Generation games

SANDY GREAVES was combing through a pile of letters and photographs on the table in his office.

He stopped at one depicting a young man in naval uniform. "That's my father Jim," he said.

"He lied about his age to try to get into the Navy. He tried to join but when they found out he was only 14 they sent him back to my gran.

"But when he was 15 he went back to HMS Ganges (the former shore-training establishment for boy entrants into the Navy).

"He used to be what was known as the button boy. He was positioned on the button at the top of the mast at all the ceremonies - and got sixpence for it."

Jim, who went to school with entertainer Stanley Baxter, later became a midshipman in landing crafts.

In June 1944 he was one of the many thousands of servicemen involved in the D-Day landings in France.

"He was just 19 when he was in charge of his landing craft and took the Yanks into Utah beach. But he never spoke about it not once," said Sandy, 48.

"I didn't know anything about Utah until Saving Private Ryan was released in the cinema."

The opening half-hour of Steven Spielberg's film showed just how difficult it was for Allied forces to overcome the German defences at Omaha beach on D-Day.

Sandy said: "Watching it, you realised that, along with Omaha, Utah was among the most difficult of the beach landings. It was quite incredible that he went through all that."

Jim survived the war, working in Harrods' socks department in London, and playing rugby with Harrodians and London Scottish before returning home, where he met and married his wife, Ellen, a choir singer.

"The rest," said Anne, 52, "is history." It's a history that, since the Greaves Sports name was introduced in 1967, has spanned 10 Olympics (Beijing will be the 11th), 10 World Cups and 20 Ryder Cups.

Greaves believes it's one of the longest-running sports shops anywhere in the world. It's famous, too: Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra both bought golf clubs here, and, to this day, it receives orders from customers in the US and mainland Europe.

Greaves' roots can be traced back to the decision by Jim's dad, William, to buy out the Birmingham and Leyland Rubber Company in its art-deco building in Gordon Street in the 1930s, where he had worked as a manager.

Re-naming it the Clydesdale Rubber Company, William sold coats, wellingtons, sheepskin coats and rubber goods - all of them faithfully detailed in old sales catalogues still in Sandy's possession.

The turning-point came in the 1950s. "That was when the Dunlop Rubber Company started to diversify into sports and a lot of rubber shops either moved out of town or diversified, too," said Sandy.

"We went down the sports route."

When William died in 1958, Clydesdale passed into the hands of Jim and his brother, Bill.

At first, it trailed behind the better-known, longer-established sports shop, Lumley's. But in the 1960s the Greaves brothers cannily bought out its owner, Alan Lumley. "Alan approached my dad and my uncle," said Sandy.

"I think he was looking to buy them but they turned it around - and we purchased them."

There was to be no stopping Greaves now.

Jim looked after Gordon Street, while Bill saw to Lumley's Sauchiehall Street store, in competition with each other, said Sandy.

Clydesdale, still in Gordon Street, changed its name to Greaves Sports in 1967, selling Hornby train sets and Red Indian outfits in addition to sports goods. Lumley's was renamed Greaves in 1990.

Uncle Bill had already retired, selling his share in the business to Jim and his children, Sandy and Anne.

Jim made many friends in the sports world. Karl Schranz, Austria's world skiing champion, even stayed at his Newlands home in the 1960s.

Jim died in August 1991 - he was 66 and had only been retired for a year. By that time, though, Greaves was already one of Glasgow's most successful businesses.

Jim wouldn't recognise the place now - but the chances are that he would approve of what Sandy, as managing director, and Anne, as director, have done.

Greaves has a staff of 140 in Gordon and Sauchiehall Street and a Nike shop in Buchanan Galleries, plus up to 50 at a specialist outlet at Murrayfield when there's a rugby international on.

Its staff members have included, at various times, former Scotland keeper Alan Rough, top golfer Janice Moodie, and the former Scotland and Glasgow rugby star Glenn Metcalfe.

It has moved with the times, anticipated new trends and embraced new technology. The golf department, which has two PGA-qualified professionals, has introduced golf simulators and video analysis to enable runners and skiers to get the best footwear.

Apart from football, cricket, rugby and golf, its range of sports extends to running, hockey, boxing, tennis, badminton, fitness, swimming, martial arts and snowboarding.

Some new ranges turned out to be mere passing fads: rollerblades, Celtic star Paulo Di Canio's multi-coloured boots, Manchester United's short-lived grey Umbro strip. Others are more desirable, such as the £350, gold leaf-laced tennis racquets, of a type used by Venus and Serena Williams.

"Anne and I both grew up with the sports trade and it was a genuine honour for me to take over when my father passed away," says Sandy, who has two grown-up sons, Miller and Scott.

"Really, dad left us a fantastic legacy. The fact that the building here was freehold was a major plus. It's tough out there on the High Street if you have to rent premises. And the overheads are horrendous in places like Buchanan Street."

The store has become a regular venue for photo-calls - Henrik Larsson, Ryan Giggs, John Hartson and Neil McCann - while famous customers have included Frank Bruno, Samuel L Jackson and Eminem.

Greaves has also built up a wealth of signed memorabilia and sports goods that would be the envy of sports museums.

There's a pair of rugby boots signed by Aussie legend David Campese.

There's a pair of boots with Rod Stewart's signature, a jersey signed by Brazilian legend Ronaldo, a racquet signed by tennis hero Ivan Lendl, golf balls autographed by Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo. There are even books and shirts signed by Pele and Eusebio.

The store has come a long way since Jim Greaves, an unsung hero of D-Day, first made the move from wellies to something altogether more ambitious. www.greavessports.com