prog ftfinal - Flipbook - Page 9
to the winners.
Jock Mackay’s legacy
as a former chair, secretary and long-standing servant of the
North Caledonian
Football League, has
lived on in the form of
the memorial trophy
for the past 20 years.
After Mr Mackay’s
passing in 2004, the
North Caledonian
League immediately
renamed its association trophy, known
typically as the North
Caledonian Cup, as the
Jock Mackay Memorial
Cup.
Five years later, a new
trophy was introduced,
dedicated specifically
to the league stalwart.
The cup had, for 16
years, become a regular fixture in the North
Caledonian FA season.
But a rapid expansion
of the league - which
saw membership
increase from six to 12
teams in just five years
- resulted in cup being
dropped from the calendar.
To keep the lineage of the cup alive,
since 2022, it has been
played for between
Jock’s former club, Invergordon, and East-
er Ross rivals, Alness
United, the fixture
corresponding with the
teams’ league meeting at the Recreation
Grounds each season.
Jock’s daughter, Andria believes it is time
the league looked at
ways to “fully reinstate”
did, and it was doing
well until Covid hit and
then it got taken off
the normal schedule,
which I didn’t agree
with.
“I think it’s very important that people like
my Dad are remembered. A lot of work has
Jock Mackay’s daughter Andrea would like to see the trophy restored to the regular
competitions list of the North Caledonian FA.
Picture: Scott MacDonald
the trophy as a competition for all teams in
the association.
She said: “My Dad
used to spend all of his
free time sorting out
football stuff. If he was
not at the game, he
was doing paperwork
for it, or calling people for info, or writing
up info for the local
papers - of which there
was lots!
“Football was his
life, and when he died
I wanted to get a cup
in his name, which I
gone into it to get it to
where it is today, and
if it was not for people
like him there would be
no league.
“I understand the
young ones may not
know who he is, but
older ones will. They
could learn a lot from
looking up the history
of the league.
“My Dad gave his all
to football and I believe he deserves to
have his cup fully reinstated and played for
by the whole league.”
