The world gets a first look at the First Hampden – at Hampden!
The final part of The Hampden Trilogy was unveiled at the National Stadium yesterday.
Painted by portrait artist, Paul Town, it depicts the original Hampden and is its first-ever pictorial record.
Town had previously produced portraits of the second Hampden at Cathkin Park – depicting a Third Lanark game – and one of the present site, which became the home of Scottish football in 1903, reliving the famous win over Czechoslovakia in 1973.
The reason for the out-of-line running order is that the exact location of the very first Hampden, purpose-built to host international matches, was not confirmed until two years ago.
The exact location of the original ground had been lost in the sands of time.
But it was always rumoured that the Hampden Bowling Club sits on it.
In 2017 their treasurer, Graeme Brown, proved that was the case when he discovered a map in the National Records of Scotland.
Town was commissioned to complete the trilogy of paintings, and it was a difficult task.
Only one picture, believed to show the pavilion that sat at the ground, was in existence.
Using historical sources provided by Brown and renown football historian, Ged O’Brien, Town was able to generate the first-ever match-action image at the ground.
It shows a game between Queen’s Park and Vale of Leven that involved the world’s first black international footballer, Andrew Watson, showing the skills for the Spiders that saw him called up by Scotland.
The match official is also depicted, wearing a bowler hat and carrying a cane.
O’Brien said: “The First Hampden is the Home of Football.
“When England sing about football coming home, they are wrong.
“The First Hampden was the home of the first-ever, purpose-built ground for international football.
“To now have a visual image of the ground is amazing.”