The family of a Rutherglen man who coached a pioneering women's football team have spoken of their pride at his achievements.
James Kelly bossed the Rutherglen ladies team during the 1920s and 30s, at a time when the women's game was essentially outlawed by the sport's governing bodies.
The local ladies have recently earned a national spotlight, after a BBC documentary examined the team, and an exhibition on their many achievements is currently on show at Rutherglen town hall, until August 12.
However, James Kelly's journey to football management took a diverse path, going from a mining family to the touchline, with some music hall thrown in along the way.
His granddaughter, Dorothy Connor, is proud of the part he played in supporting the women's game.
She told Lanarkshire Live: "James was twelve years old in 1887 when his brother Maitland was killed in a roof fall at the coalface at Wellshot No2 pit in Cambuslang - Maitland was just 13 at the time.
" James became a coal miner himself, like his father and brothers, and the family lived in a miners' row of tiny cottages in Cambuslang, but the tragedy spurred him on to change his life.
"Did this early life experience make him the man he became? I think, as his granddaughter, the answer is absolutely yes, it did."
Continuing to work as a miner, James met and married Cambuslang woman Ellen Queen, and the couple would go on to have six children.
When the First World War struck, James was too old for active service, and instead became a regular music hall performer, including working with the celebrated Harry Lauder on a number of tours, raising funds to support injured servicemen during the conflict and booking other acts to appear alongside them.
From there, James moved towards football management.
Dorothy explained: "What was the link between running music hall acts and running a successful women’s football team? The answer seems to be the Cinema Girls of the time.
"Theatres and cinemas were used for fitness and training and he recruited girls not only from the local area but from all over Scotland and Ireland. They then toured all over both countries using contacts he had made while touring with the music hall acts, achieving huge success and raising large amounts for ex-servicemen and their families during and after WWI.
"The football girls as they were known locally, were much admired in the town and some were friends of the family or distant relatives."
Dorothy states that she believes the girls did not suffer hostility from other locals, as has been reported elsewhere.
However they did encounter stubborn beliefs, with Rutherglen Town Council refusing the team permission to play against leading English side Dick Kerr’s Ladies on the recreation ground in Stonelaw Road.
Dorothy added: "Undeterred, he gained permission from Clyde to play the match to a packed crowd at Shawfield - he had a letter printed in the Reformer on the day of the match thanking Rutherglen Town Council for their refusal which meant that they could then go to Shawfield and get a bigger gate, making more money for charity, while the Council later gave them a civic reception after they won!"
The women's game throughout Scotland, and the wider UK, faded away during the 1930s, and Mr Kelly pursued other ventures, before passing away in September 1959.
However, the memories of the team lived on. Dorothy's mother, Eileen, served as the team's mascot at times, and her aunt Margaret was one of the team's trainers.
Both women could, till their dying day, recall the days when Rutherglen's ladies team were world beaters.
Dorothy added: "I held Margaret in my arms [shortly before she passed away] and asked her to tell me about her time with the football girls as she called them.
"Her face lit up, her eyes were aglow as she said 'we beat them! We beat the world champions!
"'Them were the days!'”
The Rutherglen Ladies Football exhibition is at the Town Hall until August 12. Dorothy discusses the history of the team in more detail on the Camglen Radio show Cat's Cream, which can be heard here.
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