Campbeltown Pupils AFC

Campbeltown Grammar School Former Pupils Association was formed during 1919 to cater for the sporting requirements of ex-students.

In the beginning the club offered football for men and hockey for young ladies, however, interest from the fairer sex soon diminished and the club became known as a football team only.
The club started its playing life as a junior team within the auspices of the Campbeltown & District Junior Football Association, a very successful partnership that lasted until the outbreak of war in 1939.

The FPs failed to reappear after the cessation of hostilities in 1945, a combination of war injury/loss and the natural progression of age being an impossible barrier at that time.
However, after playing friendly fixtures during the winter of 1959 and the summer of 1960, the club entered the Kintyre Amateur League in 1961. At this time the club name was abbreviated to the shorter Campbeltown Pupils Amateur Football Club, a title it is still known by to the present day.

After a successful time as members of the Kintyre Amateur Football League, 'the Pupils' joined the Scottish Amateur Football League in 1977. As members of the S.A.F.L the club has been blessed with a number of achievements, most notably the winning of the Scottish Amateur Premier League in season 1999/2000.

The club has its own junior standard ground at Kintyre Park, Limecraigs Road, Campbeltown. Attendance record at the ground is 3,500 for a Scottish Junior Cup 5th Round Tie involving Campbeltown United v Loanhead Mayflower in 1958. A programme of ground improvement has been ongoing since 1988.

Through the years a number of personalities have played with the club, none more famous than Italian International Gionni Moscardini - 'Johnny.' Capped nine times at full international level, Johnny scored seven times while representing 'the Azzurri.' Born in Falkirk in 1898, he enlisted in the Italian Army at the tender age of eighteen, this, before seeing action in the First World War. After the war he settled in his parents home town of Barga in Tuscany. An accomplished player, he was soon spotted by the local senior club Lucca, then playing in the Italian League - Tuscany Section. He later signed for near neighbours Pisa - Italian League Northern Section, becoming the club's top scorer and the first choice at centre-forward for the national side. His final sojurn in senior football was with Genoa - the top Italian club of the period.
In 1925, he returned to Scotland to help run his uncle's Royal Cafe in Hall Street, Campbeltown, his long journey in football coming to an end when he played for 'the Pupils,' his last club, and, only one of Scottish regestration.

Three players from the club have represented their country at amateur level, with one adding a Scotland Junior 'cap' to his collection. The Reverand B.B. Blackwood, a stalwart of the club's original eleven in 1919, had the distiction of being 'capped' by both national associations. More recently, Kevin Gilchirst in the 1980s, and, Paul McWhirter in the new millenium have had the honour of representing Scotland at amateur level.

Kevin Gilchrist, Paul McWhirter, Duncan McAulay, Andy Robertson, Neil Brown, Ian McGeachy, Michael Donnelly, Archie Millar and Alan Sinclair have all represented the Scottish Amateur Football League. Duncan McAulay captained the SAFL to success in the inter-league trophy in the mid-1980s - the Baxter Trophy - with Kevin Gilchrist the top goalscorer in the same tournament.

A family's enthusiasim for the game helped to re-establish the club at the beginning of the 1960s. Bernard McKinven, along with his two sons Bernard Jnr and Alex, plus son-in-law Willie Gillespie, were instumental in re-launching 'the Pupils,' a well-known local football club from past history. All played a major part in the development of the club through the years. Alex McKinven was joined by his good friend Bill Hunter to form the management of the team during the initial 'Scottish League Years,' this, before handing over to the present management team of Campbell Robertson and Duncan McAulay, both long-serving members of the club's highly successful side of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Membership of the Scottish Amateur Football League in 1977 was followed by immediate success, as the club managed to win the 7th, 4th and 3rd Division Championships in a short space of time. Further achievements included the original SAFL Top Score Trophy and Colin Munro Cup. In recent years the present management team of Campbell Robertson and Duncan McAulay have guided the club to a Premier Division One title in 1998/99, before adding the 'top prize,' a Premier Championship title in 1999/2000.

In season 2007/08 the club regained its Premier Division place by finishing in third position in Premier Division One. The present squad is one of the youngest ever assembled at the club, and, is still very much on a learning curve. Hopefully, the team will mature in the not to distant future, this, before adding its own page to the history of Campbeltown football.