Summer Cup (Scottish football)


The Summer Cup was a Scottish football competition open to teams in the top division, first of the wartime Southern League from 1940 to 1945 and then of the Scottish League from 1963 to 1965.

History

When the competition was first introduced in 1940 it was organised by the Southern League and was one of two wartime cup competitions run by the League, along with the Southern League Cup. The competition ran from May to June, when the league season had already finished.
The Summer Cup was reintroduced in 1963 as a national cup competition for Scottish Football League Division One clubs because running costs for clubs in the top division were getting more expensive. Both Celtic and Rangers declined to take part in either season the competition was played.
The trophy currently resides in the boardroom at Easter Road, the home of Hibernian. Hibs chairman Harry Swan had helped to establish the competition and, when Hibernian won the first final, team manager Willie McCartney suggested that the trophy should be presented to Swan. Swan's family subsequently gifted the trophy to Hibernian in perpetuity.

List of Finals

Southern League

Performance by club

ClubWinsYears wonRunners-upYears runner-up
Hibernian21940–41, 1963–6421941–42, 1944–45
Motherwell21943–44, 1964–650–
Rangers11941–4221940–41, 1942–43
Partick Thistle11944–450–
St Mirren11942–430–
Aberdeen0–11963–64
Clyde0–11943–44
Dundee United0–11964–65