Sports
The town is host to Kilmarnock F.C., a member of the SPL and the second oldest professional football club in Scotland. Their home ground is Rugby Park. The etymology of the ground is that when founded, the club played both football and rugby. Rugby Park was one of the first football grounds in Scotland to have floodlights installed. In recent years the stadium has been modernised, firstly to bring it in line with the all-seating regulations, then rebuilt totally to make a new ground. It has also hosted international football matches and music concerts, most recently Elton John in June 2005. The club's foundation dates back to the very earliest days of organised football in Scotland, when a group of local cricketers looking for a sporting pursuit to occupy them outwith 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 by 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. Their 2–0 defeat against Renton in the first round on 18 October 1873 is thought to have been the first match ever played in the competition. 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. They have reached the Scottish Cup final eight times, winning the trophy on three occasions. Despite five appearances in the final, they have yet to lift the Scottish League Cup. 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 2–0 win saw Kilmarnock crowned Scottish League champions for the first, and to date only, time. This capped a period of tremendous consistency which had seen them occupy runners-up spot in four of the previous five seasons.
After a period of decline in the 1980s which saw the club relegated to the Second Division, Killie have returned to prominence, holding top division status since being promoted in 1993 and lifting the Scottish Cup for the third time in 1997 thanks to a 1–0 victory over Falkirk in the final. The club have qualified for European competitions on nine occasions, their best performance coming in the 1966–67 Fairs Cup when they progressed to the semi-finals, eventually being eliminated by Leeds United. The club have played in all three European competitions (European Cup, Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup). Killie finished the 2005–06 season in 5th position, after a season which at several points they seemed to be challenging for 3rd place. However, after selling Kris Boyd to Rangers in January 2006, Killie had to rely on goals from young attacking midfielder Steven Naismith, striker Colin Nish and winger Danny Invincibile. After taking only 1 point in the first four post-split games, Killie beat Hibernian 3–1 to leapfrog Aberdeen into 5th place.
Kilmarnock started the 2006–07 season brightly despite losing 4–1 away to Celtic on the opening day. Young striker Steven Naismith scored a contender for goal of the season against Hibernian in August before going to Arsenal for a trial. Rangers dropped their first points to Killie in four years after a last-minute Naismith penalty earned a draw for Kilmarnock. In September Jefferies suffered his worst defeat as Killie manager after a 5–0 loss at Motherwell. Killie is ensured of a top 6 finish for the 2nd season in a row, whilst a tremendous run in the League Cup ensured a place in the final.
In March 2012, Kilmarnock Football Club won the Scottish League Cup for the first time under the management of their manager Kenny Sheils, beating Cetlic F.C 1-0.
The town also regularly plays host to professional wrestling shows, promoted by the British Championship Wrestling promotion. There are two golf courses in the town, Annanhill Golf Course and Caprington Golf Course, which has both an 18 hole course and a 9 hole course. Both these courses are council owned and run by East Ayrshire Council. The local leisure complexes include the Galleon Centre: with a 25 metre swimming pool, baby pool, ice rink, squash courts, sauna, gym, games hall, bar area, bowling green and the New Northwest Centre (formerly the Hunter Centre) which contains a community gym and various local medical facilities. The new Ayrshire Athletics Centre was constructed in the Queens Drive area which includes a 400m running track outside of the main building. The building will be used for training for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
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