Researching Ian Mckay

Born in Wortley, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, McKay was the eldest of the three sons of Kenneth John McKay, a steel worker, and Freda Doreen Hargreaves. He was educated at Rotherham Grammar School.

McKay left school at seventeen and in August 1970 enlisted in the Army, training as a paratrooper. Posted to the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (1 Para) in early 1971, he served in Northern Ireland, Germany, and the United Kingdom. By April 1982 he was platoon sergeant of 4 Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, and deployed with his unit for service in the Falklands War. He was killed during the Battle of Mount Longdon, when the deed described below took place, for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Recruited from Sydney club St George where he had played during his war service, McKay joined North Adelaide in 1946 and although he started as a centre half back he played at fullback from 1949 until his retirement. McKay was selected to the South Australian interstate side in his debut season, the first of 14 times that he would represent his state. He won the Magarey Medal in 1950, the first fullback to win the award. He captained North Adelaide for eight seasons and led them to premierships in 1949 and 1952, also captaining South Australia twice. In 2000 he was named North Adelaide Team of The Century captain in a team that included Tom Leahy, Ken Farmer, Barrie Robran, Don Lindner, Darren Jarman and Andrew Jarman.

Ian was perhaps the only full back to have the great John Coleman's measure. Prior to Coleman's debut McKay had already proven himself against the "Big V", being chosen by the Victorian selectors as South Australia's best player in the 1946 clash between the states and thus being awarded the O'Halloran Trophy. Coleman and McKay were opposed 4 times and McKay kept Coleman to a tally of 10 goals in the four games at an average of 2.5 goals per game. McKay had the pace to go with Coleman and as freakish as Coleman's marking was McKay probably had an even better leap. No less a judge than Fos Williams stated that one of the main reasons South Australia defeated Victoria in both 1951 and 1952 was McKay's brilliance in curtailing Coleman.

In 1976 respected journalists Mike Coward and Geoff Kingston named South Australia's greatest 40 players of the first 100 years of SANFL football. They rated McKay as the 9th greatest SA footballer of the first 100 years. He was an inaugural member of the SANFL Hall of Fame yet incredibly he is still not in the AFL Hall of Fame.

Further in 1977, Merv Agars named South Australia's greatest team of the first 100 years and McKay was named full back.

Prior to official All Australian teams being selected the Sporting Life magazine annually chose an All Australian team and McKay was named full back in both 1951 and 1952. There teams were officially recognised by the AFL for a time.

McKay was also notable for an overhead mark he took in the 1952 SANFL Grand Final against Norwood. The photograph of the mark captured McKay's dramatic leap over Norwood's Pat Hall and was reputedly distributed around the world.