Tauranga City United Football Club is celebrating its golden jubilee tomorrow.

Founded by Jack Bryan in 1967, the club has survived amalgamations and the loss of their previous home ground at Wharepai Domain, to become the leading football club in Tauranga.

Former club president Ron Boyle joined as a 14-year-old the day the club was founded, playing until he was 27.

'The club started with just one team, which played in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty competition. In the early 1970s we merged with Greerton Rovers Football Club, and entered the Northern League.”

They were known as Tauranga City until 2000, when the combination of Mount Maunganui Football Club folding and Tauranga City Council evicting Tauranga City FC from Wharepai Domain brought them to their present grounds at Links Ave.

Knowing they would now attract many Mount players, the decision was made to add ‘United' to the club's name.

Part of tomorrow's celebrations is the unveiling of an honours board, which will have all the names of past presidents. Ron himself served 20 years.

'When it got to 20 years, I thought maybe someone else should have a go,” laughs Ron, adding he doesn't expect his name to be up there 20 times.

The unveiling will come after a ‘past versus present' match at 3pm tomorrow, which will see former players pitted against current members at the club grounds at 130 Links Avenue, Mount Maunganui.

Anyone with an interest in football is invited to come along and watch. Naturally, the club is now looking ahead to the next 50 years – and already has some new projects in store.

'This year the club has taken a new tangent. We are intending to start up a training academy soon, which should be exciting,” says Ron.