Iain 'Prickles' Nicolson was one of the young squad who crossed to Skye for a match which remains of his favourite football memories.
"We were all desperate to get into the school team as it meant time of classes and we loved to play football. My abiding memory of school football was this trip to Skye," he said.
"We were stunned to be told just before we left that we would be playing on a blaze pitch and football boots were no use and to bring trainers. This was in the days before trainers were fashionable and very few of us actually had trainers.
"However, a combination of sand shoes and baseball boots got us onto the park and it worked as we hammered them 9 – 0.
"They were managed by Jim Roger, ex-Airdrie who had played in a Scottish Cup final against Celtic a few years earlier. It was also the first time they had been beaten on their home turf for eight years, so it was a tremendous result for us."
What the modest 'Prickles' doesn't reveal is he scored six of his side's nine goals from defence. The game in the heart of the Misty Isle remains one of his most cherished memories but it was only the tip of the football iceberg for the talented defender.
He continued: "Growing up in the 1960s most boys were football daft and I was no different. We used to spend our evenings playing on the Parkend football pitch which was where the Industrial Estate is now.
"At that time Tong had just set up a junior team and my friend Alexander Mackay took me down with him to Tong. We played all our home games at Macaulay Road and we had some good players in the time like Malcolm 'Waheid'
Maciver, 'Jam' Morrison and 'Bruidean' from the West Side.
"I remember it was about this time that I got my first football boots. They were Tommy Docherty boots but as it was my mother who had bought them she had got a couple of sizes too big for me. 'You'll grow into them' she said and I used to stuff the Daily Express and Stornoway Gazette into them to try and fill them out when I played.
"Tong disbanded shortly afterwards and I began playing for the Nicolson junior school team. We didn't do very well so I left and joined Rovers. I loved playing with them but it was with Rovers where I suffered my single biggest disappointment in football.
"It arrived in 1972 when we visited Back on the final day of the league season. A lot has been said about this game already but it was incredible.
"We were going for the league and a win would see us champs while a draw was enough for Back to clinch it.
"We were 3 – 0 up at half-time and coasting. Then Alexander Mackay added another just after half-time and we thought we had done it. There was huge crowd watching on what was a beautiful summers night. Back had a great team then with Murdo 'Bloxy' Murray, Andy Gray, Allan Kerr, Cab and 'Sgiathanach'
"We were well on the way to winning the league.
"I still don't know if it was complacency, over confidence or fatigue but we let them back into the match and in the dying seconds Wee Willie Macdonald who had just come on as a sub scored an equaliser and they won the league.
"To this day, every time I see Willie I remind him he was marginally offside when he scored that goal," added Prickles with a smile.
"To a 15 year old with visions of flashing a senior league winners medal to all his mates this was indeed a learning experience and to this day I haven't got over that game."
Rovers have often been described as the 'nearly men' of Lewis football and it is a tag that 'Prickles' admits fits the club who were relatively successful in cups but agonisingly fell short in the battle for the top prize – the Lewis and Harris league championship.
"Throughout the 70s we were a really good side but we never managed to win the league although we won quite a few cups. The nucleus of that team was Duncan 'Elastic' Kennedy, the Martin Brothers; Stevie, Calum and Baddie, Gam, Smudge, Alexander and the three Macdonald brothers; Kenny, Murdo and Donnie.
"I was still playing junior football and Rovers also introduced a junior side around this time. We had a cracking team then with guys like Geordie Dag, Paps, Hogel, Boyshan, Al Crae, Todd, Stubbie, Paddy, Twinny, Buckie Dan and the Sketches.
"We won a lot of things at junior level including the leagues and Ladywell Cup. I would say that team was the happiest I ever was in football and they were a joy to play with.
"The only disappointment is that more of that young team didn't go on and play for the senior side as well.
"As I was playing both junior and senior football we could be playing four or five games a week and although I loved it I wonder now with the benefit of hindsight if it was too much for us young lads."
Marriage took 'Prickles' out of Stornoway to Back and with his change of address came a change of football colours as he donned the famous blue shirt of his new village team.
"I played a good couple of seasons for Back and it was good to play alongside guys like Murdo 'Bloxy', DA, Allan George, Dano, Tanky and DJ McCarthy. There were also some young guys like 'Nero' coming through.
Although we had a good team we didn't win the league although we were runners-up a few times.
"I finished playing and became involved with the club's juniors and alongside Duncan 'Suggan' I managed the under 18s for an enjoyable six or seven year spell.
"When Back won the league in 2000 there were half a dozen of the lads who had come through our team in the team and that was great to see.
"I still watch Lewis football now and it is really great now to look on and see the new crop of schoolboys still flying the flag for the school on the mainland and doing well reaching the Scottish Cup final at Hampden and winning various other competitions.
"On the senior football front, there are two young players who really impress me. I like Michael Mackay of Back and also Aths' Paul Murray. They are great players but I have to admit that Lochs are the best team I have seen for a while on the island."