John Alexander Mackie (23 February 1903 – June 1984) was an Irish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for various clubs, including

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

in the English

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

Career

Born in

Monkstown, County Antrim Monkstown is a townland (of 811 acres) and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the urban area of Newtownabbey and the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. The townland was previously called Ballynamanagh () It ...

, Mackie started out at Monkstown and Forth River in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, before being spotted by

in 1922. It is suggested in many reports that Mackie demanded a pet

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

in place of a signing-on fee, a request Arsenal managed to satisfy thanks to chairman Sir Henry Norris's contacts in international trade. However, a re-analysis of the sources of this story in 2014 suggests the story is fanciful.Arsenal History Society blog 2014 http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/11464 Mackie was a young, strong

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, and made his debut on 9 December 1922 against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

. He soon became a regular in the Arsenal side, making 23 league appearances that season and 31 the next. He also made his debut for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

on 14 April 1923. However, he became injured early on in 1924–25 and missed most of that season. Although Mackie would return to first-team football, managing 35 league appearances in 1925–26, future Arsenal skipper Tom Parker joined in spring 1926 and soon ousted Mackie from the side altogether. Mackie played two more seasons for Arsenal, mostly in the reserves, before leaving for

in 1928. In all, he made 119 appearances for Arsenal, scoring one goal. At Portsmouth, Mackie became a stalwart for the next seven seasons; he made over 250 league appearances for Pompey, and played in two

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

s – against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

in 1929 and

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in 1934, losing both. He also won two more caps for Ireland. He left Portsmouth in 1936, and finished his career at non-league

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

and then

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

. He died in 1984 at the age of 81.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackie, Alec 1903 births 1984 deaths Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Association footballers from County Antrim Men's association football fullbacks Pre-1950 IFA men's international footballers English Football League players Arsenal F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Sittingbourne F.C. players