OBITUARY - Tributes pour in for dedicated sportsman McGonagle

Dean McGonagle admitted he was still caught in a whirlwind.
But amid all the emotions of losing his father and dealing with the grief he knew one thing: His dad Bernard Darcy McGonagle was a top-drawer bloke.
That much was being hammered home all weekend after his father, who was commonly known as Darcy, died aged 69 on Friday night.
McGonagle, a former national pole vault champion and Commonwealth Games representative, was best known in Northland as a first-class rugby referee.
But with a lifelong dedication to sports and the community McGonagle was one of the pillars of the Northland sports scene, a talented sportsman in his own right who was involved in sports administration until just weeks before his death.
"I just feel so privileged. I got to work alongside him for the last 22 years and be part of his life," Dean McGonagle said.
"The one thing I have heard this weekend, over and over again, is that Darcy McGonagle had the respect of everyone he knew because he was honest," he said.
"I think he had the purest heart of anyone I knew.
"There are probably more people coming from overseas and out of Whangarei to his funeral than there will be from Whangarei.
"That is the sort of influence - I suppose - he had on people."
As one Northland's most distinguished athletes, McGonagle's life will be celebrated at what is expected to be a massive funeral in Whangarei tomorrow.
Born in Taihape in 1938, Darcy moved to the Whangarei district with his wife Carol and a young Dean in 1967.
He represented New Zealand at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games and then officiated at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games in 1974 and again at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990.
McGonagle is the only Northland athlete to win a national open pole vault title and is one of only a handful of Northland rugby referees to adjudicate international fixtures.
McGonagle served as president of both Marist Sports Club and Athletics Northland and was still working behind the scenes helping recruit and train referees for the Northland Rugby Referees Association last year, an association for which he has held almost every administrative office.
His work in establishing the Marist Sports Club was recognised just last week, when he was voted to receive a life membership.
His hearse will be parked outside the Marist clubrooms in Whangarei tomorrow where he will post-humously receive that particular award.
As news of his death filtered out, tributes to McGonagle flowed in, many underlining a dedicated, conscientious and humble sportsman who was always prepared to go the extra mile.
Northland Rugby Referees chairman Martin Albrecht said McGonagle was a pillar of the association, a man who will be sorely missed.
"Darcy was just one of those blokes who had a manner about him that made you listen.
"More than that, he made you want to listen," Albrecht said.
"He never minced his words, he said it how it was and never shied away from the truth and helped so many of our new referees, me included when I first started, learn about refereeing and life sometimes as well," he said.
"He was the sort of guy who had that quiet manner about him but was always questioning.
"He was a stickler for the status quo, but only if he saw sense in it."
Such was his influence on the Northland sports fraternity that McGonagle and his wife Carol were awarded civic honours by former Mayor of Whangarei Craig Brown two years ago.
The citation not only recognised McGonagle's tireless commitment to rugby but also his passion for athletics and his voluntary contribution to a variety of community ventures.
McGonagle died early Friday evening after falling into a coma on Thursday.
He had been battling cancer and had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
He is survived by his wife Carol, his son Dean and daughter Kathleen and grandson Jethro, along with his brother Dennis and sister Shaaron.