Attending the Games as a youngster, Leo remembered the awe he felt seeing big John Allan MacDonald literally step over the fence and walk on to the field to throw the caber. “As a kid, seeing that, oh, the excitement. The whole crowd would start chattering in anticipation.”

The 1979 Games were the introduction to Antigonish of the Ancient Scottish Heavy Events. For the Canadian throwers, it was their first exposure to events like the Sheaf Toss, Braemar Stone, weight for height and others. It was also their introduction to a new way of judging the caber toss. No longer would distance be the primary attribute of a good toss. Now a 12 o’clock throw was the perfect outcome and the athlete who threw closest to that mark would win the contest.

The next year Ron asked Leo to take on a bigger role in the event – as chief official in charge of all the Heavy Events competitions. Leo took clinics to learn the scoring system and all the rules for the new events. He received training from such veteran competitors as the world number one thrower, Keith Tice from California and Bill Anderson from Scotland.

Leo became as integral to the Heavy Events as the throwers themselves. As chief official he was especially noticeable during the caber toss, running beside the athlete, in his Clanranald kilt and sunglasses, clipboard in hand. Accuracy in marking the placement of the throwers’ feet is all-important because this determines how the throw itself is to be judged. Leo wanted to be right there to make the call. A bonus was that he was close enough to hear what the athletes said when picking up their caber. Some throwers had colorful or funny things to say to the caber. Some might knock on the caber with their knuckles or kiss it for good luck. Some might call it a bad name.

For many years Leo was also in charge of making the cabers. From his property on Back Road Brierly Brook, he’d pick out two or three good trees because you always needed to have back-up cabers in case one broke. He’d saw them down, limb and shave them, trying to get all the bark off in one piece, then smooth and cure them for months before the Games.

“You’ve got to respect the caber!” was a mantra for Leo. He did not allow the volunteers who carried the caber to the thrower to pick it up on their own even if they could. And once it was delivered no one could touch that caber other than the thrower. One time when the

caber was proving too difficult for the athletes to turn, it was suggested that Leo get out his chainsaw and lighten it. Leo recalls Francis Brebner, a top thrower from Scotland, saying to him: “Why would you do that? The caber didn’t to anything wrong!” Then Francis went out and turned it, the first successful throw of the day.

Some of Leo’s fondest memories are of road trips with athletes like Wayne Thompson, George Murphy, Billy Morse, Jim Sears and his first hero John Allan MacDonald. Leo’s job was to chauffeur the athletes and their hammers, stones and cabers to festivals around the Maritimes. He had the one job that required inviolate sobriety. He had to pilot the van, judge on the field, intervene when trouble brewed and remember to pick up the beer. He also had to brake when his passengers wanted him to brake. All that the 5 or 6 heavyweights in the back had to do was start the van a-rockin’. Leo knew it was either time to stop the van or time to land in the ditch.

Leo held the role of chief official for 35 years. “In all that time,” he says “there was never a moment when someone would question my call. I was often just flying by the ass of my pants, but I would just get them in a circle and say this is what happened and what are we going to do. If a hammer or a caber got broken, do we just continue the event with a new one or do we start the contest all over again. If there was a general consensus, I made the decision and no one ever looked back on it.”

“They were gentlemen,” says Leo. “They offered consolation to their fellow throwers, gave advice and cheered them on when they had a great throw.”

Leo MacDonald is a past-president and Life Member of the Antigonish Highland Society. This week he will be inducted as an individual Highland Games Hall of Famer, the first person to achieve all three of these designations.