THREE HAMPDENS

On 9 July 1867, “a group of gentlemen met for the purpose of starting a football team”. The Queen’s Park Football Club was born. It soon became a leading exponent of the game and was one of the founder members of the (English) Football Association as well as its Scottish counterpart. It regularly provided the Scottish players in the earliest international matches. Proud of its amateur status, and showing a confidence in the game’s future, the Club’s general committee in 1903 purchased 33 acres of land on the south side of Glasgow and built the largest and most technically advanced stadium in the world, Hampden Park.

It was immediately adopted as Scotland’s National Stadium and became a Mecca for clubs and international players everywhere. Its natural bowl shape and extensive terraces sustained attendances of around 150,000. In those days, crowd control was less stringent than now. 

Arguably the most memorable European Cup Final, Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt, was held at Hampden in May 1960 with Real winning 7-3. Over 130,000 Scottish supporters were spellbound. These days, crowds are restricted as a safety measure.

The first Hampden Park was overlooked by a nearby terrace named after Englishman John Hampden, who fought for the roundheads in the English Civil War. Queen's Park played at the first Hampden Park for 10 years beginning with a Scottish Cup tie in October 1873. The ground hosted the first Scottish Cup Final, in 1874, and a Scotland v England match in 1878.

The club moved to the second Hampden Park, 150 yards from the original, because the Cathcart District Railway planned a new line through the site of the ground's western terrace. The new ground opened in October 1884. 

In the late 1890s, Queen's Park requested more land for development of the second Hampden Park. This was refused by the landlords, which led to the club seeking the present 30 acre site. James Miller designed twin grandstands along the south side of the ground with a pavilion wedged in between.

Hampden Park was the biggest stadium in the world when it opened in 1903 and along with Celtic Park and Ibrox, the city of Glasgow possessed the three largest football stadia in the world at the time. In the stadium's first match, on 31 October 1903, Queen's Park defeated Celtic 1–0 in the Scottish league. The first Scottish Cup Final played at the ground was an Old Firm match in 1904, attracting a record Scottish crowd of 64,672. The first Scotland v England match at the ground was played in April 1906 with 102,741 people in attendance, which established Hampden as the primary home of the Scotland team.