Celtic Park – Cycling

Details

Ref: Cycling events at Celtic Park
aka: Track cycling, track racing
Era: 19th Century

Cycling At Celtic Park

To gain extra revenue in the early days, the new Celtic Park had a cycling track around the perimeter of the football field. Although many football grounds had these, Celtic Park’s was made from cement rather than cinder. The outline of the track could be seen up until the redevelopments in the 1990’s.

Cycling events were hugely popular in the late 19th century, attracting crowds of up to 10,000, and Celtic Park hosted many major racing events including the 1897 World Cycling championships.

The cycle track at Celtic Park was used for the last time on Saturday 17th May 1913.

A renaissance in cycling in the UK in the 2000’s, following the incredible success by TeamGB cyclists in the Olympics and Tour de France, saw the building of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome across from Celtic Park.

No longer are there regular cycling events at Celtic Park but more modern facilities have now been built just near by.

The cyclists pictured above are under starter’s orders in a three mile race in the first heat of an Irish/Scottish meeting at Celtic Park in 1893 (note: no brakes!).

It can be conjectured that this photograph was taken from behind either of the goals, as the track would have been banked at that position.

Also there seems to be no evidence of a stand behind the crowd on the terracing.

(needing confirmed below is Celtic Park)

A Rare Royal Doulton Tea Set Presented to Kirkwood at the Old Celtic Park in 1891.

Below is a Tea Set which was presented as a 2nd Prize for the 1 Mile Bicycle Race Handicap in 1891 which was only a few years after Celtic was founded, Sports Days like these were well attended and drew in much needed revenue for the Club and helped it to become one of the biggest sports clubs in the world. The Tea Set below was won by Kirkwood and is probably one of the oldest pieces of Celtic related memorabilia on the internet, not many items survived from the old Celtic Park years.

Also noted in the crowd that day was Dan Doyle & Alec Brady who both played with Everton the English League Champions, it was thought they both would take part in the Celtic 5-a-side team but to the relief of the Everton Committee neither of them got stripped, Willie Maley presented the prizes that day.

Old Celtic Park 1st & 8th August 1891, John Gebbie Torrance won the race by a fraction with Torrance a very close second and R.A.Vogt finishing third.

BOBBIE VOGT was born in Glasgow, February 15th, 1869; began racing in 1888 on an ordinary, and took to the safety’ in 1891.
He has won about 150 prizes, including all the Scottish Championships or 1890, 1891, and 1892, and holds all Scottish records
from 1/4 -mile to 50 miles. it is recorded that he actually Raced against the Worlds Greatest Cyclist Arthur Zimmerman of the US.

TORRANCE, John Gebbie, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1869, and began racing in 1889. Business has prevented him from
following it closely, but he has won about 80 prizes.

KIRKWOOD, To be continued.

The picture below is an unseen cropped pic of Celtic Park c1897, 9 feet high banks built for the 1897 World Cycling Championship.

Celtic Park in August 1897 hosting the World Cycling Championship only 5 years after it was built.

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Medal

A silver medal awarded at The World’s Open Cycling Championships which were held at Celtic Park, Glasgow in July 1897. The medal was awarded to H.Brown who “Rode for England” in the one mile race. There were 8000 spectators at these Championships, which were first held in 1893 and continue to this day. The medal was made by J.A.Restall and is hallmarked Birmingham 1897. The medal weighs 16.4g and measures 33mm wide by 40mm to the top of the link.

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