The Cup won by Rangers FC sits at Celtic Park and merits a Leigh Griffiths response

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The Celtic Star

·26 de março de 2025

The Cup won by Rangers FC sits at Celtic Park and merits a Leigh Griffiths response

‘Can we have our cup back?’…’Er no, it’s staying where it belongs, in Paradise’ or perhaps use the words of Leigh Griffiths…

Glasgow Exhibition Trophy, 1901/02 – check out the engraving at the bottom of this cup which is on display at Celtic Park in our trophy cabinet in the Celtic Boardroom.

Celtic won the Glasgow Exhibition Trophy in 1902

There are many illustrious honours sitting in the trophy cabinet at Celtic Park such as the Empire Exhibition Trophy (1938), the Coronation Cup (1953), and of course the European Cup won in Lisbon in 1967, but some go rather unnoticed such as the Glasgow Exhibition Trophy which was won in 1902.

Vídeos OneFootball

The competition which was held as part of the Glasgow international trade fair in 1901 was actually won by Rangers FC that very year during the months of August and early September after they defeated Celtic by three goals to one in the final in front of 15,000 spectators at the exhibition stadium university of Glasgow.

The following year would see an unfortunate tragedy strike at Ibrox in the form of a disaster that led to the death of 25 supporters, with 500 more receiving injuries after a stand collapsed at a home international game between Scotland and England.

Drawing of the first Ibrox Disaster in 1902

Plans were made to raise financial aid for families affected

It was a tragedy that understandably deeply impacted the folk of the city and indeed the country, which led to Rangers FC making plans to raise financial aid for those affected by the tragedy, and that plan was to be in the form of a one off football tournament.

That tournament was billed as a ‘British League Cup’ with the Exhibition Trophy the prize on offer for the winning side. English champions Everton and runners up Sunderland would contest the trophy alongside Celtic and Rangers FC with the games being played between May and June 1902.

Jimmy Quinn, image by Celtic Curio

READ THIS…First Ibrox Disaster, Celtic lift Exhibition Trophy, Crowning King James – the one who lived in Croy

Celtic took care of Sunderland as they thumped the English side 5-1 at Celtic park, with Rangers taking care of Everton also at Celtic park by winning 3-2 after the first game at Goodison park ended in a 2-2 stalemate. That set up an all Glasgow final which was to be played at Cathkin park the following month.

So the stage was set as the two Glasgow clubs went to battle on the 17th of June 1902 in front of 10,000 spectators. After a 1-1 draw failed to separate the side in normal time it was Celtic who would prevail and lifted the cup after winning 3-2 thanks to a Jimmy Quinn hat trick (read David Potter’s account of this in the link above).

So the cup which was sitting in Ibrox the previous year and was meant to be there for entirety was now sitting proudly in Celtic Park, despite the trophy being engraved with ‘awarded to Rangers FC on it’. Rangers FC didn’t take too kindly to this and wrote several letters to Celtic demanding the return of the trophy.

Celtic understandably declined having won the trophy put on offer by Rangers FC fair and square. This enraged the old Ibrox club so much so that they would regularly write demanding its return. In fact rumour had it that they still did just that nigh on a century later! Each time Celtic refused.

Who knows, maybe the tribute act currently residing at Ibrox use the modern method of email demanding the return of the trophy to bulk up their scarce honour collection. If so, then they will no doubt be dealt with the swift reply of ‘er no’.

Leigh Griffiths could do the honours

Or we could ask Leigh Griffiths to reply in his own style saying something like “Rangers FC? Yer club’s deid mate, beat it”…

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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