BUFFALO Bill gained immortality as the gun-slinging hero of American frontier folklore, but it has now emerged how he also locked horns with an amateur football team from Scotland's wild west coast.

The full story of Colonel William Frederick Cody's remarkable stay in Glasgow has finally been told nearly 100 years after he hung up his spurs and six-shooters for the final time.

A new book has revealed that the legendary figure of the old West caused a sensation by turning up at a Rangers game at Ibrox, sending a team of hardbitten cowboys to play in a charity football game at Celtic Park and giving money to shoeless urchins in George Square.

Cody, the book reveals, also caused uproar in the Court of Session in Edinburgh and, during a subsequent national tour, set a goods yard ablaze in Dundee and threw the Aberdeenshire fishing industry into crisis.

For three months in the winter of 1891/92, the soldier, bison-hunter and showman brought his Wild West spectacular to the district, while in 1904 he took the show around the country from Dumfries to Inverness.

After years of painstaking research, Wild West enthusiast and author Tom F Cunningham has put together the definitive book chronicling Cody's Scottish sojourns.

The lavish show included an epic re-enactment of violent clashes from the Wild West, featuring a troop of genuine Native American warriors, and displays of horsemanship and sharp-shooting from a host of luminaries including Annie 'Get Your Gun' Oakley.

Before the travelling circus opened at the 7,000-seater Glasgow amphitheatre, Cody produced a series of inspired publicity stunts.

Learning that a 12,500-strong crowd was expected at a Glasgow Cup clash between Rangers and Queen's Park at Ibrox, he provoked deafening cheers by arriving at the ground in full western regalia. Cody also sought to harness the popularity of the city's other big club by sending his right-hand man, Major John M Burke, on to the pitch at Celtic Park to help kick off the team's clash with Dumbarton on New Year's Day 1892. "But it didn't bring Celtic any luck, as they were thrashed 8-0, which still stands as the club's record home defeat," said Cunningham.

A month later, Cody sent out a team of his cowboys to take on Glasgow amateur football team Brandon for a charity challenge match at Celtic Park. Unsurprisingly, the American rookies were put to the sword by their vastly more experienced adversaries.

Cody returned to Scotland 12 years later with an even more elaborate show, which travelled the country in an equally eventful trip.

Your Fathers, The Ghosts, Buffalo Bill's Wild West In Scotland by Tom F Cunningham will be published next month by Black & White.

Sections of this article taken from: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1482012007 by MARC HORNE ( mhorne@scotlandonsunday.com) ©2007 Scotsman.com