Saturday Soccer - Harry Davis

Today's a big day for soccer fans as the Barclay's Premier League kicks off with a full slate of games this weekend.  I'm admittedly a new fan to the sport, having been drawn in last summer/fall as a result of the lack of NHL hockey.  The team I follow is Liverpool, although I'll watch any televised Premier League game.  Liverpool had a nail-biting 1-0 win in their first league game earlier this morning, against Stoke City.

Anyway, a couple of bloggers have gotten me totally interested in vintage soccer cards for whatever reason.  I think what I like most about them is that I know virtually nothing about the players, teams, cities, etc. that are depicted.  I saw this written in the comments of a blog post, and I totally agree, that it's like looking in on a foreign world.  Anyway, I showed a card from the 1960 A & BC Gum soccer set a week or so ago and I think it makes sense to post another today.

Today's card is #4 in the set, featuring Harry Davis of Rangers.  You have to love the posed shots on these cards...here Harry is performing your classic throw-in and seems to be enjoying it.  This one is in even more "loved" shape than my first card, with some decent creases/wrinkles.

I don't know much about Harry, but I did look into Rangers FC a bit for this post.  They're a Scottish club, based out of Glasgow and have been around forever (founded 1872).  Looks like they're the most dominant club in the history of Scottish soccer, although they fell out of the top league a couple of years back.  I guess new owners are involved now and they seem to be rebuilding well.  I don't have the three hours of time it would take to get an understanding of how the Scottish football leagues work, but last season they won the Third Division (which as far as I can tell no longer exists).  This was good enough to land them a spot in the Scottish League One Division (newly created after some reorganization prior to this season), where they sit atop the table in the very early going, having won their first contest 4-1.

Here's a look at the back.

Hope all of you Premier League fans out there are enjoying the games!