No 29: Seacliff wins first Chatham Cup (1923)
Its name automatically provokes images of troubled souls roaming around a massive Gothic building on the coast.
But Seacliff, once home of a famous "lunatic asylum", has played a fairly special role in the history of Otago sport.
The Seacliff football club was the first winner of the Chatham Cup, New Zealand football's premier knockout competition.
Seacliff beat Wellington YMCA 4-0 in the first final at Wellington's Athletic Park on October 1, 1923.
The Chatham Cup had been gifted to the New Zealand Football Association the previous year by the crew of HMS Chatham, as a token of appreciation for the hospitality they had encountered on a visit to New Zealand. The trophy is modelled on England's FA Cup.
Just a handful of teams - including two from the South Island - entered the inaugural Chatham Cup.
Seacliff easily won the southern final, thumping Oamaru 7-0 thanks to five goals from Bill Hooper.
The "Light Blues", consisting mainly of staff at the asylum, then met YMCA in the final, and were "too good in all departments of the game, and had exceptionally strong defence", the Otago Witness reported.
Hooper scored to give Seacliff a 1-0 lead at halftime. Reg Baxter (two) and Malcolm McDougall were on target in the second spell.
The Seacliff team consisted of Charlie Rivers, Jock Anderson, George Anderson, Bill Rogers, Hugh McKechnie, Bill Murray, McDougall, Baxter, Hooper, Tommy Burns and Wattie Hanlin.
Seacliff got back to the final in 1924 (losing 3-1 to Auckland Harbour, after extra time), 1925 (losing 3-2 to YMCA, also after extra time) and 1929 (losing 4-0 to Tramways).
With the demise of the hospital at Seacliff in the 1940s, the football club went into hiatus.
A revived Seacliff side, including many staff from the new Cherry Farm hospital, competed in the Chatham Cup between 1990 and 1997, reaching the second round in 1994.
Lower-grade Seacliff sides were also fielded, before the name again slipped into the shadows in 1999.