October 31, 1903: Hampden Park Opens

October 31, 1903: Hampden Park opens in Glasgow, and becomes Scotland's national stadium. The previous facility with the name had been home to Queen's Park Football Club, the 1st professional sports team in Scotland, since 1873.

Queen's Park have played on the current site since 1903, the Scottish Cup Final has been held there since 1904, the national team has used it as their main home since 1906, and the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe played there from 1998 to 2004.

The east and north stands of the stadium were redeveloped as all-seater in 1994, in time for Glasgow team Celtic to use Hampden while their own Celtic Park was redeveloped in the 1994-95 season. The rest of the stadium was upgraded by 1999. A record crowd of 149,415 saw a Scotland vs. England game in 1937, but the capacity is now 51,866.

Hampden hosted the Final of the European Cup in 1960 (Real Madrid beating Eintracht Frankfurt), 1976 (Bayern Munich beating Saint-Étienne), and 2002 (by which point the tournament had been renamed the UEFA Champions League, with Real Madrid beating Bayer Leverkusen). It was used as a venue for Euro 2020 (delayed until 2021 due to the COVID pandemic).

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October 31, 1903 was a Saturday. Baseball season was over. Basketball barely existed, and hockey hadn't yet turned professional. These other noteworthy games were played in college football:

* The universities of Michigan and Minnesota played to a 6-6 tie at Northrop Field in Minneapolis. This led to the rivalry known as "The Little Brown Jug." I have a separate entry for that event.

* The game that was supposed to be played between Indiana University and Purdue University was canceled, due to the Purdue Wreck. I have an entry for that event as well.

* Army beat Vermont, 32-0 on The Plain in West Point, New York.

* Penn State beat Navy, 17-0 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Yale beat Columbia, 25-0 at the Polo Grounds.

* Harvard beat the Carlisle Indian School, 12-11 at Soldier's Field in Boston. Jim Thorpe was too young to play on the Carlisle varsity, but they almost didn't need him. Two weeks later, on November 14, Harvard Stadium opened, and Harvard lost to Dartmouth. They still play there today.

* The University of Pennsylvania beat Bucknell, 47-6 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. A new stadium by that name would be built on the same site in 1922.

* Lafayette beat New York University, 8-6 at Ohio Field in The Bronx.

* Princeton beat Cornell, 44-0 at University Field in Princeton, New Jersey.

* And Rutgers beat Stevens Institute, 36-6 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.