Worldbowl '96 + 10 - The First Scottish American Football Festival
This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the Scottish Claymores hosting and winning the Worldbowl in front of 38,000 fans at Murrayfield. Additionally, this is the second year that the Scottish Claymores won’t be competing in the NFL Europe League. With this loss of a central point for gridiron fans to meet up five times a year many fans are suffering withdrawal symptoms not only of their team but also from meeting fellow fans.To counter this loss of contact amongst Claymores fans the Scottish Gridiron Association in partnership with TouchdownClaymores.com has announced the first Scottish American Football Festival. The festival gives gridiron fans from all over Scotland and indeed across Europe and the rest of the world the opportunity to gather again to renew the American football community in Scotland.
The weekend of June 23rd to June 25th was selected to tie in with the 10 year anniversary of the Scottish Claymores Worldbowl victory of 23rd June 1996. Edinburgh’s Meadowbank stadium will host the main American football events.
The planners of the event are keen to stress this is an effort for the fans and by the fans of the Claymores. Many Claymores fans still have bad feelings for the NFL and NFL Europe League for the closing down of Scotland’s only professional American Football team.
Event Co-ordinator Douglas Adamson explained his reasoning for suggesting the idea. “While I happen to still keep in touch with a few Claymores fans in my role as Vice President of the Scottish Gridiron Association. I also know that there’s plenty other people I just don’t get to see anymore. Five times a year we all used to get together at Claymores games. Just because the Claymores aren’t playing the NFLE anymore doesn’t mean we should lose
touch with friends. At the time of the last game we didn’t know it was going to be the last game otherwise many of us would have been exchanging contact details.
“This event will give everyone a chance to meet up. And if it’s successful we would hope to make the festival an annual event and be held in different places each year. I hope it will remind people that American Football didn’t disappear because the Claymores were shut down. The community is still there we just haven’t managed to get together recently.”
Speaking on behalf of TouchdownClaymores.com Steve Dalgleish wanted to stress the elements of the Claymores fan base that made it so successful. “We all remain friends. Even the visiting fans some of them are my best friends. I know of two couples who met visiting fans and then ended up getting married.. However those visiting fans weren’t just from a few miles away like they could be in most sports but from Germany, Holland and Spain. The friendships the NFLE allowed us to make will last us a life time and this is our way to give our friends in Europe and across the globe a chance to come back and meet up again. Claymores games were family games and we hope our event will be able to bring back some of that magic to the Scottish community.”
Currently the weekend has two major strands - a series of American football events and a celebration of the Scottish Claymores and their fans. The key parts of the plan involve a full day of American football action at Meadowbank Stadium on the Saturday 24th of June including some special guests from Claymores history followed by a major party in the city later that night.
To ensure that the American football community is involved in the process a public meeting has been arranged at Cineworld at Fountain Park in Edinburgh on Monday 20th March starting at 8pm and finishing no later than 9:30pm.
12 Mar, 06 | 2:44 pm