Thus Alick would be born in the Gorbals, in 1868, but be brought up, following his father to trade as a mason and bricklayer, and begin his football on the other side of the river. His junior club would be Carradale Overnewton, Overnewton Park being an early ground of Partick Thistle and just on the Glasgow side of the River Kelvin. And it would be from there that he would be signed, a promising right-sided forward, by Rangers, spending a year in the reserves, the Swifts, before at seventeen stepping up to the First Eleven and in 1884, still only nineteen, being selected for Glasgow against Sheffield. 

However, that same year, 1884, would also see the still very young, eldest Hamilton leave the Govan club and join Queen's Park. His motive is not clear. The Spiders' is. The team that had just a walk-over in the Cup Final would needs must be in transition both in attack and defence. His younger brother would not sign for another year and then no doubt to a large extent with Alick's encouragement. Eadie Fraser was away, as was Andrew Hair Holm. Andrew Watson had been gone a year. As a result in 1884-5 the team would not get beyond the Third Round of the Cup following a home defeat by Battlefield. Yet, despite the hiatus, the results for Alick personally were almost immediate. In 1885 he was selected for two internationals including an away draw against England. And that was followed by a third cap the following year, again against England, again a draw, this time at home, a month after the Scottish Cup had been reclaimed. 

However, whilst Alick could not have known it at the time and even though he was but twenty-one, 1886 was to be the peak of his playing career. Having just beaten Renton his team would be overwhelm over the next two years by the footballing revolution that would emanate from that very source. It led to his inclusion against England in 1888 in a Scotland team that was neither old or new school, failed completely to gel and was beaten 0-5  at home, followed in the autumn of the same year by an ankle injury that would force his retirement at just twenty-four. 

The eldest Hamilton never married, although in a sense he remained wedded to his adopted club, where he worked behind the scenes, becoming President in 1893-94. He even took himself back to Hutchesontown, that is before a move to Hamilton for a trio of decades, whilst he worked as Sanitary Inspector for the Council; that is before before returning to the city, where in 1946 at the age of eighty-one he passed away in Stobhill Hospital.