A new book charting the history of Inverness Caledonian Thistle over its first 25 years is being made available to the general public at 10am on Wednesday 11th November at the club shop.
The club is also delighted to confirm that all of the pre-orders of “Milestones and Memories” have been dispatched this week, whilst those which are due to be collected at the Stadium are now available for pick up.
‘Milestones & Memories’ has been written by club historian Ian Broadfoot and is a sequel to ‘Going Ballistic!’, the book he wrote to mark the club’s 10th anniversary at the end of 2003/04.
It is a comprehensive record of the club, chronicling every major event following the decision in February 1994 to merge Caledonian and Inverness Thistle firstly to become Caledonian Thistle and two years later Inverness Caledonian Thistle. It extends to 324 pages and is illustrated with more than 500 photographs. It includes the statistics of the 281 players to play for the club in 1,111 games over the 25 years, .
Club Chairman Ross Morrison said: “Ian has produced a magnificent record of the first 25 years of the club’s history and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for the time, effort and expertise he has dedicated to this project. I commend it strongly to our supporters and indeed any lover of football throughout the land.”
ICT Supporters Trust Chairman Peter Mutton added: “We are proud to have been partners in this landmark project. Fans old and new will be thrilled with this book, which we are sure will be dipped into time and time again for many years to come to check facts or simply to relive some wonderful memories.”
The author is a retired Chartered Surveyor, who has a 25-year association with ICT. He joined the Management Committee of ICT in June 1995. Together with Charlie Christie, ICT Academy Director and former player, coach and manager, Ian started the merchandise operation. Later Ian helped Jim Falconer with team lines and took players and managers to interviews. Despite moving away from Inverness to Perth, Ian has maintained close ties with the club and has continued to keep extensive team and player records.
There is no doubting Ian’s fondest memory.
He said: “Winning the Scottish Cup in 2015 is undoubtedly the highlight of the first 25 years. The semi-final against Celtic was much more dramatic but it was the final that really counted. It was strange to go in as favourites and I for one was very nervous. It was more relief rather than euphoria that I felt. I can still relive James Vincent’s winning goal in my mind’s eye. I saw Marley Watkins racing through the middle and was conscious of James haring down the right wing. It was quite a feat having started in the right back position. When Jamie McDonald parried Marley’s shot, time seemed to stand still, then James knocked the loose ball into the net. The whistle went and I could relax as the fans all around me went wild. A day like no other.”
Before Ian even joined the club officially he had been keeping some records but this snowballed over the years until he found himself as the club statistician and historian. One statistic that has always fascinated Ian is the distance travelled to senior matches – that is excluding reserve matches, friendlies and local tournaments. After 10 years this was 68,000 miles and after 25 years the total was up to a massive 174,000 miles.
Ian said: “The one good thing that has arisen out of the long distance travel is team bonding. You really get to know people well when you sit with them on a bus for 3 or 4 hours each way every second week. The air miles to Romania in 2015 have not been included!
“Another interesting number is the total of squad players over the years. 100 had been used after ten years and 281 after 25 years. This includes players who made the bench but did not play. This is really quite a modest number and I am sure other clubs will have used more. You see clubs almost starting afresh each season but ICT managers have been careful. We started with mostly ex-Highland League players but gradually spread the net far and wide – now we can look back on players from Estonia, Latvia, Brazil, Israel, Cameroon as well as all parts of the UK and Europe.”
Milestones and Memories can be purchased at a cost of £20 in person from the club shop at Caledonian Stadium or online at shop.ictfc.com