In paying tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a host of football clubs south of the border have taken to social media to post photos of some historic moments involving their side and the late monarch. Newcastle United, for example, haven’t won a major domestic trophy in England since 1955 and it’s a measure of the length of her reign that she presented the Magpies with the FA Cup that day at Wembley after their final win over Manchester City.
Others took to social media to share similar snaps and there is of course the enduring sporting image of The Queen handing over the Jules Rimet trophy to triumphant England skipper Bobby Moore following their extra time World Cup final win over West Germany.
But she experienced a packed Hampden long before any of those full house Wembley occasions, albeit not for a football fixture. Instead, the special Hampden roar from the crammed terraces came when the Queen visited the old lady of Mount Florida as part of the celebrations to mark her coronation in 1953.
Along with the Duke, she was driven to Hampden Park for a youth rally after lunch at the City Chambers where a huge crowd of around 70,000 waited for her in what was one of the biggest events of the Coronation tour of Scotland, coming just weeks after she was crowned Queen on June 2, 1953.
Twelve months later, again at Hampden Park, a capacity crowd watched Celtic defeat Hibs 2-0 to win the one-off Coronation Cup and become the unofficial champions of Britain. It was an eight-team tournament involving four top teams from either side of the border.
Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur represented England with Rangers and Aberdeen also taking part alongside the finalists. The Hoops defeated Arsenal and Manchester United before seeing off Hibs in the final.
Following her appearance at Hampden as part of her Coronation tour, the Queen was back at Hampden for her Silver Jubilee in 1977 - and this time it was for a football match. The fixture was between a Glasgow XI and Football League XI.
The shirts worn by the Glasgow Select was a combination of the colour of all the city’s teams with the players made up mainly of Celtic and Rangers stars. The starting line up was: Rough (Partick), McGrain (Celtic), Whittaker (Partick), Jardine (Rangers), MacDonald (Celtic), Forsyth (Rangers), McLean (Rangers), Dalglish (Celtic), Craig (Celtic), MacDonald (Rangers), Johnstone (Rangers).
Manchester City made up the majority of the visiting line up as they had finished their league campaign while giants Liverpool and Manchester Untied had the FA Cup final to come, and the Anfield side also had the European Cup to contest.
Celtic had defeated rivals Rangers in the Scottish Cup to complete a domestic double and goalkeeper Rough, speaking to the Glasgow Times, recalled: “It was an amazing occasion. The thing I always recall about it was how sharp she was. When she came out onto the park I was standing next to Kenny Dalglish. I will never forget her exact words to him. She came over to Kenny and said: ‘You are doing very well, keep it up!’
“She chatted to everybody as she went along the line and knew who everybody was when she spoke to them,” he said. “When she came to me she said: ‘Partick Thistle are just a little club, but you are doing well”.
The Queen’s husband Prince Phillip reportedly introduced Rangers legend Willie Waddell as the Celtic vice chairman to his wife, with Waddell said to have jokingly withdrawn his hand. By then, Her Majesty was already familiar with Waddell’s Ibrox stomping ground - after a visit before she was crowned Queen.
Accompanied by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh who was decked out in his military attire, the-then Princess Elizabeth was photographed holding a bouquet of flowers in the centre circle during a trip to the city in the summer of 1947 shortly after her engagement.
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