Kilmarnock FC is a Scottish football team based in the town of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. Founded in 1869, Kilmarnock is the oldest club currently in the Scottish Premier League. The club's foundation dates to the very earliest days of organised football in Scotland, when a group of local cricketers looking for a sporting pursuit to occupy them outside the cricket season formed a football club in 1869. Originally they played rugby rules, but the difficulty in organising fixtures and the growing influence of Queen's Park soon persuaded them to adopt the association code instead. These origins are reflected to this day in the name of the club's home ground - Rugby Park. Although not amongst the founder members of the Scottish Football Association in 1873, Kilmarnock did join in time to compete in the inaugural Scottish Cup tournament in 1873–74.  Kilmarnock joined the Scottish League in 1895 and after winning consecutive Second Division titles were elected to the top flight for the first time in 1899. The club became established as one of the stronger provincial sides in Scotland and in April 1920 they defeated Albion Rovers by 3-2 at Hampden to win the Scottish FA Cup for the first time. Nine years later they won the cup for the second time, beating Rangers 2-0. The club's greatest success was in 1965 under the management of Willie Waddell. On the final day of the season, they travelled to face Hearts at Tynecastle requiring a victory by two goals to nil (due to the competition being decided by goal average at that period if teams were equal on points) to win the league at their opponents' expense. A memorable 2–0 win saw Kilmarnock crowned Scottish League champions for the first and only time to date. 

During the 1960s, Kilmarnock  regularly qualified for Europe and in 1966-67 they reached the semi-finals of the Inter-City Fairs Cup (forerunner of the UEFA Cup). The following decade brought decline and they were relegated in 1973 althugh it took only one season for the club to earn promotion. The 1980s followed a similar pattern until 1989 when they were relegated to the Second Division (by this time the third tier of Scottish football).  From this low point Kilmarnock had by 1993 returned to the Premier League where they remain.  They also lifted the Scottish Cup for the third time in 1997 thanks to a 1–0 victory over Falkirk in the final. Having been beaten in five Scottish League Cup finals they finally won the trophy in 2012 after a famous victory over favourites Celtic.  After a couple of near brushes with relegation, Kilmarnock’s fortunes revived under the management of Steve Clarke celebrating the club’s 150th anniversary with a third place finish and European qualification.