Ogilvie Award - February 2024

The Ogilvie Award this month has been awarded to Stewart McLachlan, the Refereeing Coordinator for Glasgow Schools' Football Association (GSFA). 

Stewart had served Glasgow City Council as a teacher and head teacher in the east end of Glasgow for many years until his retirement in the late 1990s. He had also been the school football representative at John Street Secondary School in Bridgeton up until his retirement. Stewart had also been involved in schools' football as a player, manager, referee and administrator during this time as well. 

As a member of the GSFA Executive for more than forty years, he has promoted the development of football in our city with a passion and commitment that is unsurpassed.

Stewart is now well into his eighties, and still referees school football matches most evenings! If he is not refereeing, he is at the touchline encouraging younger referees and supporting the GSFA's promise to deliver organised football for the boys and girls of our city (...and beyond!). Stewart has been refereeing coordinator for over thirty years. Teachers who take football teams will know him very well. He arranges for referees to officiate at almost all GSFA organised matches. These referees (who have included Nick Walsh, Kevin Clancy and Willie Collum) provide their services for free. They volunteer to referee schools' football matches to help the development of our players. It's also fair to say that many of them do it as a gratitude to Stewart, who will encourage and nurture younger referees as they learn and develop their own skills as match officials.

St Andrew's Secondary has benefited tremendously from Stewart's involvement in football over the last fifty five years. Almost every day our school office will receive a phone call from Stewart detailing who the referee will be for the forthcoming fixtures we have at  Boys under 13, under 14, under 15, under 16 and under 18 teams. Stewart also arranges volunteer referees for our two Girls teams at under 15 and under 18 age levels. The amount of matches from which we have benefited from free, impartial refereeing would be difficult to quantify, but it must be over a thousand. Stewart will have refereed a fair amount of them himself. 

Stewart doesn't drive, but wouldn't think twice about travelling across the city, using his bus card, to come to St Andrew's on a cold and wet evening in January to referee a match. For those of you who have come along to our teams' matches to support our young people, you may have noticed the 'old guy in the middle' or the old guy with the bunnet who seems to know every person involved in schools' football. Well, that person is Stewart McLachlan. He gives of himself so that the young footballers in the greater Glasgow area can have the opportunity to play organised football and learn all of the social skills which accompany this team sport.

Our Ogilvie Award is presented to those who have done things which are 'noble and worthwhile'. Stewart is to be commended for everything he has done for schools' football, and he was delighted to receive this honour this evening in our school.