Tom Stillie Award

Tom Stillie was born in 1915 in Alva and enjoyed a successful spell in textiles as an assistant designer. He enlisted in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1940 and was subsequently commissioned into the Black Watch. However, he was seriously wounded towards the end of the war and the injuries he received affected him for the rest of his life.

In 1945 he was appointed lecturer in textile design at the Scottish Woollen Technical College. He had a keen interest in athletics, although his war wounds prevented him from competing, and was President of the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association in 1967. He showed an active interest in researching the history of tartan and tweed design and collecting fabric manufactured locally.

The tartan used in the Commonwealth Check for the 1970 Commonwealth Games was designed by Tom Stillie and used for the Scottish female team uniform, and fabric samples from Lochcarron and Gardiners of Selkirk. He died on 23 March 1978 while still in post as Senior Lecturer in Design at the Scottish Woollen Technical College.

The Tom Stillie Award is given each year to the person who has contributed the most to Scottish Athletics within the preceding year.

John Mackay – 2022 winner


John Mackay received the Tom Stillie commemorative sword from our President, Ron Morrison (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Our 2022 winner of the Tom Stillie Award is an individual who has made significant contributions to our sport over the past 50 years.
From starting out as a sometimes-selected schoolboy athlete, John’s athletics career really took off as a Senior athlete when he competed for Scotland on the track and roads.
He is now better-known as a coach, and he contributes hugely to community outreach work by Shettleston Harriers.
In recent years, John has tracked athletics statistics back to the 1800s and co-authored his club’s Centenary book as its statistician.
John is also an active member of the Road Running and Cross Country Commission and a seasoned event organiser of club open graded meetings, the Babcock 10K series and the Alan Scally Relays.
Alongside and support by wife Elaine, John has become totally synonymous with Shettleston Harriers.

Winners of the Tom Stillie Award have been:

1979 Allan Wells
1980 Raymond Hutcheson
1981 Allan Wells
1982 Cameron Sharp
1983 Robert Greenock
1984 Owen Dickson
1985 Alex Naylor
1986 Thomas McKean
1987 Ewan Murray, O.B.E.
1988 John Hamilton
1989 John Brown
1990 Edwin Taylor
1991 George Duncan
1992 Alan Grosset
1993 Not presented
1994 George Kirk
1995 Ian Clifton
1996 Hilda McGillivray
1997 Ian Mackie
1998 James Scott
1999 George Duncan
2000 Helen Spankie
2001 Brian Goodwin
2002 Leslie Roy
2003 Jackson Family
2004 Graham Sword
2005 Arnold Black
2006 Willie Laing
2007 Bob Gray
2008 Jim Young
2009 Marjory Cook
2010 Inverclyde AC
2011 Alan Potts
2012 Alan Bertram
2013 Liz Wilder
2014 Mikael Huggins
2015 Ron Morrison
2016 Janet Nixon
2017 Mike Johnston
2018 Adrian Stott
2019 Sandra Hardacre
2020 David Lothian and Andrew Stevenson
2021 Gerry Gaffney
2022 John Mackay

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