Northern United will celebrate its 125th anniversary this weekend and is going under the roof as part of the festivities.
The Dunedin club, which claims to be the oldest continuously running football club in the southern hemisphere, is playing games this afternoon at Logan Park and also under cover at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Two junior games will be played at the stadium, followed by a game between Maori Hill and Northern invitational sides.
In the Maori Hill side, two former All Whites, in Graham Marshall and Mike McGarry, will be joined by New Zealand Football and Footballsouth board member Dougal McGowan and former Northern junior turned professional golfer Mahal Pearce.
Dunedin South Labour MP Clare Curran will also line up in the Maori Hill invitation side, along with Clare Taylor, who played both cricket and football for England, and former Junior Football Fern Kushla Glover.
In the Northern invitation team is former Junior All White Terry Boylan and four life members of the club.
The match will not be too serious but will be followed by the Northern v Green Island game in the Footballsouth Premier League.
This match will start at 4pm and is the only game of premier league football this weekend. The rest of the first-round games will be played on April 6.
The Northern club has had a measure of success over the years and reached the Chatham Cup final as far back as 1927.
It then lost three finals in the 1950s, before it finally won a final in 1959, beating North Shore United 3-2 at the Basin Reserve. Two years later, Northern claimed a second Chatham Cup with a 2-0 win, again at the Basin Reserve, against the same opposition.
The side has not laid its hands on the cup since but has healthy numbers throughout the grades.
More than 100 will be involved in the celebrations over the weekend. After the games today, a special dinner will take place at the Technique restaurant at the Otago Polytechnic. There will be a further catch-up tomorrow, to wind up the weekend.
