It struck me that I ought to explain a little bit about why we cheer for the teams we do. Well, in part, it’s because I thought we ought to, and I’m the one of us most capable of complex thought and logic. But also, each team has a special something that captures part of what I love about life, and part of what makes you who you are.
So periodically (like during international breaks, long summer holidays, or say, global pandemics that completely alter everything we understand about our lives and ourselves), I want to introduce you to the teams we are tied to.
Our third team to meet: Ross County FC from Dingwall, Scotland, a team that reminds us about loyalty.
Dear Boys,
You should know your name. Not just what it is, but where it comes from, and what it means.
Wherefore Ross County?
Your names come from a long line of Scottish ancestry. Alexander and Owen both have long legacies in Scottish culture. Alexander means defender of the people; Owen, “young warrior”. But those are your names, and you can make them your own. MacKenzie is the one we share, with each other, with a host of blood relatives and an even bigger pile of MacKenzies around the world. But almost all of us tie back to Eastern Scotland, Ross-shire, and it’s seat Dingwall.
The legend goes that the MacKenzies rose to the rank of a noble clan because of the actions of one Colin Fitzgerald who probably just helped fight off invading Norwegians in the late 13th century. More romantically, he saved King Alexander III from being killed by a stag (told you we’d meet a Scottish Alex). There’s even a beautiful painting to capture it.
By Benjamin West, displayed in the Scottish National Gallery
For his bravery, Colin was awarded a big swathe of land including Ross-shire, and Cromarty. He also earned the clan crest with a stag smack dab in the middle. From then on the clan was a political and social force, commanding armies, navies, and hosts of others loyal to the Caber Feidh (Chief). The name MacKenzie has a lot of history and power behind it. And the Caber Feidh is a worthy leader and nobleman.
To be clear, we’re not noble.
If we ever were noble, a long, long line of second, third, and fourth sons have put you so far behind the line of succession it would take a very specific catastrophe to put any of us in line to inherit a castle.
We are descendants of a MacKenzie who wasn’t going to inherit the farm in Ross-shire, so he left to become a tailor in the colonies. Still, he was a MacKenzie. His children were MacKenzies and so on down the line to your grandpa, to me, and to you.
Who is Ross County?
MacKenzies are loyal, often to the point of stubbornness. We are promoters of lost causes and noble failures.
MacKenzies stood up to the hated English rulers far more often than was wise. They often felt that the throne in London ought to be held by a Scotsman (or woman). As the Queen is still as English as Earl Grey tea and Blood Pudding, you should know: we lost. Frequently.
So we may not be loyal to a particular ruler, but we are loyal to our family and our beliefs. We may not be great winners, but we are reliably present. Ross County FC isn’t just close to home, it doesn’t just have the family stag on their team badge, but they embody loyalty and question what it is to lose.
The Staggies trace their history back to 1929, around the time your Great-Grandpa MacK was 8 and part of the long ago Americanized MacKenzies.
At the time, Ross County had no glorious honors, or even pretenses of power to be claimed. They had neither the talent pool of Rangers or Celtic in Glasgow nor the resources of Hibs and Hearts in Edinburgh. They had each other. The Staggies were a host of local boys, playing their best. Their best years gave them little more than bragging rights over local rivals.
Ross County’s first Scottish Cup Game in 1934
In the middle of the front row is W. McKenzie
It took nearly 40 years to win the local Highland League, and nearly 25 more to win it a second time. Only then did they begin to plan in earnest to join the elite sides of Scottish soccer under the chairmanship of Roy McGregor.
Since 1992, Ross County has steadily risen to become a reliable side in the top Scottish League. That’s thirty years to go from the local lads of Dingwall to one of the ten best teams in the land.
How are we Ross County?
Of course in Scotland, where two teams thoroughly dominate the league, being in the top ten doesn’t come with oodles of glitz or glamour.
It would be easy to cheer on Rangers or Celtic and trust that a trophy or two would be won each and every year. But it wouldn’t be very MacKenzie.
We’re a family that never met a rebellion we didn’t like. That first American MacKenzie? His first tailor job was sewing for the colonial army. We are still more loyal to causes we believe in than we are strategic alliances for power. For proof, think of your grandpa who campaigned for Democrats who never had a prayer in deeply Republican Montana.
Lots of teams can remind you about loyalty, but Ross County reminds us that what you are loyal to is more important than being loyal itself. For us it’s a local-family style club in an age of flashy corporate giants. It’s a rebelliously modest team with minimal title pretentious in an age of win-now overreactions.
We are Ross County because we’re not just loyal to our clan, we’re loyal to what that clan stands for.
Grenoble Foot 0 – Nice 0
MacKenzie's Boot Room 