Commonwealth Games 1970: 'It transformed lives'

The 1970 Commonwealth Games helped create a new generation of sports stars with the new Meadowbank Stadium becoming like a magnet to many.

Peter Hoffman (right) and friend and neighbour Paul Forbes (left) who touched success on the track after starting their sporting missions at Meadowbank Stadium following the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Runner Peter Hoffman recalled the clamber for the autographs of athletes competing at the games, and the impact the event had on the young minds of teenagers from all backgrounds in the city.

"People like distance runners Lachie Stewart and Ian McCafferty, that’s who we wanted to meet. The athletes were really quite wonderful. I think the games really transformed lives,” Mr Hoffman said.

The sportsman, who was 14 at the time of the 1970 event, said he was first inspired by the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico with the sporting extravaganza on his doorstep two years later sealing his passion for running.

Starting as a sprinter before becoming a devotee to the 800m, he was an Olympian in Montreal in 1976 and also ran at the ’78 Commonwealths, claiming gold, silver and bronze at British and Scottish championships.

Mr Hoffman, from Oxgangs, recalled how he and his his friend and neighbour Paul Forbes, who stil holds the fourth fastest Scottish time for the 800m, would get two buses from their homes across to Meadowbank once the games had finished and the stadium handed over to the city.

The former Boroughmuir High pupil said: “Our parents weren’t particularly well off and we didn’t have access to a car to get to Meadowbank, so it was two buses for us. When something is not put easily on a plate for you, you have to really want it to keep going. We really wanted it.”

Mr Hoffman recalled how his friend sneaked over the fence into Meadowbank one night to get on the track, with the manager waiting for him on the other side.

"After having a word, the manager then gave him a free membership card. That’s the kind of thing that happened in 1970.

"After the games, young people headed to Meadowbank from all over the city, people from fee-paying schools and then people like us. Once you started training, it was a great leveller. It brought all sorts together in a giant melting pot.”

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