Nicol Smith was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 who played for Rangers

Rangers F.C.

Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

.

Born in Darvel

Darvel

Darvel is a small town in East Ayrshire, Scotland, located at the eastern end of the Irvine Valley and is sometimes referred to as "The Lang Toon" due to its quaint appearance on Ordnance Survey maps....

, Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

, Smith played as a fullback for local sides Vale of Irvine, Royal Albert and Darvel

Darvel F.C.

Darvel Football Club are a Scottish football club, based in the town of Darvel, Ayrshire.- History :Nicknamed "The Vale" or "The Juniors", and formed in 1889, the club play at Recreation Park , and currently, the West Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association...

, earning junior international selection, before joining Rangers in 1893. He made only 2 League appearances in his first season at the club but by Season 1893-94

1893-94 in Scottish football

1893–94 in Scottish football was the fourth season of Scottish league football. For the first time there were two divisions in the Scottish Football League, there was no automatic promotion and relegation but the bottom three clubs in Division One and the top three clubs in Division Two were...

, he had established himself in Rangers team, missing just one of Rangers' 18 matches.

Smith was part of Rangers' first ever Scottish Cup

Scottish Cup

The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

 win, playing in all 6 games, including the 3-1 final win over Celtic

Celtic F.C.

Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...

 in 1894.

Smith was also capped at international level, making 12 appearances for Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

, two of which as captain. He also represented the Scottish League XI

Scottish League XI

The Scottish League XI is a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture between the English and Scottish leagues was only second in...

.

In January 1905, aged 31, Smith died from enteric fever, an illness which also caused his wife's simultaneous death.

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