Jimmy Wardhaugh, Willie Bauld and Alfie Conn Sr., known as the Terrible Trio, were forwards at the start of this period with wing half linchpins Dave Mackay and John Cumming.

If it's football that you're wanting, you must come with us to France!In November 1914, Heart of Midlothian comfortably led the First Division,[21] having started the 1914–15 season with eight straight victories, including a 2–0 defeat of reigning champions Celtic.

[22] This streak coincided with the start of the First World War and the beginnings of a public debate upon the morality of continuing professional football while young soldiers were dying on the front-line.

[23] While this motion was defeated at the ballot box, with the SFA opting to wait for War Office advice, the East London philanthropist Frederick Nicholas Charrington was orchestrating a public campaign to have professional football in Britain suspended, and achieving great popular support for his cause.

In response, sixteen players from Hearts enlisted in Sir George McCrae's new volunteer battalion, joining en masse on 25 November 1914.

The group of volunteers also contained some 500 Hearts supporters and ticket-holders, 150 followers of Hibernian and a number of professional footballers from Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline.

[36] A talented and elegant inside-forward, Walker quickly earned a place in the Hearts first team, helping the side to victory in the 1933 Jubilee edition of the Rosebery Charity Cup, in a season in which they finished 3rd in the league.

[44] The combination of Wardhaugh's dribbling skills and non-stop running, Bauld's cerebral play and prodigious aerial ability, and Conn's energetic, tenacious style and powerful shooting complemented each other well.

However, on 13 March 1954 in the Scottish Cup quarter final 3–0 defeat away to Aberdeen, Parker broke his jaw, Conn injured his back, and Wardhaugh collected a serious shin bone injury.

The scorers in the cup final win over Celtic were Crawford with two and one from Conn. Conn ended that 1955–56 season at the peak of his powers aged 29 with a career best 29 goals from 41 games.

[63] The league game against QoS was Mackay's last for Hearts after they accepted a bid of £32,000 from Tottenham Hotspur for their captain who was fit at this time despite having had lengthy spells out injured in the previous 12 months.

On the penultimate Saturday of the league campaign goals by Cumming and Rankin at home to Rangers[65] meant Hearts were four points behind with a game in hand.

[43][55] After collecting three Scottish championships and 19 full Scotland caps at Hibernian, Gordon Smith had a recurring ankle injury leading to his free transfer in 1959.

Cumming scored a deserved equalising penalty for Hearts in the first game 1–1 draw they largely dominated against the Scot Symon managed Rangers.

Alan Gordon had an excellent chance to clinch the title for Hearts in second half injury time but was denied by a Bobby Ferguson diving save pushing the ball past the post.

The players of greatest note in the late sixties were Jim Cruickshank, Alan Anderson and Donald Ford with Drew Busby joining the three in the 1970s.

In 2004, then club CEO Chris Robinson announced plans to sell Tynecastle, which he claimed was "not fit for purpose", and instead have Hearts rent Murrayfield from the Scottish Rugby Union.

[81] As Robinson and his supporters had a slight majority of the club's shares, a preliminary deal to sell the stadium was struck with the Cala property development company for just over £20 million.

[87] Romanov called an extraordinary general meeting in January 2005 so that the club could pass a motion to exercise the escape clause in the deal with Cala Homes.

[90] The sale of Robinson's shares was completed on 2 February 2005[91] after Romanov made financial guarantees that the club could continue to trade without selling Tynecastle.

[102] Results released for the financial year ending 31 July 2010 showed that Hearts had made a small profit for the first time since 1999, although they were still heavily in debt.

[116] The next managerial change after those came on 1 August 2011 when Jim Jefferies was sacked[117] during his second spell at the club and replaced by former Sporting CP boss Paulo Sérgio.

With no match day income coming in and a lack of finance from owner Romanov, the club were left in a position where they had to put their whole squad up for sale.

[137] On 18 June 2013, a Scandinavian consortium offered to pay the club £500,000 immediately in return for a share of any future transfer income from up to 12 players; this was rejected by Hearts.

[149] On Monday 12 May 2014, The Ann Budge fronted Bidco 1874 took control of Heart of Midlothian Plc, thus bringing to an end to Vladimir Romanov's involvement with the club.

This decline took a turn for the worse in 2019–20, and Hearts were relegated after finishing bottom of the Scottish Premiership, having won only four matches across the course of the season (which had been truncated due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

[170] After gaining a single point in their first six league games (the worst start to a season in the club's history), manager Steven Naismith was sacked on 22 September 2024, with Neil Critchley replacing him as head coach a month later.

At the request of the Foundation of Hearts, Neil performed the rousing track live at Tynecastle during the Ladbrokes Premiership match against St Johnstone on 26 January 2019.

[citation needed] Celebrity fans of Hearts include Stephen Hendry,[193] Ronnie Corbett,[194] Ken Stott,[195] Alex Salmond,[196] Sir Chris Hoy, Wattie Buchan, Eilidh Doyle,[197] Lee McGregor, Andrew Oldcorn, Gavin Hastings, Martin Geissler, Nicky Campbell, Tom Wilson, Grant Hutchison and Scott Hutchison.

Grove Street and the Ballas, two rival gangs in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, dress in green and maroon clothes respectively.