The city's rare opportunity to hold a major national sporting championship occurred on February 1, 1960, at the long closed but still evident Gnoo Blas circuit, a six kilometre triangular lap around Jack Brabham Park and the hospital precinct.

Unlike today when just 24 similar cars covering just two makes contest the championship the one-race title of 60 years ago featured 44 cars of all makes and sizes.

McKay, a racing journalist from Sydney, won in a Jaguar and the field featured at least three drivers who would go onto to win the Bathurst 500/1000. Racing at Gnoo Blas started in 1953 and star drivers including Sir Jack Brabham competed regularly until it closed in 1961.

In 1971 rugby took the national, and in fact international stage, for Orange with the South African Springboks playing a game against NSW Country at the height of anti-apartheid protests.

Former Wallaby and Orange resident Don Strachan told the Central Western Daily in a 2013 interview there were wild scenes at the ground in front of a crowd of 6300. "The whole of the eastern side of Wade Park was filled with protesters who had come in from Canberra and they threw a couple of smoke bombs on the ground," he said.

"One girl even chained herself to the goal posts overnight and they had to use bolt cutters. It was July so she would have been very cold overnight I imagine," he recalled.

Other national rugby games to feature in Orange included a National Rugby Championship game in 2014 and a NSW Waratahs and Fiji match in 2010.

Cricket has also brought national and international stars to Orange.

Most recently, in 2016 the name Nizakat Khan was on everyone's lips at Wade Park when he hit a century in the second of two Twenty20 games against Big Bash League team Sydney Thunder in an international trial.

Khan was playing for Hong Kong and even earned the nickname The Nizard of Oz from commentators as he hit 104 not out.

However, the Thunder with stars including Irish-born England skipper Eoin Morgan, Ben Rohrer and Kurtis Patterson, won both games.

Soccer has also played its part in bringing top-line national teams to Orange.

In 2015 A-League teams Central Coast Mariners and the Newcastle Jets drew a good crowd to Wade Park for a trial game. The Jets won 1-0 thanks to a header from Jason Hoffman. The Mariners also played in Orange against Adelaide United in 2006 and Brisbane Roar in 2007.

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