Olympian Neil McLeod stalwart in Northland hockey

This year, the Northern Advocate People's Choice Award category in the Konica Minolta Northland Sports Awards is focusing on past Olympians. During the next two weeks we are profiling the 13 Olympians who you will be asked to vote on in early November. The winner will be announced at the awards on November 30.

Today ... Neil McLeod.

The Northland hockey international must rank as one of the unluckiest Kiwi Olympians to have ever tasted gold-medal success.

McLeod, like reserve goalie Les Wilson, was not awarded a gold medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 because he did not take the field during the Olympic hockey tournament.

The controversial International Olympic Committee rule has since been abandoned and these days every player in the team would be awarded a medal, regardless of whether he or she took the field.

The Kiwis caused a shock at Montreal to create New Zealand Hockey's greatest moment by beating Australia 1-0 to win the gold medal when Tony Ineson smashed home a penalty corner shortly after halftime.

The New Zealand team management learned only at the semifinals stage that their reserves would not be eligible to receive medals but decided that they could not afford to risk shuffling the team around at that late stage. The entire team was later inducted into the New Zealand Sporting Hall of Fame.

McLeod became a stalwart contributor to hockey in Northland.