Gary Ralston - Rangers 1872; The Gallant Pioneers (2009).jpg

Rangers are one of the most famous teams in world football, but what became of the teenagers who formed the club? In the spring of 1872 four young men gathered in a park in the west end of Glasgow and decided to establish a side that would do justice to the new craze of association football. William McBeath and Peter Campbell were just 15 years old, Moses McNeil was 16 and his brother Peter was the oldest at 17. Soon they were joined by Tom Vallance, another 16-year-old, who quickly became skipper of the fledgling club. None of those gallant pioneers was a native of Glasgow and yet within five years they were Scottish Cup finalists, were set up in their spiritual home on the south side of the burgeoning industrial city and attracting a working-class audience they have never lost. Rangers may have scaled great heights since those early days but, sadly, the personal lives of almost all the founding fathers were touched by terrible tragedy. Journalist Gary Ralston has used fresh research and hitherto unseen documents, records and transcripts to sympathetically recount the heartbreaking stories behind the men who created a great club. He reveals the tales of death through insanity, a drowning that denied a birthright as a steamship entrepreneur and the sad passing of a pioneer who lies buried in a pauper's grave on the fringes of an English cemetery, cast as a certified imbecile, tried as a fraudster and left to live out his life in the poorhouse. This fascinating insight into the earliest years of Rangers - the first in-depth analysis for almost a century - outlines the weight of evidence that suggests the club was formed in 1872, not 1873 as many fans believe. It also tells of happier times, the links with royalty and football aristocracy and the club's relationship with the city in which it was born in the tumultuous Victorian era. It recalls the memorable matches and political intrigues and examines the personalities who have helped to shape one of the most successful clubs in the game. It also traces the only two known surviving grandchildren of the founders in the 21st century and reveals how they knew nothing about their grandfather's most famous achievement. "Rangers 1872: The Gallant Pioneers" tells one of football's most romantic tales - and also one of its saddest.