The club was initially formed as a team for former pupils of Queen Mary Street School in Bridgeton in the East End of Glasgow.
[3][6] The success at Juvenile level convinced the Bridgeton Waverley committee to seek a place in the Junior leagues, having been permitted by senior club Clyde F.C.
[17][18] During the four-year period, Waverley won the Intermediate League title in 1930–31, beating Yoker Athletic in the championship game, having lost to Clydebank Juniors in the corresponding fixture the previous year.
Waverley's status as a club representing the Protestant community (or at least perceived to do so) meant there were sometimes incidents involving their supporters and fans of other teams with Catholic sympathies.
In 1960, New Barrowfield was subject to another housing CPO by the city fathers and Waverley were again forced to move,[7][4][3] this time to Carntyne Stadium a mile to the north, which was more suited to greyhound racing and speedway.
[29] By this point, many of the local Junior clubs were in financial difficulty; distractions of modern living had made attending matches less appealing,[28] and Glasgow's housing improvement programme was in full swing, with much of the population of the crowded, substandard tenements decanted to new overspill estates on the edge of town – for East End residents this typically meant Easterhouse and Cranhill, although no new Junior teams were established in these vast schemes.
A number of players made the move from Waverley to senior football, with three becoming full Scottish internationals: Willie Mills, Tommy Law[4] and Pat Quinn.
The latter also represented the club in the Scotland Junior international team, along with others who did not reach the same level professionally: W. Crichton (1925), Olly McHarg (1927), Alexander Mathieson (1934), George Wilson (1936, whose 5 goals in one match and 7 overall are records)[33] and Alf Maitland (1950).