John O’Keeffe
“One of the finest Sporting Ambassadors
of our time”
The dissipation of so many dreams that inevitably followed Kerry’s
All Ireland defeat of 1982, hit nobody harder than John O' keeffe
On the threshold of his eight Celtic Cross award, victory over
Offaly would have set him apart in football’s Hall of Fame
and place him alongside those hurling and immortals John Doyle,
Christy Ring and Noel Skehan.
Afterwards, the Austin Stacks clubman remarked philosophically
that “It wasn't to be'' and although his star is still in
the ascendancy, who is to say now that the chance will come again?
On the run-in to the Final, O' keeffe suffered a harrowing two
weeks during which he was unable to participate in any form of
training. An old hamstring ailment that has plagued his career
had once again surfaced, and there were serious doubts as to
whether or not be would participate in the most important game
of his life. Alive to the realities of the situation, the Kerry
selectors, understandably amused, imposed the
now-familiar and controversial defensive role on Jack O'Shea.
However with the
knowledge of hindsight, one wonders if the Cahirciveen colossal
might have been
better employed on his own domain because from the opening minutes,
it became patently obvious that John O' keeffe didn't need anybody
to shore up the defense. As
with so often in the past, when the whips were cracking, he was
playing as well as ever and his performance over the 70 minutes
was entirely worthy of a man who has never let take side down.
Kerry's much decorated defensive pivot comes from football stock
and it is scarcely surprising that he should follow in the footsteps
of his father, Frank, who gained an
All-Ireland medal when Kerry edged out Roscommon in the titanic
1946 replay, a game which many grey-beard followers in the Kingdom
still rate as one of the best finals ever seen in Croke Park.
The following year Frank O’ keeffe was again operating out
of right full forward when Kerry lost their All-Ireland crown
to Cavan at the Polo Grounds, New York.
“My father encouraged me at every opportunity'', Johno would
say; and it would have
been in the natural order of things had he followed him into the
ranks of Boherbee John Mitchels. But circumstances dictated otherwise.
He attended the local C.B.S. at
Clonalour where he now teaches and here he cam under the tutelage
of Michael Hayes who was a Rock street man through and through.
''The Brothers were marvellous'' John says, remembering those
early days and with further gentle persuasion from Jimmy Hobbart
and the late Joe Mulchinock, he threw in his lot with Austin Stacks.
As the years went by, he teamed up with his distant cousin, Ger
O'Keeffe, Mikey Sheehy, Ger Power, Denis Long and John L. McElligott
to help fashion one of tile best sides ever seen in Kerry and
when Stacks won the All-Ireland Club Championship in 1977, it
was no more than fitting reward for a lot of hard work and no
little dedication.
With St. Brendan's Seminary, Killarney where Fr Linane was games
master, O’Keeffe captained the side which won the All-Ireland
colleges final in 1969, the only Kerry schools team ever to achieve
this distinction. After a lean innings in minor football, it provided
a welcome respite because he had been part of an abortive attempt
to unseat Cork in 3 successive provincial finals. His promotion
to the Kerry senior panel was rapid and while still a student
at St. Patrick's Training College, Drumcondra, he gained his first
All-Ireland medal in 1969 as a substitute when Kerry, inspired
by Dan Joe Crowley and Tom Prendergast, narrowly overcame Offaly
at windswept Croke Park.
The following March, the reigning champions embarked on their
epoch- making voyage to Australia, crossing the globe from east
to west. John O'keeffe, however, missed out on that trip and when
the Kerrymen winged their way out of Dublin Airport, he could
hear the sound of their aircraft bearing them to far away places
from his hospital bed in the Bon Secours Nursing Home, Glasnevsin.
A cartilage injury had interrupted his career and when his surgeon,
Dr. McAuley failed lo ''unlock'' his knee under anesthetic, it
ended whatever slim chance he had of making the trip. To add to
his misery, the Kerry players called to see him on their way to
the airport. Undoubtedly, they meant well but for a lad of 19
summers, it was a traumatic experience. The fates, however were
kind to him and when the Kingdom footballers revisited Australia
in 1981, John O’ keeffe, perhaps more than anybody, savoured
his first glimpse of the fabled Opera House and the grey steel
span of Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Immediately following his operation, he gegan to play what he
considers to have been the best football of his career at St.
Pats and when he moved on to University, he came under the influence
of the present Offaly manager Eugene McGee, whom he refers to
as a good friend and a man of rare inspirational qualities. The
team tactical talks would often extend for hours on end and in
3 county finals against St.Vincents, two of which were successful,
McGee had his charges absolutely “boiling over” with
determination.
He has fond memories of his years at U.C.D., the 3 Sigerson Cup
medals that he won and the great friendships that were forged.
Immediately
after winning his 3rd All-Ireland medal in 1975, O' keeffe moved
to Loughborough College in the British midlands where he completed
a 1 year post
graduate course in physical education. It was, he recalls, a fabulous
experience”, living in an environment that was absolutely
saturated in the mechanics and refinements of physical culture.
He revelled in the atmosphere of the place where so many of the
big names of sport had hung their hats including, in his own time,
Sebastian Coe and David Moorcroft.
The Kerry fullback is himself a fitness fanatic. He lives quietly,
eats sensibly and trains religiously. His massive physical strength
is a by-product of unswerving devotion to the lofty ideals of
ancient Rome: Mens sana in corpore sano. All year round, there
is no respite and in Winter, his weight lifting programme at O'Mahonys
gym in Tralee would make many a good athlete cringe with inadequacy.
He loves the sweat and toil of the training ground, the stamina-sapping
exercises, the sheer hard physical graft. Not surprisingly, his
muscular development is probably the ultimate in athletic manhood
and his powerful frame enshrines the physique of a Greek god.
Indeed, he has often been chided for not using his strength more
ruthlessly but he never does, preferring to embellish his game
with pure skill rather than brute force.
Like
Paddy O' Brien of Meath and Mayo’s Paddy Prendergast before
him, John O' keeffe made the transition from midfield to fullback
with consummate ease. “As a midfielder, ” he says,
“I was always inclined to play defensively and consequently
fullback play came easily on me.” However, it is, he claims,
“a pressurized position” and he would much prefer
to operate outfield where he could express himself more freely.
On the fringe of the Kerry square, he has faced the best full
forwards in the game from Declan Barron to Jimmy Keaveney and
rarely, if ever, has he come off second best. He loved playing
against Dublin, the atmosphere, the tension, the sense of occasion
and he relished particularly his jousts with Keaveney whom he
refers to as the most consistently dangerous opponent be has faced.
“He never had an off-day,” he said, “He was
always capable of the unexpected and conceding possession to him
usually meant a score”.
In many ways, 1982 would probably rate as the unluckiest year
of John O'keeffe's long and illustrious career. Nobody knows the
inner turmoil he must leave suffered as be awaited the showdown
with Offaly in what can only have been a state of acute anxiety.
With no training to sustain him, even though many would say he
doesn't need it, his situation was anything but healthy but to
his eternal Credit, he survived his personal moment of truth with
as much distinction as any man afield.
Even
though, in the early weeks of September while many Kerry supporters
appeared totally oblivious of the impending danger, Johno was
the only man who was fully alive
to the harsh reality of the favourite’s tag. “We never
underestimate any team”, he said, “and Mick O’
Dwyer is always warning us that in the championship, there is
no second chance. We know that if Offaly rise to it and put their
game together, they could catch us.”
Prophetic
words indeed, but even in the aftermath of a traumatic defeat,
he has no intention of hanging up his boots just yet. “I
am only 31”, he says, “and I don't feel old'' adding
that his wife, Liz, had been “most understanding”
towards the total intrusion that football had imposed on their
lives. He speaks of the “vacuum” that retirement would
bring as if it were something that he positively dreads.
On
that basis, the fireside slippers and the easy chair are a long
way off for one of the finest sporting ambassadors of our time.
John O'Keefe
