Dunfermline Athletic Football Club Halbeath Road, Dunfermline Fife Scotland

Welcome to Halbeath Road, Dunfermline.  This is the real home of football, East End Park and to the famous Dunfermline Athletic Football Club, also known as "The Pars".

Origins of nickname

According to Black and White Magic, a 1984 book about the club by Jim Paterson and Douglas Scott, there are numerous theories as to the origin of the club's nickname, the Pars. The authors wrote:

Most tend to confirm the more common belief that the name arose from the team's parallel striped shirts, their drinking habits or their style of play. The latter were both described as "paralytic". The earliest theory claims that in the early days when the Football Club was closely connected with the Cricket Club, the footballers were renowned for their performances at the bar and so were called the "Paralytics".

However in the early 1900s it is known that Athletic's nickname was the "Dumps" – shortened from Dunfermline – and this is said to have been coined by English sailors visiting East End Park when their ship docked at Rosyth. After World War I they were known as the Pars and some believe the parallel black and white stripes to be the reason.

Another school of thought involves English workers who came to work at the armaments depot at Crombie and at Rosyth Dockyard; they kept their association with their local team by forming the Plymouth Argyle (Rosyth) Supporters Club and it is said that the Dunfermline nickname comes from the banners in evidence around the ground.

Although almost certainly coincidental, there is also a curious resemblance to Dùn Phàrlain, which is the Gaelic name for Dunfermline.

Early History

1950s

Bobby Ancell was offered the manager's post in 1950 but with the Pars making headlines for board room disputes, he declined the offer. With a new board in place two seasons later, Ancell was offered the position again and this time accepted. Improving year on year Ancell delivered promotion back to the top flight in 1955 before leaving to start a decade at Motherwell.

The golden age (1960s)

Jock Stein became manager in 1960 and so began the club's golden decade. The club played regular European football in the UEFA and European Cup Winners Cups throughout the 60s (and also early 70s).

Under Stein Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup in the 1960–61 season. They beat Celtic 2–0 in the final after a replay. In 1962 they reached the Cup-Winners Cup quarter finals, losing 5–3 on aggregate to Újpest Dózsa SC. On they way they beat St Patrick's Athletic and FK Vardar. In the 1962–63 season Dunfermline beat Everton in the Fairs Cup and then played Valencia, losing 4–0 away before winning 6–2 at home. The Pars lost the subsequent play-off. Stein left in 1964 to join Hibernian.

New manager Willie Cunningham would take the club to the Scottish Cup final in the 1964–65 season. They lost the final 3–2 to a Celtic team that was at the beginning of new manager Jock Stein's era. The Pars finished 3rd in the league, one point behind top two Kilmarnock and Hearts. The following year Cunningham took Dunfermline to the Inter Cities Fairs Cup quarter-finals. Alex Ferguson was a player in the Dunfermline squad between 1964 and 1967.

George Farm was manager from 1967 until 1970. He matched Stein by winning the Scottish Cup in 1968 with a 3–1 win in the final against Hearts. Farm then surpassed Stein and took the club to their greatest achievement to date, the semi-final of the European Cup Winners Cup in season 1968–69, losing 2–1 on aggregate to eventual winners Slovan Bratislava (Slovan beat F.C. Barcelona in the final). On the way to the semi-final Dunfermline beat APOEL, Olympiacos and West Bromwich Albion.