1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games

As we gear up for Rugby World Cup fever, Redmer Yska looks back at the most delirious sporting event the country has ever hosted. Can the Cup match those “Friendly Games”?

By Redmer Yska In Commentary

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7th May, 2011

They were the shining peak of our 70s, the last great postwar party before a brace of oil shocks put the global economy into free-fall. The 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games sent Kiwis into a collective rapture that seemed inconceivable by 1990 when Auckland hosted the event. On January 24, a Thursday, a crowd of 35,000 attended the opening ceremony at the purpose-built Queen Elizabeth II Park. It began with a fanfare by RNZAF trumpeters. The high point was 2500 local primary schoolchildren, wearing hats and plastic capes of red, white and blue, making a “living Games symbol” in the ...

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