In Memoriam: John McDonald

It is with great sadness that Wigan Warriors learned of the passing of former Grade 1 referee John McDonald, aged 86.

John was born in Wigan on 7 October, 1937, and attended St Patricks Primary School. Having passed his 11+, John went on to a grammar school in St Helens.

After qualifying as a first-grade rugby league referee in the mid-1970’s, John went on to take charge of more than 200 rugby league games ranging from league matches, BBC 2 Floodlit Trophy, John Player Trophy, Yorkshire and Lancashire Cups, Premiership Trophy, Tour matches, and Challenge Cup games, including several semi-finals.

Perhaps John’s career highlight was refereeing the 1986 Yorkshire Cup Final between Castleford and Hull at Headingley, Leeds.

Unfortunately for John during his career, he never managed to attain the accolade of referring a Wembley Challenge Cup Final due to the success experienced by Wigan during the 1980’s.

The referring policy in those days was such that you couldn’t take charge of a game that involved your hometown club, and with John originating from Wigan, refereeing on the hollowed turf at Wembley Stadium was ruled out.

During the 1970’s and 80’s, it was customary for referees to have employment away from the game of rugby league and John worked as an engineer latterly becoming a foreman at Regent Truck before his retirement.

In 1981, John was part of a tour to Oregan, USA with Shevington Sharks to promote the game in which he went along and assisted in refereeing several matches. He was also involved in setting up Springfield Amateur Rugby League team in the 1980’s to introduce rugby league to school leavers.

After hanging up his whistle, John worked alongside Fred Lindop in the mid to late 80’s to standardise referees. John served as the Vice President of the Senior Referees Association in 1984 before leading Australian referee, Greg McCallum, had been given the job of improving refereeing standards in this country around the early 1990’s.

John McDonald was a stalwart of the Wigan Referees Society and was well-respected within the game during an era with contested scrums and no video analysis to assist which made the referee’s decision-making more relevant.

John, you will be sadly missed by your rugby colleagues and friends.

Wigan Warriors send their condolences to John’s family and friends at this sad time.