In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the University of Stirling, we asked some of the university’s notable sporting figures of the past half-century for their memories of their time at Stirling. Here are their responses…
Susan Egelstaff – Six-time Scottish badminton champion, 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and Olympian at London 2012. Now a successful journalist for the Herald.
“One of my most memorable moments from my uni years was when my friends and I went to see the mighty Chesney Hawkes of ‘The One And Only’ fame at Enigma nightclub (which I think is now long closed down).
“Chesney Hawkes was, by far, the biggest celebrity who had come to Stirling during my time at uni, but even taking that into account, our excitement levels were completely disproportionate to his mediocre level of fame. And as it turned out, the night wasn’t quite as good as we had all built it up to be, but the thing that Stirling was so brilliant for was that every night out was a good one.
“The town is small enough that you’d always bump into someone you knew and for years after Chesney Hawkes’ visit, he still got frequent mentions.”
Ross Murdoch – Commonwealth Games gold medallist at Glasgow 2014, bronze medallist at the World Championships in 2015 and Rio 2016 Olympian
“I’ll never forget when I moved here for the first time. I lived in AKD and in that first week – even as an athlete not able to experience the traditional freshers atmosphere as such – meeting all these new people and starting new classes was just really good. I loved it, and I’ve never really looked back.
“I’m not really ready to go anywhere else!”
Eilidh Barbour – leading sports broadcaster for the BBC and BT Sport
“A lot of my memories revolve around sport. I played in the women’s football team and we had a great time. A lot of my friends from uni are from that team.
“Most of my memories, though, are just great times with the people I met there. I think you build such close bonds at Stirling because of the campus nature of the uni. You live in each other’s pockets, study together, eat together, drink together all in the one campus. I loved it.”
Gordon McRorie – Represented Canada at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and has earned 30 caps as scrum-half
“I have a fond memory of my time at the university involving rugby. We won the top university league in Scotland back in the 2008/2009 season when we were in the same league as Dundee, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Edinburgh.
“We had to beat Edinburgh away with a bonus point to win the league. We won and scored four tries to gain the bonus point and were crowned champions!
“We had a pretty good night too!”
Lauren Tait, member of the inaugural Sirens Netball squad
“My favourite memory from Stirling is freshers in first year – meeting your flatmates and then going to all the events that the Students’ Union throw!
“Many amazing memories and stories that I still tell to this day come from that part of my life, and first year is the year I wish I could relive over and over again.”
Ashley Hopkinson, Stirling Clansmen and Great Britain international
“I have a few great memories at university, mostly sporting ones. I would say my biggest memory would be the comeback win over Durham a couple of years ago.
“We were 22-0 down at half time, and the way our team came back made it feel like we were playing in America at a NCAA division one school. The score was tied 28-28, and Durham went for two points. I intercepted the ball and ran it back for two of our own, giving us a 30-28 win.
“I would also say winning my first national championship was an incredible feeling, as people had been working for that for four years, so I really wanted to win it for the guys on the team.”
What are your memories of your time at Stirling? Let us know!
