Football at LGS
In any boys’ school, it is inevitable that football dominates a large number of boys’ lives. LGS is no exception and for the first 350 years the boys playing football in the graveyard surrounding the Parish Church were a common cause for complaint. Thus the ‘locals’ would have been delighted when the School moved to its current site in 1852. Up until the First World War, with the school numbering around 100, the Quad was the boys’ playground and football would have been played there. This was repeated just over 100 years later when year 7 used the Quad as their playground during Covid.
The War saw the Quad used for producing vegetables and the boys moved to what is now the field in front of Fairfield and, due to the school doubling in size over the next seven years, a return to the Quad was not realistically possible. There they stayed until the junior boys moved to Fairfield in 1969 and that field became Fairfield’s playground. Since then, finding somewhere for the boys to play has been a continual problem, especially as the School grew from 750 to 1000.
The ‘asphalt’ outside the library is still the only ‘official’ playground and is totally inadequate; the use of the cricket outfield is frowned upon, especially by masters in charge of cricket and whilst since 2000 cars have been barred from ‘The Walks’ and although some games take place, the kerbstones prove a problem! The arrival of the astro-turf in 2019 has slightly eased the situation.
Following Hamilton’s success at Wimbledon in 1890, the House System was established in 1891 and a cup for inter-house football was funded by the parents of the day boys and so it was fitting that the following year the first house to win it was South – Day Boys. They would have played their games on the two football pitches on the field in front of Fairfield, which were also used for School matches.
We know that the School had a team when the first Loughburian was published in 1879 and the first photos we have of the team is from the following year. The most famous photo we have is of the football XI of 1893-1894 which features Harry Linacre sitting on the front row, second from the left (see above). He went on to play in goal for Nottingham Forest and in 1905 played for England against Wales and Scotland.
Football remained the only winter sport until the season 1948-49 when in its final season, the 1st XI played 21 games, winning 15 of them. The following year it had been replaced by Rugby Football, much to the disgust of many boys! However, this was not to be the end of football, as showing great initiative the boys continued to play football outside the School. In 1955, after a secret meeting in the library, they ‘formalised’ this team and created Loughborough Dynamo, taking its name from Dynamo Moscow who had recently visited England to play Wolverhampton Wanderers and whose gold and black colours they adopted. They have played ever since and are currently in the Midlands Division of the Northern Premier League.
Unsurprisingly, ever since 1949 boys have clamoured for a return of football within the School. However, it took until 2005 for this to be achieved, after many years of lobbying by geography teacher and master in charge of cross country, Robert Griffiths. With so many boys playing football in the junior club leagues outside school, it was no surprise that they achieved ‘instant’ success. In the season 2009-2010, they won all their games and achieved the ‘double’ of Mercian League Champions and L.B.Cup winners. Indeed, in 2012 they won the L.B.Cup for the 3rd time in 4 years and since then have undertaken overseas tours and firmly established itself as the major sport of the Spring Term.
