rangers appointed John Lawrence as his successor. Lawrence had been on the board of Rangers since the mid-1950s and remained in charge for a decade before he resigned to become honorary president. During his tenure as chairman, Lawrence oversaw two of the most pivotal events in the club's history, namely the 1971 Ibrox disaster and the 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final. His legacy continued in the shape of his grandson Lawrence Marlborough, who inherited his shareholding and was appointed vice-chairman in 1979. Marlborough went on to revitalise the fortunes of the club in the 1980s, before selling his stake in the club's parent company to David Murray in 1988.

Symon paid the penalty of Celtic's comparative success in Scotland and Europe in October 1967, giving way to his former assistant Davie White after rejecting a move to make him general manager with White in charge of team affairs.

White takes charge (1967–1969)

34-year-old White was installed as Rangers' fourth manager on 1 November 1967. He had initially come to Rangers as assistant to manager Symon as part of a grooming process, giving him time to learn the ropes and take over when he was ready; however, White was on his own and in charge after five months at the club.

When White took up the reins at Rangers, the team had failed to win the league championship in three seasons, the longest title drought in fifty years. White won all but one of his first twenty league matches in charge, amassing 39 point out of a possible 40. The only blemish was a 2–2 draw at Celtic Park on 2 January 1968.

The Scottish Cup gave White his first defeat as Rangers manager. A third-round replay, against Hearts on 13 March 1968, looked to be heading for extra time when, in the 87th minute, Donald Ford struck the winner for the Edinburgh club. Rangers were out the cup, White's only loss in his first thirty domestic games in charge. A couple of draws in April, and White's first league defeat in the final minute of the final game of the season, 3–2 at home to Aberdeen, cost Rangers the title by two points. Despite accumulating the highest percentage of points won by any Rangers side since Bill Struth's first season, and collecting 61 points, Rangers were beaten to the title by Celtic by two points.

In the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup campaign that season, Rangers reached the quarter-finals, meeting Leeds United in March 1968. After a goalless draw at Ibrox, two goals in six minutes at Elland Road in the second leg were enough to see Leeds progress 2–0 aggregate. The Yorkshire club went on to win the competition.

The 1968–69 season was White's only full season in charge at the club. He made two major signings at the start of the season. The first was when he broke the Scottish transfer record and outbid the English Champions Everton to buy Colin Stein from Hibernian for £100,000. Secondly, he paid St Johnstone £50,000 for Alex MacDonald. The league campaign until the end of November was inconsistent, four draws and three defeats from thirteen matches, although the side did win the first Old Firm match 4–2 at Celtic Park. Rangers went on a run from December until April in which they lost only once in all competitions, 3–2 away to Airdrieonians in the league.

In the second half of March, Rangers beat Clyde 6–0 at Ibrox in the league, beat Athletic Bilbao 4–1 at home in the Fairs Cup, and were 6–1 victors against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final. Stein's disciplinary record caught up with him, and he was suspended from the end of March until the end of the season. Without his goals, the team dropped six points from the final six league games and conceded the title to Celtic by five points.

The route to the 1969 Scottish Cup Final saw Rangers dispose of Hibernian, Hearts and Airdrieonians, before meeting Aberdeen in the semi-final. In the final, with Stein suspended, White opted to play Alex Ferguson rather than Sandy Jardine, purely because of the aerial threat of Billy McNeill at corners. Ferguson was blamed for a goal that Rangers conceded two minutes into the match in which he was designated to mark goalscorer McNeill. Two mistakes from Örjan Persson and Norrie Martin, minutes before the interval, were both seized upon by the 20-year-old George Connolly, resulting in two goals to give Celtic a 3–0 lead at half-time. Rangers lost the game 4–0, and Ferguson was subsequently forced to play for the club's junior side.

The Fairs Cup proved fertile once again: Rangers went all the way to the semi-finals, defeating FK Vojvodina (2–1 on aggregate), Dundalk (9–1 on aggregate), DWS Amsterdam (4–1 on aggregate), Bilbao (4–3 on aggregate), before losing 2–0 on aggregate to eventual winners Newcastle United.