Every blade of grass at Borough Briggs knows the name Cecil Jack.
For over sixty years, this 82-year-old grandad has lived and breathed Elgin City, and now his story opens a new chapter in the SPFL and SWPL’s moving content series Unsung.
The retired carpet fitter turned groundsman has become a fixture at the club’s ground, still mowing, forking, and tending the pitch with loving care that speaks louder than any chant from the stands.
He first fell for Elgin at just 15, selling raffles and organising travel for fans, but it was a promise to help out “for a few weeks” nearly twenty years ago that turned into a second full-time career.
Cecil lost his wife June to cancer in 2006, but it was Elgin City that carried him through the fog of grief.
She used to work in the club’s pie shop and cheer alongside him at games, and now, even in her absence, he says she’s never far from his thoughts on matchdays.
He’s been to over a thousand games by his own count, and even now, he rarely misses a kick, home or away.
When the call came to join the club’s board shortly after June’s diagnosis, it was she who insisted he accept, reminding him that Borough Briggs had always been his home away from home.
She was right.
Cecil’s devotion to the club is not a grand gesture but a thousand small ones—marking the lines, checking the turf, showing up with a quiet determination that anchors a whole community.
He lives in New Elgin but his heart beats in black and white at Borough Briggs.
His son Arthur is now a youth coach at Inverness Caledonian Thistle, carrying forward the family’s footballing flame.
Elgin City vice chair Isla Benzie, who’s known Cecil her whole life, says he’s the soul of the club—always around, always grumbling, but always giving.
She says he’s “Mr Grumpy” by reputation but in truth, he’s a soft-hearted fountain of club history and kindness.
That warm blend of wit, work ethic and love for the game is exactly what Unsung was created to honour.
SPFL Chief Operating Officer Calum Beattie says Cecil’s story is a reminder that Scottish football isn’t just made up of scores and signings—it’s built on people like him.
The first episode of Unsung captures this love story between one man and his club in quiet, powerful detail, and it’s hard not to feel moved by the simple truth of it all.
Cecil may be the oldest professional groundsman in Scotland, but his energy still hums through the soil of the pitch he tends—and in every pass and goal that follows.
For Cecil Jack, Elgin City is more than just a team—it’s a way of life, and one he’s still living to the full.
