Photograph from The Rangers Story Facebook Group
When I started running in the 1950’s there were three major athletics meetings held before big crowds in Scotland. There was the Edinburgh Highland Games which was held at Murrayfield on a short grass track. The crowds were big, there were many top ranked athletes taking part but it was on grass which could be slippery when wet. The short track made it difficult for distance runners to judge pace really accurately. Then there were two which were held on standard sized cinder tracks – Cowal Highland Games and the Rangers Sports. Cowal had the attraction of the trip doon the watter and the pipers practising on the boat on the way down and the really dramatic finish with the march of 1000 pipers coming over the hill from the houses above the start of the back straight. The really big one however was the Rangers Sports. It had everything – a super track well marked and a well laid out infield for the field events, the very highest class of athlete that you could wish to see – Olympians, World Record Holders – competing against each other and against the top Scots of the day, and there were many open events for locals to run in. Occasionally one of the international athletes would have a run out in an open race. For club runners and officials to compete on the same track and to brush against the shoulders of the mighty on the way on to or from the track was inspirational in a way that no other event on the calendar could manage. The picture above show just how big the crowd could be as well as the range of ages striving to get the best view possible of the race on the track. This meeting is the one held in 1955 before a crowd of 50,000.
Photograph from The Rangers Story Facebook Group
The race that grabbed all the headlines with the three main contenders in the finishing straight battling it out was the men’s half mile. The field included Tom Courtney of the USA, Brian Hewson of the AAA’s, Derek Johnston also of the AAA’s and Audun Boysen of Norway. All superb runners and record holders. Johnston had won the British Empire Games 800m in Vancouver in 1954, Courtney had won the NCAA 880 yards title in 1955 and would go on to win the Olympic 800m in 1956, Brian Hewson had won the AAA’s 880 in 1953 and 1954 and took silver at the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver and Audun Boysen had set three Norwegian records over 1000m the last one being in 1955 when he ran 2:19. All champions and all went head to head – not as part of a three ring circus grand prix either. said the ‘Glasgow Herald’, and with some justice. The report on the race said –
“ Never has so brilliant a half mile been held in Scotland – eight yards covering the first four, three of whom returned times within the previous all-comers record of 1 min 50 sec. T Courtney (US), BS Hewson and DJN Johnston (AAA’s) and A Boysen (Norway) have all been in record breaking form in recent days so when the first lap, with S Oseid (Norway) in the lead ended in 52.8 sec, and Boysen, holder of the record, went to the front, a stirring finish was inevitable. Up the finishing straight it was still anybody’s race. Only over the last 30 yards did Courtney gain the front, and despite determined efforts by Hewson and Johnston the American held on and won by half a yard in the marvellous time of 1 Min 42.9 sec. His performance was rated even better than the time indicates for a troublesome wind faced the runners in the finishing straight and the track was very loose – factors that may well have added two seconds to the time and deprived Cortney of a world record.”
The “Scotsman” went one better the the “Herald” when they described the race as follows: “The 40,000 spectators saw what must surely have been the best and most thrilling half-mile race ever run in Britain, one that from the start was tense. Pacemaker was a Norwegian runner, Sven Olseid, closely followed by a compatriot, A Boysen the record holder. Over the last 200 yards there was a great struggle between T Courtney, USA, and the AAA’s runners B Hewson and DJN Johnston, In a race that was the very essence of athletics, the American won by half a yard, but the first three runners all beat the Scottish all-comers record. Courtney’s time of 1 min 49.2 sec was only 6-10ths of a second outside the world record.”
So many superlatives, and even if we take the “Scotsman’s” estimate of the attendance, tens of thousands of Glaswegians got to see these world stars in action, and many Scottish club athletes got to see them up close and walk beside them on the track or the infield. How much motivation was there for the young lads in that picture at the top of the page? Very top end of Primary School, first or second year secondary seeing a race like that and feeling the emotions of the crowd. As for the runners – from Victoria Park, from Monkland Harriers, from Clydesdale or Shettleston or Maryhill – they could tell all their stories to friends and club mates for weeks afterwards. The athletics events went from the sprints to an invitation One Hour Race which was won by George King of Greenock Wellpark Harriers from Hugo Fox of Shettleston Harriers with Dave Clelland of Falkirk Victoria Harriers with a distance of 10 miles 1625 yards.
The race had been set up to help Ian Binnie of Victoria Park better the Scottish records for the hour run but he was forced to retire after eight miles. The Scotsman says:
Photograph from The Rangers Story Facebook Group
Although it was a Sports afternoon, it was at the Rangers headquarters and there were the 5-a-side matches which must have accounted for a fair number of the spectators which of course included many of the athletes and officials seen in the picture above lounging in the sunshine behind the goals. Celtic beat Hibernian in the final 2 – 0 with the goals coming from Fernie and Peacock. In the Semis, Hibs beat Third Lanark 2-1 and Celtic beat Partick Thistle 3 – 0.