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The four page programme below covers the athletic events at the Edinburgh Southern Harriers Sports held in connection with the Empire Exhibition in 1908.  

The photograph above is of Thomas Campbell Hughes of Edinburgh Harriers who was one of the best club runners of the early 20th century.   He emigrated to America not long after the above photograph was taken and his grand daughter, Laura Bartlett, has been in touch with some information about him that is of genuine interest to  all interested in the history of Scottish distance running.   Before we look at his records as far as we can follow them, it might be worth looking at the club running scene at the time he was running.   The following paragraph is taken from Colin Shields’ centenary history of the Scottish Cross-Country Union, “Whatever the Weather”.

“Edinburgh Harriers, a larger club and one of the powers of the sport at that time also had an interesting fixture list.   It included 10 inter-club runs, with away trips including Galashiels and Glasgow, and an inter-club run and football match with Watsonians at Myreside on Christmas Day.   Club races ranged from a two and a half mile handicap to the 10 mile club championships and teams were also entered in both the Eastern and National Championships.    George McKenzie, who was to be Honorary President of the Union and gain 10 international vests for Scotland in the period 1909-14, was always an enthusiastic advocate of cross-country running.   In a newspaper interview, he said “It is distressing to see the number of young men in our public parks on a Saturday afternoon watching a football match, blue in the face and shaking with cold.   Compare them with the athletes who, with blood coursing through their veins, are enjoying healthy exercise with a harrier pack.”   He explained that on Saturday afternoons three packs – slow medium and fast – covered the laid trail through the country with beginners naturally starting with the slow pack and working their way up as they felt more capable.   “Any young man who cannot run four miles with a harriers slow pack should see a doctor at once”, said Mr McKenzie.

Recommended training was road runs twice weekly, together with the usual country run on a Saturday with a long walk at a good pace on a Sunday.   Rubbing was regarded as important and this was usually done by the club trainer.   Regarding diet it was accepted that the athlete could eat almost anything though moderation was the watchword of the athlete.   Cigarettes and alcohol were tabooed by the wise runner.”

That was the kind of environment that Hughes and others of his generation were used to and the context in which his running should be seen.   It should be noted that the times and performances were of a high standard and would not disgrace any ordinary club runner today.   

Thomas had three brothers who were also runners: two of them were also Scottish international runners.  They were RE (Robert Edgar) in 1906 when he finished sixteenth, and JD (John Dunlop) in 1911 and 1912 when he finished 33rd and thirteenth.   The three mentioned above all emigrated to the United States but the fourth, Alexander, who also ran for Edinburgh Harriers, fought in the first world war with the British forces and was killed in action.   

The fine trophy above was the Edinburgh Harriers Challenge Cup which was won by Thomas for the first time in 1901.   The National Cross-Country Championships in 1901 were held in Glasgow and TC Hughes finished third leading the Edinburgh team to second place behind Clydesdale Harriers who only defeated them by one single point.   Edinburgh was second by only one point behind Clydesdale Harriers.   The following year Hughes repeated the act.   Winning the club’s 10 mile race for the second time, he followed it with a very good run in the National at Myreside in Edinburgh where he was always up with the front runners, second at half distance, and again finishing third.   This time he was again the first Edinburgh runner to finish and again they were second team.   The man was running well and, as far as cross-country was concerned, clearly the best that Edinburgh had to offer.   But it would get better.

If 1901 and 1902 were good, 1903 was even better.   There was no Challenge Cup for TC this year but there was a bigger target to aim for.   In early 1903 discussions were held by the Irish and Welsh associations regarding an international race were enthusiastically supported by Scotland despite opposition from England who held themselves apart.   Apparently they felt that an international championship would detract from their own championships.   Being English, they suggested that their own championships, open to all-comers, should incorporate the international.   When it was clear that the other countries were going ahead with it anyway, they agreed to send a team of 12 runners to the first ever international cross-country fixture.   It was to be held at Hamilton Park Racecourse in the west of Scotland on 28th March.   As one of the top Scottish runners of the day, Hughes must have been motivated by the prospect.      The season progressed and the Scottish National championship was held on 14th March at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.   The race was won by an Irishman, PJ McCafferty running for the West of Scotland Harriers, which caused some problems, but Edinburgh won the team race handsomely from Clydesdale Harriers with Thomas in sixth place.   This ensured selection for the Scottish team to face England, Ireland and Wales two weeks later.   In this race he finished twenty first of the 40+ competitors and was one of the top six Scots from their team of 12.   The medal shown here was the winning team medal from the National of 1903.   It should maybe be pointed out that although the history books list the race as having been held at Hamilton Racecourse, it was run in the grounds of the Duke of Hamilton’s Palace.   The race started in front of the Racecourse Grandstand and after 300 yards went in to the grounds of the Duke’s estate returning to the racecourse for the finish.

In 1904 the championships were held at Whiteinch in Glasgow and Hughes second, but first in the team race.   How did this one come about?   The race was won by J Ranken of the Watsonians club with Hughes second across the line.   However Watsonians did not field a team for the team competition so Hughes was the first runner in the team competition.   First and second in the same race.   Edinburgh won the team race again.   Earlier in the year, he had won the trophy illustrated at the top of the page for the third time and was allowed to retain it.   It was a common practice at the time and many quite valuable trophies were given to runners at open meetings and at some championships.   eg Clydesdale Harriers won a gold cup at Newcastle after they had won the two miles team race in three consecutive seasons.   The trophy above is engraved Edinburgh Harriers Challenge Cup.   Presented by Mr TD Crichton”.  This run should have guaranteed him selection for the international match but whatever the reason, he did not run on the day.

There were two Hughes brothers in the Edinburgh team of 1905 – TD was second counting runner for the club over the 10 mile course when he finished in thirteenth place and RE was 33rd for the team that finished second to the West of Scotland Harriers.   It was a good omen for Robert for, although neither was to be in the international in 1905, he was to be in the team in 1906.   The National was run in both years at Scotstoun and Robert, despite not being in the first eight on the day was picked for the team.   The national  was to be held there a fortnight later.   He ran well to finish 16th and be a scoring runner for the Scottish team.   he following year, 1907, the Edinburgh Harriers squad had three of the Hughes brothers in the club squad of twelve.   The page below from the 1907 Cross-Country Championship lists the team.   The championship was held at Portobello, Edinburgh,  on 9th March.   None of the brothers was among the first eight or nine, and the club team was also out of the medals in fourth place – they did however finish two places better than their local rivals of Edinburgh Southern Harriers.   

The full programme can be seen  here

At Scotstoun in 1908 there were again no members of the family in the top ten, and this was to be the case until the championships of 1911.   The club was now being challenged in its Edinburgh base by the Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Northern Harriers clubs but was holding its own and keeping them at bay as far as results were concerned.   Then in 1911, JD Hughes became the third family member to gain international honours when he finished fourth in the National Championships at Pollockshaws in Glasgow.   He was the second finisher for the club and the club won the championship for the first time since 1904.   At the selection meeting on the Saturday evening his selection for the international at Newport, Monmouthshire on 25th March was confirmed.   The fixture had changed since Thomas had run in the first ever international in 1903 – France had joined the competing teams and the standard of running was higher.   The race distance however remained at ten miles.   Hughes was 33rd finisher in the race won by Jean Bouin of France.   The National Championships were back at the Scotstoun trail that the athletes knew well for the 1912 version of the event and Edinburgh Harriers were third.    JD Hughes finished tenth and was selected for the Scottish team of 12 for the international to be held at Saughton Park in Edinburgh.  He ran a much better race than before, maybe because he was running in Edinburgh rather than in Wales, maybe because of the earlier experience, and finished 13th.   The six scoring Scottish runners were all in the first 22 finishers and the team was second.  JD Hughes therefore won an international team silver medal.   

The club did not enter a team for the 1913 championships at all.   The Hughes brothers had all contributed greatly to the cross-country successes of the club and had contributed also to the Scottish cross-country team for a ten year period.   They did of course run on the track but were not as successful with no national medals or international appearances to their credit.   This is understandable because there was only the one international fixture a year which had only two men per event, and because the standard of running in the endurance events at the time was very high indeed.  If we look at the extract from the SAAA Championship programme of 1909 we will see that.

The complete programme can be seen at this link

Look at some of the names here.   Tom Jack won the Scottish 10 Miles Challenge Cup seven times between 1904 and 1911, also  won the Four Miles title and represented Scotland five times in the cross-country international.   Alex McPhee won the Scottish Four Miles title twice, won many medals for the ten miles championship , won the cross-country championship twice and had three representative appearances over the country.   Sam Stevenson won the Four Miles title twice as well as the Ten Miles, ran in the 1908 Olympics, won the cross-country championship and represented the country in the cross-country championships.   DF McNicol won the track Mile championship twice and was one of the best runners in Britain at the time.   The standard was undoubtedly high and to stand on the starting line and challenge these men was an indication of his ability.   All three brothers would have competed in track meetings from April through to September at open sports meetings, in invitation races and in championships at local, district and national levels and a trawl through the newspaper archives would be an interesting exercise.   For instance we know that TC ran in the half-mile open handicap at the meeting organised by Edinburgh Southern in May 1908 but was unplaced in the handicap.   The programme for this meeting can be found at  this link

The above profile was completed and added to the website and then ….  Mrs Bartlett, his grand daughter, came up with another medal.   This was for the North East Counties Cross-Country championships.   I contacted Archie Jenkins in Alnwick who has written two books aboput the history of athletics in the north east of England and his reply reads: 

“The North East Cross Country Association Championships were first held in the 1894/85 season and this certainly is one of their silver medals, either individual or team. The 3 badges on the medal depict the original flags of Northumberland, Durham and Cleveland (not sure if it was called Cleveland then, certainly the Teesside region). The association covered the area from the Tweed to the Tees.
I myself have many of the medals, which have now changed design to the NECAA (North East Counties Athletics Association). The medal now depicts the region with NECAA added. This took place in the 80s, but the term NE Cross Country Association was still in use until 2001 and then incorporated the women’s association, although there had been joint championships since the early 1990s.
As is often the case the original medal was more eye catching. “

He followed this with:

“I think there could be the following link with Hughes and the North East of England. For whatever reason the family may have lived in the Gateshead area in the 1890s. I would imagine the silver medal is a junior team medal. In 1895/96 T Hughes (Gateshead Congers, Gateshead Congregational Church Harriers, who eventually folded in the late 1959s/ early 60s) won the NECCCA junior championship. Elswick H won the team, so possibly the Congers were second. The following year Hughes retained his junior title now competing for Gateshead St Mary’s, the future Gateshead H. Elswick again won the team title, so St Mary’s may have been runner up. “

Mrs Bartlett felt that the family could have been living in England at that earlier point.   I contacted Arnold Black, Scottish athletics historian, who said: ” I was looking up for info on JD Hughes and discovered he was born in England in 1892. ”   And as we know already, the two were brothers.   Their sudden appearance as very good runners in Edinburgh is probably explained by their running in England before a move to the Capital.   The search for information goes on.   

All three emigrated.   It was Scottish athletics’ loss.

….

George Dallas, wonderful runner and a great relay racer

The Scots loved relays – sprint relays, Mile relays, mile medley relays, 4 x 100, 4 x 110, 4 x 220, 4 x 440, – anything that started on the programme with 4 x …   was eagerly looked forward to.   Of them all, it is suspected that the medley was the most popular consisting as it did of short sprints, long sprints and middle distance specialists.   It is surprising to note then that although the SAAA was established in 1883, the first medley relay championship was held in June, 1919.  

The preview in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of 23rd June that year read:  “Next Saturday’s gathering will possess a special interest from the inclusion for the first time of a relay race.   This is an event that has been steadily growing in favour for some years past and it is likely to prove a permanent addition to the championship list.   The issue is not by any means a foregone conclusion as some are inclined to think.   At the Edinburgh University Sports the other week a team representing Maryhill Harriers beat the University quartette but on Saturday last, the latter reversed the order of the finish, and as the excelled in all four sections of the race they may retain their supremacy at the next time of meeting.   Greenock Glenpark Harriers are also to be reckoned with, especially if Hector Phillips is able to assist them; and a second Glasgow club have been mentioned as likely to make a strong bid for the honour of being the first holders of the title of relay champions.”

Came the day and the new champions in a close finish were Maryhill Harriers with a team of G Dallas, H Goodwin, G Hamilton and S Colberry in in 3 minutes 55 seconds; second was Greenock Glenpark Harriers (Sergeant Hector Phillips, HD Soutter, JK Neave and AR Bollini.   It was noted that ‘also competed’ were Bellahouston Harriers and Glasgow University.   Three of the entered teams did not turn out, the programme suggested that it was because the relay took place at the very end of the programme, but it was nevertheless one of the most interesting relay races ever run in the district.   It should be noted that in the half mile, Sgt H Phillips won from G Dallas, Phillips had also been second in the quarter, Bollini, Neave and Colberry had taken part in the 220 and Goodwin, Bollini and Hamilton had run in the 100 which suggested that the event coming late in the programme was not really a reason for not turning out a team.   Regardless, Maryhill were the first winners of the country’s relay championship. 

The following year a Maryhill team won again from West of Scotland in 3 minutes 47 1/5th seconds with three of the previous year’s winners out – the team was Dallas, Colberry, Goodwin and JB Bell.   Dallas had already won the 440y, Bell third in the 220y and second to Dallas in the 440y and Goodwin and Colberry had run in separate races without picking a medal.    

Eric Liddell

Maryhill were to dominate the relay with Edinburgh University over the first eleven years in which it was contested.   In 1921 Maryhill was going for a treble – two wins under their belt and a good team out that year as well.   Could they do it?  The weather was fine, the crowd at Celtic Park was approximately 5000 and the track was in good condition.   Their team consisted of Dallas, Bell, Colberry and JW Riach.   The treble was possible.  

The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report said “The Edinburgh University tem gave a fine display in the relay race, in which they displaced Maryhill Harriers of the honour that they had won on both previous occasions.   There was hardly any doubt regarding the outcome from the start.  McCormack established a lead of ten yards in the half mile, Liddell made an even greater contribution in the first furlong, GI Stewart lost nothing in the second, and in the finishing quarter, JM Davie made several yards, the Eastern team winning by a substantial margin.   The change of champions should still further popularise an event that is admittedly one of the most fascinating of athletic contests.”

Several of the relay men had run already: Liddell won the  100 yards and also took the 220 yards in which Colberry also ran, Dallas and RB Bell ran in the 440 yards.   The winning time was 3 minutes 43 seconds.

That was the first of a series of victories for the Edinburgh University students.   In 1922 the only man from the previous year to line up for them was Liddell and they won in 3 minutes 40 seconds – a bit quicker than in the previous year.   Held in Edinburgh in wet weather the report was brief to the point of dismissive:  “Maryhill Harriers failed to regain the relay honour which they lost to Edinburgh University last year.   It was not generally expected that they could field a team to beat Brown, Liddell, Dunn and IM Robertson and, as a matter of fact, they did not even get second place.”   That is the report in its entirety.   Second team was West of Scotland Harriers, Maryhill was third and Shettleston fourth..    

The following year, 1923, though, it came down to the big two of relay racing again with the championship held at Hampden Park.  “After winning the relay race for two years Maryhill Harriers have been outdone by Edinburgh University AC, who on Saturday , thanks largely to Liddell’s running on the second furlong, secured their third successive win.”   The Edinburgh team of Brown, Dunn, Liddell and Morrison defeated Maryhill’s quartet of Harrison, Davidson, Burns and JG McCall by five yards in 3 minutes 43.6 seconds.  

In 1924 the title was really up for grabs again because of the absence of Edinburgh University.  

Having won the 100 and 220 yards double in three consecutive years, Eric Liddell decided to go one better and in 1925 he won 100, 220 and 440 yards championships and this may have persuaded Edinburgh University to withdraw.   Certainly they could have fielded a good team but without Liddell it would not have been nearly as good.   “With Liddell running in the relay the chances of Edinburgh University were always obvious, but both RB Hoole (who ran the half mile), and AF Clarke made the champion’s task much simpler by their running.   Liddell’s time in this quarter was unofficially recorded at 51 sec..”  

The 1925 championships saw Maryhill win back the title by two yards and also the first run of the excellent Walter Calderwood in the championships.   They won by five yards from West of Scotland Harriers.   Their team being Calderwood, Duncan, Anderson and McCrae as against the West squad of McIntyre, Burns, Walker and Hope.   Edinburgh University (Finkelstein, Watson, Osborne-Jones and Knipe), Glasgow University (Milligan, Robb, ? and Graham) and Glasgow High School (Riddell, Ward, McLean and McLaren) also ran and the winning time was 3:44.

In the 1926 race five clubs competed and the race was won by Edinburgh University by fifteen yards from Maryhill Harriers in 3 minutes 41 3/5th seconds.   The University team was led off by Hugh Maingay   ,one of the founders of the Atalanta Club, and he was followed by RD Allison, AD McDonald and RB Hoole, while Maryhill was represented by LS Campbell, CH Cowie, DC Duncan and AH Graham.   Allison had already won the 220 yards and been third in the 100, and Hoole had been a close second in the 440 yards.   Other competing teams were West of Scotland, Glasgow University and Edinburgh Harriers.  

Despite the strong runners in other clubs, the battle between Edinburgh University and Maryhill was a hard fought one and it carried on into the next summer’s championship.   The event was held, as in 1926, at Hampden Park in Glasgow on 25th June.   There was no cricket held that Saturday because of the rain and that may be the reason for the longer than usual report on all events.   That on the relay read:  “The relay race was the most interesting since the series was instituted, and Maryhill Harriers thoroughly deserved their victory over the holders, not only because of their smartness in the hand-over but by the sound running of the four members of their team.   Most interesting was the duel in the half-mile between Donald Maclean and JD Hope, and the recovery of the first names after being outpaced entering the straight was one of the features of the meeting.   Not only did Maclean run well, but Andreoli and T Maclean performed so satisfactorily in the furlongs that AH Graham was left with several yards margin in his favour when he came to contest the last quarter with Hoole.   The quarter mile champion could make no impression on the Maryhill man who has within recent weeks appeared to find his old form.”

Earlier in the afternoon, Hoole had won the 440 yards, Hope the half mile and D Maclean the Mile.   The Maryhill team, already named, won by three yards in  3 minutes 45 3/5th seconds from Edinburgh University’s team of HC Maingay, RD Allison, AD McDonald and RB Hoole.   Glasgow University and West of Scotland Harriers were the only other teams forward for the race.

EUAC 4 x 440y Relay team, Hugh Maingay on the left.

In the lead up to the relay at the SAAA Championships in June 1928, HC Maingay of Edinburgh University ‘justified all the good things that had been said about him’ by winning the 880 yards title from Donald Maclean of Maryhill Harriers, who later won the Mile.   Even although Maingay won in a time much below his best, and Maclean had a very easy task in the Mile, a hard race was envisaged when they faced each other on the half mile starting leg of the relay.   However reports tell us that he relay race was notable for the fact that Maingay again defeated Maclean over the half mile distance’.   That distance was not decisive and Maryhill won with a team of Maclean, WP Andreioli, A Kennedy and AH Graham.   The EUAC team of Maingay, FP Reid,  RD Allison, and D Paton finished a mere five yards behind the Maryhill squad who returned a time of  3 minutes 41 3/5th seconds.  

The Glasgow Police Sports were held at Ibrox the week before the SAAA Championships and one of the attractions on the programme was a Mile Relay – a good run-out for teams the week before the National Edinburgh University had a good team out with Hugh Maingay, in excellent form with several outstanding runs to his credit already, ran the half mile against J Calder of Beith ‘who had shown himself the best of  the West half-milers’ he was timed at 1:59.0 and finished his stage only eight yards in front of Calder.   The University advantage was added to by Paton and the race was practically over when Howland took the baton.  FP Reid ran the quarter for them and they won in 3 minutes 50 seconds, 15 yards in front of Beith.    Howland was the subject of much discussion on his eligibility since he had run several races for the Achilles Club that season.    Beith Harriers, based on that and other performances were thought to be in with a chance of winning the SAAA Mile Medley Relay when it was held on 22nd June at Hampden Park.  

In the National the situation was different of course.   eg where the relay men had almost all raced before that event on both weekends, the standard was much higher at the National.   Maingay won the half-mile comfortably, Maclean had lost a lot of his form and was second in the mile and did not run in the relay being replaced by WH Calderwood who had already won the Mile and Calder was out f the medals in the 880y.   These three were representing their club in the half mile leg of the relay and Maingay was the ‘winner’ with Calderwood second.   Edinburgh went on to win with the team being completed by D Paton, RL Howland and FP Reid, by 10 yards from Maryhill (Calderwood, T McLean, AD Turner and HH Devlin) and West of Scotland (C Freshwater, JG Scott, W Taylor and AF Clark).   Beith?   They were fourth with Shettleston last.   The winning time was 3 minutes 43 3/5th seconds.

Introducing the relay to the championships had been a great success.  There had only been two clubs who had ever won the race in its eleven years but there had been many excellent races and there had been challenges from other clubs, notably West of Scotland, but the title had been swapped between Maryhill and Edinburgh University.   It was not a pattern that would remain throughout the 1930’s. 

Maryhill’s Donald McLean

Jim and Carol’s athletes at Summit High School are back in action for the summer season: first results are for the Madras meet which he says were held in a very cold 37 degrees F, ie just under 3 degrees Celsius.   Anyway, the result was a clear victory for Summit in both men’s and women’s groups.   They won the Men’s by 111 points to 34, and the women’s by 142 points to 2.   Which is the story of the meet: eg in the men’s 100m they had eight of the first ten finishers and in the women’s, there were also eight of the first ten, including the first four.   In the 1500m, they had seven of the first ten men, including the first four, and the women had the first five of the nine competitors.    One could call it a promising start to the season.

The second meet was against rivals Bend HS and it was a wee bit warmer – around 50 degrees and the result was a mixed one.   In the Varsity age group, Summit won both competitions, 104 to 41 for the Men and 97 to 48 for the women.   In the (younger) Junior Varsity Group Bend was victorious winning by 124 to 108 in the men’s and 106 to 103 in the women’s. 

Two meets then off on a spring break – Jim says most go to Hawaii where it’s a wee bit warmer at this time of year.

Break over, the biggest meet of the year – the Oregon Relays – came up on 13th and 14th April.   Jim himself reports:

“We entered three 14 year old freshmen in the 3000 and all ran personal best plus a VARSITY girl in the 3000 who also recorded a pb.   The boys DMR – our lead off leg (1200) got knocked on his backside after 450 meters – scrambled to find the baton and finished seventh.   That was on the Saturday, next day we came back to set a school record in the 4×800 finishing second to Wilson from Long Beach California.   In the Girls DMR Summit finished 2nd – Halliday from Mountain View is a 4:46 miler.   The girls won the 4×800 by 10 seconds.   More bad luck in the sprint Medley: the lead off leg dropped baton coming out of the block – our 800 runner moved the team from 7th to 3rd place overall.

All in all – good effort from the kids.”

The initials might seem strange to Scottish athletics fans but put simply the DMR is the Distance Medley Relay where the runners cover 1200 – 400 – 800 – 1600m  and the SMR is the Sprint Medley Relay of 200 – 200 – 400 – 800 metres.  The latter is quite like the Scottish version where the stages are run in the order 400 – 200 – 200 – 800m.

Full results are at   https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/318089/results

A week later came the Summit Invitational meet where they entered 20 – half a dozen were only 14 year olds – and they came away with 12 personal best times.   It was also a brighter and warmer day with the temperature in the 50’s.   Full results can be found at   https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/315957/results .

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The State Championship Qualifying meeting was held at the start of May and again the boys and girls from Summit performed well.   On a day when the temperature was 52 degrees F, and with an 18 mph wind, which was great for the sprinters and jumpers who had it at their back but nor so good for the distance runners, the relevant results were as follows.

Qualified – 2 girls – 800/1500/3000   – 2 boys – 800 and 1 in 1500

Table shows district times and seasonal bests

The high spot for most Summit athletes were the State Championships – where they always did well.   2018 was no exception with the girls winning their side of things.   The full results are   here    Note particularly the Girls 800, 1500 and 1500.

Eddie, second from right, with some of his runners and Springburn club mates:

John Fleming says of this photograph with many of Eddie’s best athletes included:

Ian Murray is behind the shield then it is me (wearing our Scottish Schools’ tracksuits) then Willie Paterson, Tommy Patterson with Harry Gorman behind them. Eddie’s son , Gordon is in front of Tommy and then between Tommy and Eddie is James Martin (Harry’s brother in law). Eddie’s 2nd son,Graeme, is next (in stripes)- Graeme sadly died. The final athlete is Johnny Buntain.  I think this was taken in 1974 outside Huntershill.. 
It was taken on a regular training night but for some reason the picture was missing National Gold team medalists:- Adie Callan, Graham Crawford Jim Lawson, Joe McLean, Donald McLeod, Robert Craig as well as seniors Eddie Knox and Iain Young. The lad between Graeme Williamson and Bill Ramage is Derek Connacher, who was 9th individual in the Scottish Schools Middles Race (more than 300 runners) and because he was the 5th Lenzie counter he didn’t get a team medal ! 

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Eddie was an excellent runner who ran for Scotland on the track and over the country.   His  range was wide – from 880 yards to six miles and steeplechase on the track, road racing including the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay and cross-country.   When his running days were over, he did not walk away – he stayed to coach generation after generation of young athletes and arguably did more for Springburn than he had done as a runner.   And that had been considerable.  The sheer numbers of trophies won was staggering.   For instance between 1962 and 1981 his Under 15 teams won medals in 16 national championships out of 19 – each team had of course four to count which meant at least five runners per race, so 80 individual medals at national level for the boys to take home.   Of course he had Under 17 and Under 20 teams under his care at the same time – the numbers not as great as the Under 15’s because at 15 many have to spend more time on their school work or are starting to earn their living in the workplace and the numbers inevitably fall for reasons unconnected with athletics or coaches.   The numbers were large but, another surprising fact, they almost all came from the same area of Kirkintilloch and Lenzie.   Arthur Lydiard said that you can find champions anywhere – Eddie found his almost all in the same small area.   We really need to find out more about him and his methods as far as we can.  

The Springburn team at Bute Highland Games Medley Race: Eddie on the right.

Eddie’e career as an amateur athlete was a relatively short one.   After coming through the ranks as a Youth and a Junior, his senior career lasted just three years – but it was meteoric.   On the track he had best times of  9:06 for Two miles, 14:05 for Three Miles and 9:27 for the 3000m steeplechase.     He won the SAAA Three Miles in 1960 and in the same year he was sixth in the National and was selected for the Scottish team for the International Championship.    As a Youth he had been fourth and sixteenth in the National and as a Junior in 1957 he was eighteenth.   As a Senior it was 6th/36th/15th.    In the Edinburgh to Glasgow, his first run was in 1957 when he was on Stage Seven and moved the club from eight to fifth with second quickest time of the day.   We know he ran the same stage the following year but no details are available about his performance.   In 1959 he was sixth on Stage One and in 1960 – his own personal annus mirabilis – he took over in fifth place on Stage Two after Tom O’Reilly had run well on Stage One, and moved through to second with the third fastest time of the day.   His last run in the E-G was in 1961, again on Stage Two when he took over on Stage Two in eighteenth and held that position – by the time Tom came to run on the last stage the club had climbed to fourteenth and that was where he kept it.   He ran as a pro after that for a while but crept back into amateur athletics soon after.    That’s when the coaching started.

We can begin by looking at the record.   He started coaching in the mid 60’s and we take the years from 1963 to 1986.  At National Championships level his teams won a total of 35 sets of medals, of which 12 were gold championship medals.   In the individual championships, his runners won 29 medals, of which 14 were gold.   The best year was arguably 1973/’74 when Springburn Harriers won the Under 13, Under 15, Under 17 and Under 20 team championships.   The results were of course even better in the Midland Districts (until 1975) and Western Districts (from 1976) where the opposition was less numerous but contained all the strongest clubs such as Victoria Park, Shettleston and Cambuslang.   In fact when the West District started their Young Athletes relays (under 13, under 15 and under 17 running in that order, Springburn won for the first six years in succession until Clydesdale Harriers took the title in 1981/82.    There were also many titles won on the track in all the age groups as well as in the Scottish Schools championships.   Graduates from the Eddie Sinclair Academy of Excellence, had their been such a thing, included Eddie Knox, Duncan Middleton, Graham Williamson and Steven Begen.   We could go on quoting similar statistics but the point is made.   One more point has to be made however: many coaches who have success with boys teams, fail to deliver senior athletes at the end of the process.   Eddie’s record is better than that – the four above were all senior internationalists, three of them won British Championships and one won gold, silver and bronze at world cross-country championships.   If the team/individual medals in the national cross-country championships are looked at we see that there were 5 team and 9 individual medals won at U20 level compared with 8 team and 2 individual at U13.   There were more U20 individual golds than at U13 or U15.   

It was really a quite remarkable record, made the more so by two more facts –

• that he worked on his own – there was no team of supporting coaches following his guidelines.   
• that his athletes came from the relatively small communities of Kirkintilloch and Lenzie with a few from Bishopbriggs.

Graham Crawford

First-class athlete and member of Springburn Harriers Graham Crawford, who was coached by Harry Gorman at the club and says that he learned a lot from Harry, has been a member of the club for a long time, says of Eddie:

“I have strong memories of the man from club nights and races and I’d sum him up in one word- passion.

“Eddie spoke with conviction. He was like an old style tough football manager who could get his team totally fired up. When he talked you listened. He held the stage. When Eddie roared at you in the final stages of a race you always somehow dug deeper, no matter how tired you imagined you were at that point.

As I’ve grown older I’ve found myself thinking more and more that if he had been my coach I’d have run over broken glass for him. I go to races these days to support the sons of a friend and I find that I remind myself of Eddie, chasing the lads around different parts of the course roaring them on. I get completely caught up in the moment, willing them to get everything out of themselves. That was Eddie, he just wanted you (demanded, expected?) to go to your very limit, ask every question of yourself. Why run if you don’t do that? That would have been his bare boned philosophy.

Eddie trained his athletes like most serious runners of that era, no fancy methods just straightforward hard work with a healthy mix of good sustained runs, often with a burn up at the end, and plenty of intense, quality and high rep track work. No – or little – gym work as far as I know.

He had a reputation for training teenagers very hard. It produced strong contenders and champions, and brought accusations in certain quarters that lesser runners were used as cannon fodder for Graham Williamson, ultimately to their detriment. I remember the same being said about Naylor and Nat Muir at Shettleston.

It was also said that during a period of doldrums for Springburn, nobody really turned up except Eddie, Jack Crawford and Williamson. And ask me to name the three most significant people in the club in my lifetime, and I suppose I may have the longest ongoing continuing connection, and it would have to be those three for their constancy, work and impact.

What Eddie did with Williamson was immense. Eddie asked everything of Graham and Graham had the makeup to respond to those demands. The teenage Williamson trained extremely hard under Eddie, with a heavy emphasis on frequent quality training.

Graham was a hard as nails, a ‘leave nothing behind’ racer because that is how Eddie trained him all through his teens. I’ll leave others to argue over the merits of that but I find it very hard to be critical of Eddie. I know stories, and I know he had his flaws and failings (as I acknowledge my own), but to me, his positives – his passion, commitment, drive, and motivational qualities – overrode everything else. He was a force of nature who had very strong views, a cutting tongue and a strong sense of humour.”

[Graham is quick to point out that “anything I have said about my regard for Eddie takes nothing away from the marvellous support and encouragement I got later from Harry Gorman when he coached me for a number of years. Harry gave me a lot.“]

Eddie Knox

Eddie Knox was Eddie Sinclair’s first international champion: in his first run in the ICCU World Championships he finished fifth, then next time, in 1967, he struck gold.   Colin Shields, in his history of the SCCU, says: “Eddie Knox followed Ian McCafferty as Junior international champion in an exciting race.   He was in the leading group throughout and edged his was into the lead 400 yards from the line, holding on for a two second victory over a Belgian.”  

   In the early/mid 60’s Eddie had a quartet of Eddie Knox. Duncan Middleton, Harry Gorman and Ian Young.  Knox won the International Cross-Country Championship, Middleton was one of the best 880 yards runners in the United Kingdom, Gorman was a very good middle distance runner  who was unfortunate not to get a SAAA title and after leaving school, Ian Young was a member of the really great Edinburgh University team.    Knox confirmed all that Graham Crawford said above about Eddie’s passion and determination but added that ‘you didn’t question his sessions’, you did what he said to the letter or you moved out of the squad.  He was quick to add, however, that Eddie did a lot for him personally.  However this first group that he worked with all achieved wonderful things in their career and one of them, Harry Gorman, went on to coach new generations of Springburn Harriers to success himself.  

From Eddie Knox, the first of his international runners to the man who was probably his last: Steven Begen.   Steven says

Steven Begen winning the Junior National

Was there any single thing that marked out Eddie’s runners from the rest of the scene, that accounted for the tremendous success of his runners?   Yes, there was, and it reflected the coach’s values in a very practical way.   Eddie’s runners always gave 100% effort.   They never eased up. This was, to me, most easily seen in the Under 17 age group  probably because I was coaching some runners in that age group at the time.   Races for Under 17’s generally started with a bit of a rush and went pretty hard for the first third of the distance, then eased up for the middle third before starting to race properly again for the last third of the race.   The Springburn youngsters just didn’t run that way: there was no steadying up in the middle of the race, there was no wee ‘sleep’ anywhere after the gun went.   They started hard and kept going hard all the way to the finish.   Others learned from that and soon everyone was trying to get their athletes to go from gun to tape.   But  they had a job on their hands. 

Eddie, second from the left with some of his runners in the early 60’s – Ian Young is fourth from the left 

Ian Young was one of his best athletes in the 1960’s who went on to become one of the Edinburgh University team that is generally recognised as being the best University distance running squad ever.   Ian has this to say about training with Eddie.

 “I joined Springburn Harriers as a 15 year old in 1960 because I was beating fellow pupils at Lenzie Academy in cross country and track and wanted to progress.  There was no athletics club in Kirkintilloch at that time and local boys tended to go to Springburn as their nearest athletic club.  At that time. Springburn had 2 significant figures in Scottish athletics in Tommy O’Reilly, 2-time Scottish 3000 metres Steeplechase champion and National Record Holder and Eddie Sinclair, Scottish 3 Mile champion in 1960.  The club also had a wider spread of athletes in those days with sprinters, notably John Young, a 10 sec 100 yards performer and field eventers like David Cairns, Scottish champion high jumper and GB internationalist behind Crawford Fairbrother.

I have no great memory of when Eddie specifically started coaching me, but he trained every day and because we lived fairly close to one another in Kirkintilloch, I tended to go to his house in Eastside after school and we would go out for a run from there.  In the summer we would do interval training, firstly at St Augustine’s School in Possilpark where Springburn Harriers met in the summer months and later at Huntershill when the local authority took over land which the Harriers owned and laid out a track with changing facilities.  Eddie tended to work us on 220 or 440 yard repetitions with a jogged recovery in between as per the Franz Stampfl regime.  Such success as I had, winner of many Dunbartonshire schools half-mile and mile races, culminating in the Scottish Schools mile championship in 1963 was as a result of his coaching these sessions, stop watch in hand and keeping his own meticulous notes of progress or lack of it, throughout the season.

It was during the winter season of cross-country and road races that Eddie came into his own.  He had a number of measured road runs around Bishopbriggs and Auchinairn which he led out, initially as a group run but then at an appointed spot as a ‘may the best man win’ race to the finishing point, then a jog back to the club house.

He had a favourite route in Kirkintilloch of 5 miles called the ‘Milton – Auchenreoch’ starting and finishing at the corner of Milton Road and Kilsyth Road, ironically outside the cottage where Johnny Stirling, the renowned Victoria Park and Hugh Barrow coach lived.  This was used mainly to check progress and improvement amongst his runners.  He would start us off at staged interval, all handicapped according to current performance so that the weaker runners could have a chance of beating the backmarkers who were always champing at the bit to get off in pursuit.

Another favourite training ground of Eddies was a hill called ‘Skimmers Brae’ at Birdston farm near Kirkintilloch.  This could be ploughed field or heavy grassland depending on season and he judged individual fitness by whether or not you could run from bottom to top without stopping.  This trial was only slightly less of a hardship than the Sunday training runs from Eddies house which involved 10-12 miles on the foot of the Campsie Hills.  Outwith the stamina building and speed building training methods which Eddie used, he also adopted a number of practices from the methods used by the professional or ‘pedestrian’ athletes of th time who were banned from amateur athletics, but where the town of Kirkintilloch had a good few exponents, including latterly, Eddie himself.

He used to have me train with lead sheet cut like an insole inside my trainers to strengthen my legs and make me feel like I was ‘flying’ when I took them out to race.  He would have us do 50 -100 yard sprints along the canal bank wearing lead insoles or carrying a 5lb dumbbell in each hand (my father’s foundry was useful for making these) to build up the ability to put in a sudden break in a race to demoralise the opposition.  Other tactics which he taught his runners were to make your break during road or cross country races as you neared the top of a hill, no matter how you were feeling, because you would demoralise the opposition and be gaining ground by racing down the other side while they were struggling to the top and then saw the gap you had opened up!  Another simple instruction was to run close to a wall if there was one bordering the route in a road race because you got a psychological lift from the feeling of speed that that gave you.  Again, recognising that his training built strength rather than speed, Eddie always encouraged us to break in the 3rd lap of a mile race or the second last lap in 2 or 3 mile races and make it a long run for home to kill off the ‘speed merchants’.

Eddie was passionate about the sport and gave his time and knowledge unstintingly to those who would take it on board and work to improve.  He did not limit himself to one age group, tending to use the same methods for all ages but limiting the distances run in training or repetitions or speeds on the track depending on age group, so in this way he could be coaching runners at different stages.  No one wanted a rollicking from Eddie which came if he felt you were not putting in the work or trying hard enough.  Much has been said about Eddie’s methods ‘burning out’ young athletes at an early age or causing them to have injuries which ended their running careers.  I tend to view such examples as guys that had achieved what they wanted to do then moved on to other things or physically had got to the point at which they were not going to develop further and gave up with at least some notable achievements behind them which they would not have had without Eddie’s support, encouragement and training methods. 

Eddie’s skill was in enthusing and bringing on young athletes to develop their talents.  When we reached senior level, for example when I went off to Edinburgh University, we tended to know what we needed to do to run at a high level and had the maturity to know what had to be done to maintain this – hence the significant number of Springburn Harriers who went on to achieve honours as seniors because of the knowledge which Eddie had generously imparted to every one of his protégées, not least of which was the inherent belief that, on the day, you could beat anyone.  A generous person and a great motivator.”

Eddie Sinclair’s contribution to coaching, to Springburn Harriers and to Scottish athletics deserves to be better remembered than it is.

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