Falkirk FC: Club historian Michael White amongst those honoured at joint recognition awards night

The 75-year-old, who also was the brainchild behind the now worldwide Football Memories project, supported by Alzheimer Scotland, picked up the Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement award.

“It was very humbling,” he told the Falkirk Herald. “I love what I do and it is so enjoyable. Finding out the history of the club is fascinating and it is brilliant what it does for people.

"One of the nicest things is finding out about certain people from the past and helping reunite information with families. It can be really emotional when someone sees a picture of someone for the first time, or things like that. The family history stuff is just amazing to be a part of.”

White is currently working an official Falkirk FC book, documenting the club’s ‘footballing firsts’ in two parts.

He has completely rewritten the story of the club and has included the work undertaken by John Meffen in the early years before the club entered the Scottish leagues in 1902.

“Bits of pieces of history about Falkirk would blow your mind,” White said. “I am documenting everything because there is just so much to cover.

"The first volume is coming out in the summer and that will stretch up to 1969 from 1877. A second volume covering 1969 onwards will come out at the end of the 2026/2027 campaign.”

Away from being the club's well-known historian, White was the key figure behind the Football Memories project that has helped countless people with memory loss reconnect with their footballing past.

The former headteacher has led the project since 2009, when it was first introduced as a pilot project, after he first mooted the idea at a Hampden meeting between various clubs and organisations.

Football Memories aims to provide football images for reminiscence activity, which can can act as memory triggers for people with dementia and can assist with short term memory recall.

White explained: “It was a project that started back back in Falkirk when we moved into the new stadium and it just got bigger and bigger.

"We were at a meeting in Hampden a couple of years after that with some other clubs and I basically mentioned ‘guys who have memory problems have a fantastic memory of football going back to their teenage years’ and we did some investigating and found that is was so true. The power football with men of a certain age is quite astonishing.

“The memories project started here. Equivalent projects run across different sports too with the same principles. It really is big oaks from little acorns. The first ever meeting was in Stenhousemuir and it is now global.”

Award winners

Foundation winners: Martin Reid, David Alexander Community Champion Shield; Ian Angus Felton, Outstanding Contribution; Dougie McCallum, Special Recognition.

Club winners: Lewis Connolly and Stuart McCafferty, Outstanding Contribution; Carole Buchanan, Special Recognition; Sarah Scott, Lifetime Achievement.