Jim Kerr a current member of the management committee writes, " The first recorded organised football in Hurlford was in 1874 when Hurlford FC, then a Senior team, with neighbours Galston, Beith, Mauchline and others. Hurlford FC with blue jerseys and white shorts as their official colours played their home games at Struthers Park, Crookedholm, up to 1912, when they removed to Blair Park, Hurlford. Hurlford FC ceased as a Senior football club in season 1920/21. The first record of a Junior team in Hurlford is Hurlford Thistle who won the Ayrshire Junior Challenge Cup in season 1895/96 and also won the Consolation Cup in season 1916/17. Hurlford United was formed in 1938 and was admitted to the Western Junior League in 1939. Although the Senior team had resigned from the league in season 1920/21 they continued to compete in cup competitions with a respectrable degree of success. With the demise of Hurlford Thistle as a junior club around this time it may have been an amalgamation of Hurlford FC and Hurlford Thistle FC. Throuhgout the war years Hurlford United Football Club had many successes. They won the Western League Cup in season 1940/41; the Irvine and District Cup in 1944/45 and later in 1965/66. They won the Ayrshire League Cup in 1971/72 and 1975/76; the Ayrshire District Cup in 1968/69; the Moore Trophy in 1939/40, 1943/44 and 1944/45. They were Ayrshire Regional League Champions in 1972/73 and Challenge Cup winners in the same season and the next.



Date of this photograph is unknown. refers to Hurlford United rated 500-1 chance for the Scottish Junior Cup when they were to face their toughest test in the fifth round against Downfield in Dundee. The team just in case you canmnot read the article is back row, Allan (coach); Gilmour; Wardrop; McCulloch; McKay; Stalker; Smith; McPhedries; Lochhead; Mitchell (trainer) McNair; front row left to right; Craig; Harrow; Lyall; Gardiner and Devlin.