Two sports hall of fame shinty greats have blood ties
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Even though shinty’s widely regarded two greatest players of all time will forever be associated with their respective clubs, they do cross the great divide.
There is in fact a family link between the Red and Blue’s Ronald Ross and a Blue and White legendary star of the early 20th Century.
Newtonmore’s Dr John Cattanach is the only other shinty player to have been named in the Scottish Sporting Hall of Fame.
Born in 1885, Dr Cattanach was an outstanding all-round international athlete and is considered one of the finest shinty players ever to wield a caman.
He captained Newtonmore to 1909 Camanachd Cup success when they beat Furnace 11-3 in the final at Glasgow.
He scored eight goals in that game – a record that still stands to this very day.
Dr Cattanach was also capped for Scotland at hockey and athletics, where he excelled in sprinting and the long jump.
He was also a qualified medic, graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1912 and serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Warwickshire Regiment.
After becoming a Lieutenant in 1914, he sadly died a year later, succumbing to wounds that he sustained in the Dardanelles during World War I.
It transpires that there is a family connection between the two shinty greats Ross and Cattanach.
“My mum had five sisters and a brother and if you go back through the generations, Dr Johnny Cattanach is a relative on my mum’s side,” Ross said. “I believe he scored eight goals for Newtonmore in their 11-3 win in the 1909 Camanachd Cup final.
“The best I managed was six goals in the 12-1 win over Newtonmore in the 1997 Camanachd Cup final.”
Dr Cattanach was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.
