Glasgow Western pennant 1982
The 2023/2024 hockey season marks the 125th anniversary of the oldest existing club in Scotland! Western HC in Glasgow, today now known as the Western Wildcats, have a debated starting date from between 1898 and 1899.
There is notable mention of the club’s alleged origin date in an anniversary segment of Hockey World magazine from October 1923. In this article, the club is mentioned to have formed in 1899, which differs from the 1898 formation stated on the Western Wildcats website. This confusion owes to the first club constitution only being officially recognised at the end of the 1898/1899 hockey season during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of 25 March 1899. Yet the AGM must have followed organised club activity on the hockey field that season.
Western HC was originally founded as a men’s and ladies’ club. However, following difficulties with purchasing a ground in 1926 the men and women sought separate accommodation. This ultimately led to them splitting into two separate clubs. Western’s erstwhile women’s section, Western Ladies (founded 1930), went on to become trailblazers for Scottish hockey, regularly competing and medalling in European competition and dominating the Scottish domestic game during the 1980s and 1990s.
In 2002, Western men decided to create a new women’s section, but a highly successful women’s club of the same name already existed! The whole club was subsequently re-branded to Western Wildcats, abandoning the heritage legacy of its name but becoming a dual-gender club once again.
A Glasgow Western HC pin badge from The Hockey Museum’s collection.
It is also worth mentioning during their anniversary season that the 1923 article paid great respects to Western HC’s ladies’ section who continued to keep the club going during the First World War (1914-1918). Without these efforts there would not be a club to celebrate, for which “there is owing a deep debt of gratitude”.
Despite their debated official start date, the 2023/24 hockey season marks an impressive 125th anniversary for the Western Wildcats HC which should be recognised and celebrated! You could make the case for it being Western Ladies’ 125th anniversary too!
