Scottish Sporting History

[morag]

At least we're harmless! My fits of passionate outbursts..sporting wise...would be for Scotland, world cup, less said the better, Dodgers, L.A. baseball team, and because of it's long standing rivalry, USC V Notre Dame, and, of course, the 'bowl' games, which tend to be more of an excuse to party than anything else.

[Richard]

Aye, harmless right enough, to anyone but ourselves

19th May 1957.
FOOTBALL.
Scotland beat Switzerland in a World Cup qualifier over in Basel, Switzerland, but had to do so wearing
football shirts borrowed from the Swiss. And NO, It's got nothing to do with us 'frugal' Scot's.

Discover why:
http://tdifh.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/19- ... thing.html
http://www.11v11.com/teams/scotland/tab ... witzerland

[Richard]

20th May 1878.
BASEBALL.
James McCormick.
McCormick was a right handed pitcher and was the first Scottish born baseball player to appear in a major
league game. He made his Major League Baseball debut on this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McCormick_(pitcher)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... ji01.shtml

20th May 1953.
FOOTBALL.
The story of the Coronation Cup.
This was a one-off mini tournament which was to be contested by 4 Scottish teams & 4 English teams.
The outcome would decide who were the, unofficial, champions of Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_Cup_(football)
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/1953- ... +Cup+Final
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Coronation+Cup

[Richard]

21st May 2005.
FOOTBALL.
Kilmarnock 4 Dunfermline 0.
There was more to this game than just the result.
This was referee, Willie Young, last game before retirement.
Not only that, he was applauded onto the pitch by the players & officials from both clubs.
A rare sight in Scotland.
http://www.kilmarnockfc.co.uk/articles/ ... 5931_29133

[Richard]

21st May 1994.
FOOTBALL.
Scottish Cup Final.
Dundee United win the Scottish Cup, for the first time in their history, due to a spectacular blunder from
Rangers goalkeeper, Ally Maxwell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Scottish_Cup_Final
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZl-dzYpq0I[/youtube]

[Richard]

22nd May 2008.
TELEVISION.
Scotsport.
One of the worlds longest running sports programmes, Scotsport, aired for the very last time on this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotsport
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDdxdA-8ESI[/youtube]

[Richard]

23rd May 1897.
MOTORBIKES.
Andrew James Guthrie.
Legendary Scottish motorcycle racer, Jimmie Guthrie, was born on this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Guthrie
http://www.helium.com/items/834270-reme ... ing-legend

23rd May 1961.
MARTIAL ARTS.
Duncan Airlie James, (born Duncan Campbell on this day), was a very successful Scottish Kickboxer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Airlie_James
http://www.ovguide.com/duncan-airlie-ja ... 0007b6b763

[Richard]

24th May 1964.
ATHLETICS (Running).
Liz McColgan.
McColgan, (born, Elizabeth Lynch, on this day), was one of Scotland's most successful middle/long distance,
female runners. Among her many achievements, was a Gold medal at the World Championships in Tokyo, 1991.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_McColgan
http://www.jonholmesmedia.com/clientinf ... izmccolgan
http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/p ... teid=10771
http://www.ardbruach.org.uk/Lady%20Liz%20McColgan.htm

24th May 1972.
FOOTBALL.
European Cup Winners Cup.
Rangers 3 Dynamo Moscow 2.
Rangers Football Club, on this day, achieved THE greatest result in the clubs history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Europ ... _Cup_Final
http://tdifh.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/24- ... s-cup.html
http://www.glescapals.com/rangers/rangers1972a.htm
http://www.therangersarchive.co.uk/

[Richard]

25th May 1985.
FOOTBALL.
The Rous Cup.
Scotland 1 England 0.
This would be the very first game of what would become a very short lived tournament.
Ardrossan's very own Roy Aitken was a part of this successful Scotland side. He wore the No4.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rous_Cup
http://www.scotlandfootballstats.co.uk/ ... -cup/1985/
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KkVQjikHI[/youtube]

25th May 1967.
FOOTBALL.
The European Cup.
Celtic 2 Inter Milan 1.
This was THE greatest result in the history of Celtic AND Scottish club football.
Celtic became the first and only Scottish team to ever win the European Cup and a young Saltcoats
man, by the name of Bobby Lennox, helped them to achieve it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_European_Cup_Final
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966%E2%80 ... ropean_Cup
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/1967- ... ropean+Cup
http://www.celticprogrammesonline.com/lisbon.htm
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7ON3mMMFSs[/youtube]

[Richard]

26th May 1424.
FOOTBALL.
The Football Act 1424 was passed by the Parliament of Scotland and became law, on this day.
This Act banned the playing of football.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_Act_1424
http://etudesecossaises.revues.org/index100.html

26th May 1909.
FOOTBALL.
Alexander Matthew Busby was born on this day.
Out of 5 or 6 truly world class Scottish football managers, in the history of the game, Matt Busby is
definitely one of them. How many football managers can say that they turned down the Real Madrid job ?
And he's got a pretty decent record too. Not bad for a wee Scotsman fae a wee Scottish mining village.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Busby
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/MANCbusby.htm

26th May 1932.
SWIMMING.
John Caldwell Wardrop, was born on this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Wardrop
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympic ... rop-1.html
http://www.marcolympics.org/jeux/1952/summer/swim_r.php

[Hughie]

26th May 1932.
SWIMMING.
John Caldwell Wardrop, was born on this day.

Hi Richard,
A few of us remember seeing a demo by the Wardrop twins at Saltcoats tidal pool back in 1954. I remember they demonstrated the American tumble turn between the catwalks.
There are some newspaper photos with some of us featured in this earlier topic.

[Richard]

Hughie: That was a good addition to the Wardrop story. Even though I don't know any of the people,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading and looking through that link with the old newspaper article and pictures.


28th May 1888.
FOOTBALL.
Celtic 5 Rangers 2.
It was on this day that these two teams, officially, first met.
They did so in front of a crowd of approximately 2000.
They would go on to become THE biggest and most powerful clubs in Scottish Football.
At the time of compiling this post, they have met over 400 times and are estimated to
be worth, in excess of £120million each year, to the Scottish economy.
A very brief history of the 2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Firm
The 28th May 1888:
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/1888- ... ,+Friendly
Neil McCallum:
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/McCallum,+Neil
James Kelly:
http://www.valeofleven.org.uk/famousfol ... kelly.html

Please note that the link to James Kelly, states that the first game between Celtic & Rangers finished 5.1,
this is inaccurate. I discovered several reports that claimed this but the true score was 5.2