Kilmarnock F.C. Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1869

Kilmarnock were founded in the Ayrshire town of that name in 1869 by a group of cricketers who wanted a sport to play during the winter months. Of the 42 clubs in the Scottish League system in 2018, only Queens Park, founded in 1867, are older than Kilmarnock, however Queens are a strictly amateur club - Killie are the oldest professional team.

Answer: Rugby Park

When the club were first founded, the game they played had rules more akin to rugby than soccer, thus the name of the ground. The ground has actually been used for rugby matches, with Scotland playing two international matches there, against Tonga in 2014 and Georgia in 2016.

Answer: Blue & White

After experimenting with navy blue and black and white stripes in their very early days, Kilmarnock quickly settled on blue and white as their official club colours. The design on their shirts has mostly consisted of either horizontal hoops or vertical stripes of these colours.

Answer: Squirrels

The Killie badge features two squirrels either side of a football with a human hand extending from the ball. The Latin word "Confidemus", meaning "We Trust", appears above the hand, whilst "Kilmarnock FC" appears below the ball. The squirrels were adopted from the official crest of the town of Kilmarnock.

Answer: Albion Rovers & Rangers

Albion Rovers, who finished the season bottom of the League, were surprise finalist in 1919-20, but gave Kilmarnock a hard game on 17th April 1920, before the Ayrshire club won 3-2. Rangers were more predictable finalists in 1928-29, having won the league with the loss of just one match. At Hampden, in front of nearly 115,000 fans, Killie produced the upset, winning 2-0.

Answer: Hearts

On 24th April 1965, Kilmarnock travelled to Edinburgh to play league leaders Heart of Milothian on the final day of the league season. They trailed them by two points and knew nothing less than a 2-0 win would bring the title to Ayrshire. First half goals from Davie Sneddon and Brian McIlroy gave them the exact scoreline they needed.
Kilmarnock had finished runners-up in the previous two seasons (both were won by Rangers).

Answer: Wille Waddell

Willie Waddell, who spent his entire playing career with Rangers, was capped 18 times by Scotland, scoring six times. He took over the managerial reigns at Rugby Park in 1957, and took them to second place in the league on four occasions, between 1960 and 1964, before finally landing the big prize in 1965.

He returned to Rangers as manager in 1969, winning the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972.

Answer: Real Madrid

After a narrow 1-0 aggregate win over Albanian team 17 Nentori in the preliminary round, Killie were drawn against Spanish giants Real Madrid in the first round. 25,385 fans crammed into Rugby Park for the first leg, in which Kilmarnock gained a creditable 2-2 draw, with goals from Tommy McLean and Jackie McInally.

The return game in Madrid proved a bridge too far, with Real winning 5-1.

Answer: Falkirk

Falkirk, who were playing in the second tier of Scottish football at the time, were surprise finalists, and Kilmarnock were pre-match favourites. Paul Wright scored the only goal of the game in front of 48,953 fans at Ibrox Stadium.
Their previous win was in 1929.

Answer: Dieter Van Tornhout

Kilmarnock had reached the final of the League Cup on five previous occasions and had lost them all, including a 1-5 thrashing by Hibernian in 2007. Few people expected them to beat Celtic on 18th March 2012, but Van Tornhout's goal in the 84th minute proved to be the only one of the game. The Belgian had only signed for Killie a few weeks earlier, and left them in the summer due to a family illness.
Their five previous appearances: 1953, 1961, 1963, 2001 and 2007