Foundations Clydesdale Harriers was founded in May 1885 and based in Glasgow and had five sections within the city boundaries and sections were also maintained in
Lanarkshire,
Dunbartonshire,
Ayrshire,
Renfrewshire as well as in the towns of
Greenock,
Ayr and
Airdrie. Indeed, several founders of the Rangers were also founder members of the Harriers. When
Celtic FC was founded they signed up several Harriers including
Tom Maley and his brother
Willie, who went on to become one of their
greatest managers of all time and incidentally President of the
Scottish Amateur Athletics Association (SAAA). Up to the first war, the club provided numerous champions and won 14
Scottish National Team Championships. Nevertheless, the club had many good servants during this period who made sure that during the 1939-45 period a War Continuation Committee was in existence setting its sights on a quicker return to action than had been possible in 1918. From 1945 to 1960, the club took part in many innovative activities and won many trophies with a host of top class athletes. Clydesdale had been the first to set up a Junior (under-18) section in 1918 and one of the first with a Ladies Section (1931). It organised one of the first annual races for Youths (the Johnny Youth Ballot Team Race) in 1946 and it was a member of the CH who moved that there be a Scottish Championship for under-15 Boys. As far as racing was concerned, John Wright won the national Junior Cross Country Championship twice and the senior men's team was third in 1955. The club helped set up the Dunbartonshire County Association with Garscube Harriers, Dumbarton AAC and Vale of Leven AAC, a very successful Association still going strong: at its peak in the late 1980s there were 13 clubs in membership.
1960s to present Between 1960 and 1985, the club performed well in all the endurance events with athletes including Phil Dolan, Robert McWatt, Allan Faulds, Ian Leggett and Doug Gemmell all representing
Scotland at various levels. In track and field the sole internationalist was Ian Logie, who competed in the
pole vault for Scotland three times in one year in the mid-1960s. Over the 1970s the club won the Maley Trophy and were West District Cross Country Champions three times. In 1985 the club entered the Scottish Men's Track and Field League. There were four GB representatives at Under 20 or Senior level (Des Roache, Ewan Calvert, Grant Graham and Jason Allan. In 1995, the cross country runners won the West District Relays—a title. In 2003 Graeme Reid won the Scottish National Senior Men's Cross Country Championship to be the first Clydesdale to win it since
Dunky Wright exactly 80 years earlier. == Notable athletes ==