Even Jose Mourinho would have been impressed had been around at the start of the century by the performance of one of Glasgow Accies'finest when a certain Robert Stronach won the British 120 yds Hurdles Championship at Stamford Bridge in 1905

Stronach was one of that rare breed who represented their country at more than one sport.

Playing as a flank forward for Glasgow Accies he was capped for Scotland at rugby on five occasions between 1901 and 1905 the last being a win over England at Richmond

However it was at athletics that he really made history winning the British 120yds title three years in a row from 1904 to 1906

In 1905 the Championships took place at Stamford Bridge. It was officially opened on 28 April 1877. For the first 28 years of its existence it was used almost exclusively by the London Athletic Club as an arena for athletics meetings and not at all for football. In 1904 the ground was acquired by H A (Gus) Mears and his brother, J T Mears, who had previously acquired additional land (formerly a large market garden) with the aim of staging football matches The Mears family remained the owners of the ground (and subsequently the Club) until the 1970s

Stronach could even have retained the title in 1907 but fell at the last hurdle and even managed to pick himself up and take third

In July 1905 he set a Scottish record of 15.8 secs on grass at Ibrox a record that was to stand for forty three years.Then the hurdles were made of solid wood and if you hit them you went down and not the hurdle

He did not compete after 1907 and emigrated to Canada to pursue a career in civil engineering

I wonder if any of Frank Hadden's back row could have taken on Colin Jackson over the sticks?

This article was originally posted on 3-Oct-2006, 16:59 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 3-Oct-2006, 17:04.