IT’S best known for football, but Glasgow’s Ibrox stadium was once a “shop window” for top level athletes including national champions, world record holders and Olympic medal winners.
A highlight on the venue’s calendar was the Glasgow Police Sports athletics meeting, and Times Past reader and regular contributor Ian Hutcheson remembers it well.
In addition to a parade of international stars, the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, also included a school relay race.
“Not many teams win at Ibrox, but we did,” he says. “Admittedly, our triumph was at an athletics meeting, not in a football match, but any victory at Ibrox Stadium lives long in the memory.”
He adds: “And I still have the ‘trophy’ as a memento of the occasion.”
The Glasgow Police Sports started in the late 1800s, but by the end of the Second World War, it had grown in size and reputation, attracting top names in athletics from around Scotland and beyond, such as famous miler Graham Everett, American hurdler Harrison Dillard and Scottish sprinter Les Piggot.
In 1952, our sister newspaper the Glasgow Herald reported under the headline ‘Magnificent Times at the Police Sports’ that “no fewer than six Scottish all-comers records were established on Saturday before a crowd of nearly 36,000” and the nations featured included Jamaica, Australia and New Zealand.
Ian recalls his experience of taking part around 1958.
“Ibrox Stadium was a challenging venue for us,” he says. “The vast bulk of the main stand was intimidating and being allowed to enter through the competitors’ impressive doorway made us feel we were entering a new and exciting world.
“A brief glimpse of the legendary marble staircase, and then we were into the bowels of the stand and the dressing room.
“So, this really was the big time, a feeling amplified when we made our way out on to the track - quite different from our experience of running on grass tracks laid out round the perimeter of a school rugby or football pitch.
“Here was a cinder track, and what’s more, there were spectators in the stand and on the terracing; but we had a race to run, and the nerves and excitement of the competition cancelled out any feelings of being awestruck by the impressive scale of our surroundings.”
The school event was the 4 x 220 yards relay race, and Ian and his team-mates – Dudley, Gordon and Willie - were representing Hyndland Secondary.
“The starter called us over and the teams took up their positions on the track; then a brief interval before the sharp crack of his pistol set the first runners off and running,” he says.
“Due to run the third leg, I remained at the start line under the main stand. From my position, the staggered start made it difficult to see how well our team was doing; then as the runners entered the straight, I could see that we were in the lead.
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“My teammate safely handed over the baton and I headed off, determined to claim the inside lane for the run round the bend. Success! Now, I hugged the track side curb as tightly as possible, determined to hold off any challengers attempting to overtake me. Then into the straight - the long straight - when I suddenly became aware of the noise from the crowd.
“All I could do was to just keep on running and concentrate on handing the baton safely on to our last runner. Mission accomplished, I was relieved that we were still in the lead, and I held my breath as I watched him speed round the bend and up the final straight to take the tape.”
Afterwards, he says, he met up with the rest of the team, “stunned” by what they had accomplished – and a little bewildered by the “odd” trophy they received.
“No podium or medal ceremony, but we were handed a voucher and directed to a room under the stand to exchange it for our prize,” he says.
“Eagerly, I opened the cardboard box I had been given to reveal the trophy – then, puzzlement at what was inside: an oval amber glass dish set in an ornate, silvery metal basket….”
He adds: “I had no idea what it was and, as a teenager, I could not envisage a use or a place for it in my life; but life moves on, and later my wife identified the object as a bon-bon dish.
“Knowing that would not have helped. I could hardly have boasted to my mates that I had won a bon-bon dish, but I shared in the glory of the team’s triumph when our victory was announced on the headmaster’s broadcast on the Monday morning - and we got extra braid on our blazers.”
Do you remember the Glasgow Police Sports? Get in touch with Times Past to share your stories and photos by emailing ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.cot.uk or write to Ann Fotheringham, Glasgow Times, 125 Fullarton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG.
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