Ayr United FC is a Scottish League Club from the Scottish seaside town Ayr in Ayrshire. Their nickname is "The Honest Men", taken from the poem "Tam o' Shanter" by Robert Burns.  They were founded in 1910 after Ayr Parkhouse F.C. and Ayr F.C. amalgamated. The club has spent 34 seasons of its history in Scotland's top division, though the last was in the 1977–78 season. Ayr United has been the champions of the second tier of Scottish football on six occasions and of the third tier twice, but has not won any national cup competitions. Former Scottish national team manager Ally MacLeod is regarded as the club's most famous and most successful manager. He led the club on three separate occasions spanning fifteen years, during which his teams won two league titles and finished one point short of qualifying for European competition in 1973.  Recent years has seen a decline and in 2011-12 they were relegated from the Scottish First Division after losing to Airdrie United in the play-offs. In January 2015, Ian McCall was appointed Ayr's new manager. After saving the club from relegation on the final day of the 2014–15 season, McCall led Ayr back to the Championship with a penalty shoot-out victory over Stranraer in the Playoffs. Following their relegation in 2017, Ayr competed in League One but finished the season as Champions, regaining their Championship Status at the first time of asking