136 years ago today - Celtic's first ever game | OneFootball

In the dark and distant days of the year 1888, the news pretty much reflected our modern-day reflections of life in the rain-soaked cobbled streets and alleys of Victorian Britain.

The infamous Jack The Ripper was on the prowl in London but in those early days he had yet to christened with the bloodcurdling moniker - he was simply known as the Whitechapel Murderer.

Land League rebellion in Ireland and crofters' riots in Scotland's Western Isles also kept the Peelers and other law enforcement divisions busy.

Kaiser Wilhelm II became Emperor of Germany, the Financial Times was first published and in Glasgow there was the International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art held in the affluent West End.

Across the Big Pond, Benjamin Harrison was elected the 23rd US President by ousting Grover Cleveland in the November 6 election.

Exactly 12 months earlier on November 6, 1887 a rather more important voting process was taking place in the East End of Glasgow at St Mary's Hall in the Calton's East Rose Street.

Brother Walfrid of the Marist Order had convened a meeting of local Irish businessmen to organise the foundation of a football team to raise money for charity - and the rest, as they day, is history.

That history though, was ensured by the first committee's determination that this new club would not be a fly-by-night operation and, although within a week they had leased six acres of land beside the Eastern Necropolis, they had resolved to show patience and guarantee the Celtic Football Club would be run as proper going concern.

The entrepreneurial spirit of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee year saw many worthy ideas launched while just as many floundered.

Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story was published that year and he was to prove to be one of the success stories of the age while it would be another five years before the Edinburgh-born crime writer would embark on another winning project.

In 1892 he would help found, and become the first goalkeeper of, Portsmouth AFC as football proved it was just as much as zeitgeist of Victorian Britain as the trials and tribulations of London's meerschaum-puffing super sleuth.

For every club that blossomed, though, there were dozens that floundered and by not jumping in at the deep end right away, the club's founders ensured that the new Celtic team would flourish.

Indeed, it would be seven months before this new side would kick a ball in earnest for the first time and, as fate would have it, 136 years ago today (May 28), Celtic kicked off their footballing history against a team from the other side of the city called Rangers.

It was on Monday, May 28, 1888 that a crowd of 2,000 braved a chilly evening to watch this new team take on the established side from the Southside at the first Celtic Park - or what is now basically where the new-builds sit on Springfield Road junction with Janefield Street.

The following teams took to the pitch for the friendly:

Celtic: Dolan (Drumpelier); Pearson (Carfin Shamrock), McLaughlin (Govan Whitefield), W Maley (Cathcart), Kelly (Renton), Murray (Cambuslang Hibs), McCallum (Renton), T Maley (Cathcart), Madden (Dumbarton), Dunbar (Edinburgh Hibs), Gorevin (Govan Whitefield).

Rangers: Nicol, McIntyre, Muir, McPherson, McFarlane, Meikle, Robb, McLaren, McKenzie, Suter, Wilson.

Referee: Mr McFadden (Edinburgh Hibs)

The Celts took to the field in their original outfits of white shirts with green collars with a red and green Celtic cross on the breast as they recorded a win in their first ever game against a side who were to become their greatest rivals

The game was won 5-2, with the honour of scoring Celtic's first ever goal falling to Neil McCallum who, just nine months later, would also score Celtic's first Scottish Cup final goal.

The Scottish Umpire of the day said that Celtic played with: "A combination which could scarcely have been expected from an opening display.

"It would appear that the newly-formed Glasgow club, the Celtic FC, has a bright future before it. At any rate, if the committee can place the same eleven on the field as opposed Rangers last Monday evening, or an equally strong one, the Celtic will not lack for patronage or support."

They certainly got that right and it's thought that the 2,000 attendance could have been greater but for the International Exhibition taking place the same day though in the West End.

The only surviving remnant of the 1888 International Exhibition is the Doulton Fountain, the world's largest terracotta fountain and it now takes pride of place outside the People's Palace in Glasgow's' East End.

We like to think that a rather more authentic, focal and indeed international legacy of 1888's Industry, Science and Art Exhibition still survives today just along the road a little deeper inside the East End.