Dunedin man Lyndon Macassey got his first and only big moment when he was centre of attention for all the wrong reasons in 1937.
On his first test match refereeing at international level, Macassey infamously jumped for joy when the
All Blacks beat South Africa on August 17.
His daughter Rachel Ashby, based in Wanaka, received a cap with his name and the date of his one and only test match. He was not called back for another.
"I was very very emotional.
"Dad and I had a real closeness and particularly with sport.
"Dad went to Carisbrook every Sunday to watch the rugby and he took me along."
While Mr Macassey was tremendously proud to referee an international, he was also a little embarrassed for quite some time after the jump for joy incident, that made international news at the time.
"Referees don’t jump for joy when their team wins, but he did. He regretted that.
Mrs Ashby said rugby was her father’s life, he lived and breathed the game.
He continued to referee provincial matches, she said.
"Everybody treated it as the joke, that he had done it.
"I think it was the excitement of the match.
"We joked about it later on; it took him a while to live it down."
A cartoon was even drawn about the incident and printed in the paper, she said.
Today she and the family were proud to receive an acknowledgement from New Zealand Rugby, despite Mr Macassey dying in 1992.
"He would be ever so proud, rugby was his life and he had many friends in the rugby union.
"It was the joy of rugby, he loved the game."
