The long-time Border Mail journalist joined some of the region’s biggest names in Jack Beck, Jack Odewahn OAM and Bill Trethowan OAM in being recognised after club delegates voted unanimously at the district’s annual meeting at Culcairn on Sunday.

The district’s board of directors had recommended to clubs that it be awarded.

The clubs also decided that Mulcahy should receive the honorary position as the association’s patron.

“It came as a huge shock to me and it is a great honour, but I have met so many wonderful people through bowls,” Mulcahy said yesterday.

Mulcahy started attending Albury and District meetings in the early 1990s as a Walla delegate.

Former district secretary Mal Beazley encouraged him to get involved in administration and he stood for election as a vice-president in 1996.

Mulcahy was elected in a ballot, had two years as vice-president and subsequently two years as president from 1998-2000.

In a strange twist, he became a district official before holding any official position with Walla.

After stepping down as district president, Mulcahy continued attending district meetings and had two-and-a-half terms as Walla club president before moving to Lavington Panthers for the past three seasons.

About 10 years ago, he compiled an individual history for most district clubs for the 50th anniversary.

In recent years, he has been a district selector.

Albury and District went for more than 20 years without defeating the Ovens and Murray, but it has defeated the O and M three times in the past four years and presently holds the Jack Beck Shield.

Mulcahy won two singles championships at Walla, five pairs championships with father-in-law Beau Schulz and was runner-up in the district’s champion of champion singles in 2000 to SS & A’s John McDonnell.

The first life membership awarded was to Beck, the district’s inaugural president, who held that position from 1952 to 1966 and a further term from 1971-77.

The second life member was Odewahn, of Walla, who was district president from 1966-71 and later became a vice-president of the Royal NSW Bowling Association and district patron.

Trethowan, of SS & A, was the third life member after being district secretary for many years and then president from 1977 to 1981.

Both Odewahn and Trethowan became life members of the RNSWBA with just four awarded in more than 100 years.