John Barclay the man charged by Vern Cotter to lead Scotland v Wales tomorrow has strong west end and Anniesland connections
John fleetingly passed through Hawks in 2004 His brother David was playing with Hawks at the time and the Club had several Dollar Academicals in their ranks like Graeme Morrison and Mike Adamson
However he was immediately taken on by Glasgow and so started an illustrious career
which leads to tomorrow afternoon and the well earned honour of leading the Country
However that is not his only connection with our neighbourhood
His father Graham educated at Hyndland Secondary School was an outstanding athlete with Victoria Park AAC who were based at Scotstoun Showgrounds now re branded Scotstoun Stadium
He won the UK Youth High Jump title in 1970 and was runner up in the U.K.Junior event a year later
So the old adage of choose your parents carefully if you want to succeed at sport seems to apply again
Good luck tomorrow John from all at Hawks