Daughter of football league stalwart appeals for reinstatement of memorial trophy to league calendar, 20 years after passing
The memory of one of north football’s longest-serving and most influential custodians will be remembered this weekend, as Invergordon and Alness United contest the Jock Mackay Memorial Cup.
20 years after his passing, Jock Mackay’s legacy as a former chair, secretary and long-standing servant of the North Caledonian Football League, lives on in the form of a memorial trophy.
Current holders Invergordon won the cup in October last year, beating Alness United in an evening game, hosted at the Highland Football Academy in Dingwall.
But this year, the game will make a welcome return to Invergordon, where the name of Jock Mackay can be read above the doors of the Easter Ross side’s changing rooms at the Recreation Grounds - aptly named “The Jock Mackay Pavilion”.
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 which would be played for as a cup competition in its own right.
The cup had, for 16 years, become a regular fixture on the North Caledonian FA competitions list, with cup finals traditionally played in front of big crowds at the ground of Mackay’s native Invergordon each year.
But a rapid expansion of the league - which saw membership increase from six to 12 teams in just five years - resulted in a reduction in the number of matches that could be played, and the cup was dropped from the calendar.
The Football Times Cup, played for since the 1920s, and the North Caledonian Cup, first introduced in 1888, remain as the associations only cup competitions.
To keep the lineage of the cup alive, since 2022, it has been played for between Jock’s former club, Invergordon, and Easter Ross rivals, Alness United, the fixture corresponding with the teams’ league meeting at the Recreation Grounds each season.
Jock’s daughter, Andria Cole, who will present the trophy to the winning team on Saturday, believes it is time the league looked at ways to “fully reinstate” 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 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 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.”
Invergordon will host Alness United at the Recreation Grounds this Saturday, November 2 with a 1pm kick off.
