Wick Academy

The club was known in Wick simply as Academy and sometimes in other parts of Caithness as Pulteneytown Academy. An indirect and unofficial connection with the local school of the same name was maintained with the election of a teacher, John Davidson as the first captain or 'leader' as it was termed in the minute book of the first meeting. The club's first game was a friendly away to Castletown. Home games were played at Harrow Park, now known as Harmsworth Park. Ten matches, with only two defeats, were played in that first season against teams like Dunbeath, John O'Groats (formed that same year in Wick), Lybster Portland, Thurso Thistle and Wick Thistle.

The Wick League was started in 1896, and Academy won the championship in the third season in 1898–99, the first of 17 league titles. From 1907 to 1914, Academy had virtually a clean sweep of league and local cups and in 1911, applied successfully for full membership of the SFA, so they could play in the Qualifying Cup.

Academy's Qualifying Cup début was a home tie on 2 September 1911, and a crowd of about 800 saw a 4–0 win against Inverness Thistle. Men paid 6d, boys 3d, ladies were admitted free and gate receipts were £17. Caledonian won a 2nd round tie in Wick 4–1.

The right winger in those games was Jimmy Miller, who was later secretary and president of the club, his commitment to the club continued almost 50 years to 1954.

A Caithness County League was started in the 1926–27 season, by which time the Harmsworth family had bought the park and donated it to the town with the Burgh Council as trustees and local sports clubs formed a management committee. Only the football clubs seemed prepared to do the work of the ground improvements and building a stone wall to enclose the park. Changing rooms were built and were saved from demolition in 1973, when Academy agreed to keep them in a good state of repair. The building now houses an office and tea hut. Academy won the county league in 1927–28 and again in 1928–29, 1930–31, 1935–36 and 1937–38.

As the only SFA club in Caithness (Thurso Pentland were also members for three years from 1936), Academy was allowed to sign players from other clubs to play in Qualifying Cup games. From 1928 onwards, they were unbeaten at home in Qualifying Cup ties. In 1933, they beat Nairn County, Caley and Keith, all away, to reach the Scottish Cup proper, losing 3–0 to a strong Division Two side, St Bernard's on 20 January 1934 at the Gymnasium Ground in Edinburgh. In 1936, Academy drew 3–3 in Wick with local rivals Brora Rangers, won the replay and two more games at Forres Mechanics and Buckie Thistle to earn a tie at Stirling. Academy scored first against King's Park, but lost 6–1. Several prestigious friendlies were played, Aberdeen and Celtic were among the teams who appeared at Harmsworth Park in the 1930s.

Academy had also joined the North of Scotland FA in 1914, but had been unable to play their first tie away to Forres Mechanics as most of their players had been called up by the Territorials. They had to wait until 1954 to be readmitted, but made up for lost time with a 4–3 win at Brora Rangers, before losing 3–1 in the semi-final away to Caldeonian.

In 1960, the Caithness Amateur Football Association switched to summer football and to retain its SFA membership, Wick Academy had to stay with the normal winter season, playing only cup ties and friendlies for the next 12 years.

In 1972, with Clair Harper now as chairman, the club joined the North of Scotland 2nd XI Association to have regular league fixtures, drawing 2–2 at home to Dingwall Thistle in the first game. Academy were a strong team in this North Reserve League, (later to become the North Caledonian Football League) and were champions four seasons running from 1978 to 1979 to 1981–82 under manager John MacDonald, and also won several of the league cups. With former goalkeeper Pat Miller as manager, Academy won the league again in 86–7. In July 1984, Heart of Midlothian fielded a full strength first team in a friendly which attracted 2,400 fans to Harmsworth Park. 900 copies of a souvenir programme sold out five minutes before kick off. Richard Hughes scored for Academy in a 7–1 defeat.

After having several applications knocked back, Academy were at last voted into the HFL in 1994 when Caledonian and Inverness Thistle amalgamated and left to join the SFL, along with Ross County. The first game at home to Cove Rangers drew a crowd of 1,700, but ended with a 3–0 defeat. After a draw with Rothes, Academy beat the then league leaders Forres Mechanics 1–0, and after three straight wins in October, were briefly fourth in the table.

In the 2001–02 Qualifying Cup, wins over Lossiemouth and Nairn County saw Academy in the Scottish Cup proper and BBC TV cameras were at Harmsworth Park where, Threave Rovers won 3–2.

Midfielder Martin Gunn represented Scotland in the Four Nations semi-professional tournaments in May 2005 and May 2006.

In January 2007, the club appointed Richard Hughes and Ian Munro as first team joint managers after Peter Budge resigned to join the SFA as football development officer at the Highland Football Academy. Hughes and Munro have long been associated with the Caithness side. After finishing usually between 10th and 13th, Academy completed a run of ten successive league wins in the 2008–09 season to finish fifth. Co-managers Richard Hughes and Ian Munro received the league's Manager of the Year Award, with Richard Macadie voted Player of the Year.

In the 2009–10 season, wins over Clachnacuddin and Girvan put the team in the third round of the Scottish Cup for the first time, earning a home tie with Second Division side Brechin City. Academy almost pulled off a shock, but an equaliser for Brechin five-minutes from full-time saw the game finish 4–4. Brechin won the replay at Glebe Park 4–2. Academy finished the season in ninth position and midfielder Sam Mackay was voted the Sunday Post Young Player of the year.