SCG marks 75th anniversary of the 1938 Empire Games

The Sydney Cricket Ground will this week celebrate the 75th anniversary of the third Empire Games, the sporting event now known as the Commonwealth Games.
The 1938 Empire Games were conducted in Sydney between 5th and 12th February and marked the 150 anniversary of British settlement in Australia.
An estimated 40,000 spectators attended the opening ceremony at the SCG with the event featuring athletes from 15 participating countries who participated in eight sports: track and field, swimming, diving, rowing, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls and wrestling.
Legendary Australian cyclist, Edgar 'Dunc' Gray carried the Australian flag at the Opening Ceremony.
While the SCG was also the venue for track and field, events were also held at the Sydney Sports Ground, now the location of Allianz Stadium.
Other Sydney venues used during the Games were North Sydney Pool (swimming and diving), Henson Park (track cycling), Centennial Park (cycling road race), Nepean River (rowing), Waverley Club (lawn bowls) and Rushcutters Bay Stadium (boxing and wrestling). The Sydney Showground, now the Entertainment Quarter, accommodated the Athletes Village.
Australia was represented by a 464 member team and topped the overall medal tally with 65 medals, comprising 24 gold, 19 silver and 22 bronze medals.
The star of the Games was West Australian track and field athlete, Decima Norman, who swept to five gold medals.
Norman was triumphant over 100 yards, 220 yards, long jump, 440 yards relay and 660 yards relay. Norman, who was awarded an OBE in 1982 is featured in the SCG's Walk of Honour.
Beside Norman and Gray, the Australian team also featured:
Basil Dickinson (long jump and triple jump), who is Australian oldest living Commonwealth and Olympic Games athlete;
Myer Rosenblum (hammer throw), who had won selection with the Wallabies in 1928;
Irene Donnet (diving), the aunt of Olympic and Commonwealth Games diver Jenny Donnet. Jenny's mother Barbara McAulay won Commonwealth Games gold in the springboard in 1954;
Margaret Whitlam (nee Dovey) (breaststroke), the late wife of Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam;
Evelyn de Lacy (swimming), the great aunt of Beijing Olympics breaststroker, Sally Foster.
The SCG track events were conducted on a grass track, described by the Canadian team as the "finest grass track in the world".
The 100 yards and 120 yards hurdles track ran from east to west, from the present O'Reilly Stand to the Members Pavilion, to overcome the drainage slope of the ground which ran downwards from north to south.
The MA Noble Stand had been built ahead of the Games and was opened two years prior in 1936.
The Commonwealth Games were later staged in Australia in Perth in 1962, in Brisbane in 1982 and Melbourne in 2006 while the Gold Coast will host the Games in 2018.