Let the games begin

IN SEVEN years' time the eyes of the sporting world will turn on Glasgow, and the dear green place will play host to a memorable fiesta of sport. It will not be the first time that Glasgow has been the centre of sporting attention.

The Commonweath Games of 2014 will give the former second city of the empire a chance to relive old glories and regain its place as one of Europe's great centres for sport. Boxing, wrestling, rowing, badminton and rugby will be just five of the sports on display in which Glasgow has an enviable history.

In many ways the Commonwealth Games could help complete a process which began with the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and continued with the city's year as European culture capital in 1990. Glasgow reinvented itself from being reliant on heavy industry to becoming a modern European city where the arts and culture were given pride of place.

It would be absolutely fitting if sport could now help complete the regeneration of Glasgow, for it has been very much part of the city's fabric for more than a century.

Glasgow is often thought of as just a football city, and obviously the names of Celtic and Rangers are renowned worldwide, sometimes not always for the best reasons. But football is not the only sport in Glasgow. Indeed, football is not going to be in the Games, which is a pity, though, because Glasgow's footballing history is immense, starting with the world's first international match played between Scotland and England at Hamilton Crescent in 1872.

It is nevertheless fitting that the main home of the Games will be one of football's great temples, Hampden Park. Now limited to a 52,000 seat capacity - it will be 46,000 for the Games - Hampden holds several sporting records that, with the advent of all-seated stadia, can never now be beaten.

Reflecting Scotland's obsession with football, from 1903 when it was built until 1950 when Brazil's famous Maracana ground was erected, Hampden Park was the largest stadium of its kind in the world.

The world record for attendance at a match was set in 1937 when 149,415 people crammed in to see Scotland beat England 3-1. A new stand had been built and, believe it or not, that record figure was still 30,000 short of Hampden's then official capacity.

"Imagine three of the present Hampdens on top of each other and you get an idea of the size of that crowd," said Bob Crampsey, the doyen of Scottish sport historians. "That was the official figure but I'm sure there were more inside."

That same year saw a world record set for a club match when Celtic beat Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Final in front of 146,433 spectators. Both figures still stand as European records, the world marks having been overtaken by matches at the Maracana.

Hampden also holds other European records - 130,000 people saw the magnificent European Cup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960, while ten years later 136,505 spectators paid to get in for the Celtic v Leeds United European Cup semi-final. The former figure is a record for any European final, while the latter is the record for any UEFA competition.

Crampsey, who lives near Hampden, recalls how close the stadium came to becoming the world centre of football.

"Queen's Park were hugely influential as a club in the early days of football, and they might well have ended up like the MCC in cricket or the Royal and Ancient club in golf," he said. "Don't forget, they were also founder members of the Football Association in England."

As it happened, the gentlemen players of Queen's Park left Hampden as their legacy, the present location being actually the third Hampden Park. Crampsey recalls how Glasgow was once the only city in the world boasting five stadia which could all officially hold 50,000 spectators or more - Hampden, Ibrox, Celtic Park, Shawfield, and Cathkin Park, home to the defunct Third Lanark FC. And many people claim Firhill once hosted 55,000 fans for a Scotland-Ireland match.

Boxing was the city's second sport for decades. Shawfield had 40,000 spectators for Benny Lynch's fight against Peter Kane in 1937. That Scottish boxing attendance record was overtaken nine years later when Jackie Paterson defended his world flyweight title against Liverpool's Joe Curran at Hampden.

"That was the heyday of boxing in the city and it carried on into the 50s and 60s," said Crampsey. "There was a lot of boxing at that time, mostly at the lower weights."

Glasgow really was sports mad in the past. Football grounds often doubled as athletics stadia, and indeed in 1925 Hampden was the scene for Eric Liddell's final appearance in Britain before the Olympic 400m gold medallist went off to be a missionary.

Speedway was once a huge sport in the city, and though Clyde FC have long abandoned Shawfield, the stadium is still a first-class greyhound racing venue, as it has been for decades.

Hampden has even hosted tennis - six times Wimbledon champion Suzanne Lenglen played an exhibition match in front of 10,000 people in 1927.

Rugby is much the lesser light in Glaswegian sporting terms, but the city has provided dozens of internationalists and Hampden has hosted international matches - Scotland beat South Africa 6-0 there in 1906.

Rowing was a fixture on the Clyde at Glasgow Green, long before the Strathclyde Park facility was built. As for wrestling, not many people know that in recent years Scotland has been a leading centre of the sport in Britain, with the best clubs being situated on the north side of Glasgow.

Glasgow has also become a major centre for badminton, hosting the wold team championships earlier this year.

The city's population may have declined spectacularly in recent years, but Glasgow's sports facilities still act as a magnet for people from the surrounding area, and with the new National Indoor Sports Arena and National Velodrome set for the east end, there will be more attention focused on 'non traditional' sports and indeed sport in general.

And that's no bad thing for its people, says Bob Crampsey: "Yes, Glasgow is a great sporting city and I am sure the Games will be a great thing for Glasgow. But there is a lot to be done before then, in getting our competitors ready for instance.

"The Games must not just be seen to be Glasgow showing off its attractions for three or four weeks. The difficult thing will be to extend their life expectancy and make the benefits last for much longer."

That means making Glaswegians healthier by getting more of them involved in sport. Last week Alex Salmond said he hoped all Scots would walk a little taller if Glasgow won the bid - you can only do that if you are healthy, and making this nation a lot healthier might yet prove to be the best legacy of a revitalised Glasgow in 2014.