The official vesting day of MAC was January 1 st 1975. The policy of the club was to keep the area of South Teesside within the structure of the North East and to be run from subs only. The club colours were black with gold trim and the vest could be bought from Jack Hatfield for £1.80. Mick Garrett took credit for this arriving one night with Mandale AC embroidered across the front. The first members of the club aside from founder members Mike and Roy were Jon Williams, Mick Garrett, Richard Puckrin and Steve Walker.
February saw the club join the Northern counties AAA. The club existed for the majority of this year on a very informal basis, business being written on paper, copied and circulated via the members, most meeting to train at Clairville.
The ladies soon took an interest with Ken Brewer acting as Team Manager, the first ladies were Jackie Kitching, Claire Bowen, Linda Thompson, Debra Leckonby and Helen Bloomfield. Other members include Tom Flory, Marcus Towse, John Metcalfe, F.Anderson and RG Elliston. Within the first 6 months there were 12 or so Senior Men and a similar number of Ladies, attracting more by the week.
In the September, the club was affiliated to the NYSD cross country League and Northumberland & Durham league. In December, the first AGM was held in Mike’s front room with the declaration that the membership had exceeded 50 with 12 waiting to join. He thanked the following for their assistance over the year Roy Bradley, Richard Puckrin, Bill Medhurst, Paul Threadgill and Ken Brewer for their invaluable assistance.
The club just missed out on a Senior Men’s Team trophy at Rowntrees meet at York with Tom Flory, a notable longer distance runner and P Threadgill a natural decathlete. Towards the end of the year a 3000m handicap was arranged using Stainsby fields, now the home of Acklam Grange School. A new member taking the honours was Ray Stevenson.
The books showed an income of £39.69, an expend of £32.25 with a surplus of £7.44. The estimated budget for 1976 necessitated subs going to seniors £2.20, 15 – 17 31.00 and under 15’s, 50p