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Article January Week 3    2005
Basketball in Kerry and the Greatest East Kerry Football Team

The last weekend of this month promises to be historic in the history of Kerry basketball as our two premier sides Gleneagle Lakers Killarney and Abrakebabra Tigers Tralee make the trip to Dublin where they will battle it out for the biggest prize in Irish basketball, The National Cup. Both sides will contest the semi finals and the mouth watering prospect which we hope will transpire is, an all Kerry final, the games will be televised live and if you want a feast of the best then tune in, and indeed if both our teams advance to the final I have no doubt but the whole of the county will be glued to their TV sets, don't miss that one.


Any final in any sport between Kerry's two big towns is certain to provide fire works. I take in as many of the Lakers home games as I can and it is a wonderful nights entertainment, great atmosphere, colour, passion and excitement, throw in the superb venue the INEC at The Gleneagle Hotel, Irish players, American players and the inimitable Niall 'Botty' o Callaghan on commentary and you have that wonderful mix necessary to assure top class entairment.


The men and women behind these two Kerry teams deserve the highest praise for their efforts in bringing the best of basketball to our county, I never cease to wonder at the dedication of these people, running clubs such as these is an all time consuming business, huge money involved, long distances to all corners of the country, endless nights of training, organisinational nightmares at every turn of the road, temperamental players who believe they should be getting more court time than they are, assuring their American imports are well looked after, fund raising, etc. etc. We should not forget that these basketball clubs do not have the huge back up of man/woman power available to football and hurling clubs in the county and yet they continue to provide the very best year after year.


While the foreign players are inclined to steal the lime light due to their great heights and superb skills honed since youth on the school yards and back street courts of their respective American home towns the Irish players are not far behind them in these respects. For Killarney, Brian Clark, Keith o Grady, ( my next door neighbour), Shane Horgan, Colin o Reilly at 6ft 6' and my favourite Ger Noonan, all those and others are a credit to the game. Then on the Tralee side you have David Cronin, John Teehan, Liam Brosnan, Kevin o Donoghue, Kerry footballer Michael Quirke and the Underdog himself, Kieran Donaghy. Donahy is a superb basketball player, he has been offered a number of scholarships in American universities but so far has declined to take one, speaking to this most unassuming and modest of young men he told me that he is finding it exceptionally difficult to make up his mind in relation to which game he intends to concentrate on, football or basketball, when Kerry trainer Jack o Connor comes calling it will be make up your mind time for this talented young man from the Austin Stacks club, we wish him well. It's not easy to serve two masters in to days world of sport.


Basketball has played a huge part in my own life, and while just a run of the mill player I enjoyed years participating in town leagues, county championships, blitz's and training while growing up in the Kerry of the fifties and sixties when basketball was in it's infancy in this county. Indeed I doubt very much if even one of the players running out on to the boards in the National Arena later this month before a packed attendance and thousands watching on television will have the slightest idea in relation to the beginning of the sport in this county, a brief remainder I believe is very appropriate at this particular time.


I recently visited the exemplary Sean Daly who lives with his wife Sheila in o Connell's Terrace Killarney, long retired from Hilliard's Booth factory Killarney, an establishment no longer in business but which had given great employment to hundreds of Killarney people throught the decades Sean related to me the historic beginnings of basketball in his home town, and of course like many other beginnings others will have a different story, nevertheless for me the folowing was how it all began in 1951 in Killarney.
Sean together with High Street man John J o Donoghue were playing a game of darts in Ben Campions pub near the top of New Street, Ben had been talking to the then Administor, Fr. Bobby Murphy who had at one time been an army Chaplin, Fr. Bobby suggested that some people from Killarney should travel to Collins Barracks in Cork and have a look at the cadets and army personnel playing a game of basketball with the intension of starting up the sport in Killarney. This was done, the three men mentioned spend the day in Cork, they invited the army to send two teams to Killarney where they played an exhibition match, the locals liked what they saw and a new sport was born.
The various streets and districts of Killarney were invited to play in a town league and to Sean's knowledge a side named St. Mary's and New St. together with teams of young lads from the local Monastery school played the first ever match in the now demolished New Town Hall Killarney.


A basketball was unheard of at the time and the pig skin football was used, a carpet covered the floor and it took two years before permission was given by the Town Council to remove it for games, a wonderful story remains to be told in the years following the beginning of the new game light years away from the spectacular game we know to day, great names, great players, legendary teams, stirring battles with Tralee, and Killorglin and visiting sides from outside the county including the world renowned Harlem Globetrotters, together with All Ireland finals being played in Tralee and Killarney, The Gold Flake Blitz, The Brass Rail Blitz and the great St. Vincents All Ireland blitz. we will return shortly to this wonderful story, however we must include the following historic fact recounted to me by my great friend Jimmy Coffey.


The genial retired postman Jimmy Coffey is a neighbour of Kerry footballer Colm Cooper, now retired Jimmy holds the unique record of being a member of the first ever team to win a Kerry senior basketball championship in 1949, fifty six long years ago. Jimmy was born in Caherceiveen and the game was introduced there in 1947 by the local FCA while Valentia Observerty and The Town also had teams. Speaking to Jimmy last week he recalled for me that historic beginning, ' we were as fit as fiddles being members of the FCA and we had a great trainer in Eoin o Neill a Munster boxing champion and we beat Tralee in that first ever final, the game was played in the CYMS hall in Killorglin and my team mates on that Caherceiveen team included, Danny Barry, Willie Musgrave, Jimmy Mullan, Dan Sugrue, Eamon Fitzgerald, Paddy Murphy, and Mickey Boylan, the only comparison with the game to day is that then and now we all played with a ball, all the footballers of the time platey the new game.


So the game was introduced to Tralee and Caherceiven before it began in Killarney and we can be nearly certain that the army played a huge part in it's beginnings, as stated it's a story that we must return to, however if you want to hear all about the big weekend coming up in Dublin on the 29th/30th tune into a Terrace Talk basketball special, Radio Kerry on Monday 24th when I will have players and officials from both clubs in studio to discuss the forthcoming cup games, and recall past glories of the game.


Well the search for the best ever o Donoghue Cup East Kerry team team has certainly caused plenty of debate among many of the the fans that I have been talking to during the last few weeks and the general census of opinion among the faithful has been very positive, especially the fact that we are about to see so many great names re-emerging from the past. In particular it has been said that to pick the best 21 is next to impossible, and there can be no disagreement on this, nevertheless debate and discussion is always a good healthy past time particularly in the depths of winter and in this instance with 13 experts picking their individual teams we will eventually get a good cross section of opinion for the final analysis and some guide lines in naming the best side. Indeed two other divisions have shown interest in beginning their own selection process based on their divisional championship, however they do not have the luxury of having such and outstanding publication to guide them as we do with our superb history.


One complaint that has come across to me is that on many occasions it was not the legendary inter county player who was the best o Donoghue cup man and therefore he should not be in the running so to speak. However let me correct this straight away and emphasize that, the only rules covering the selections is that a player chosen must have played in the o Donoghue Cup and his name appears in the recently published Story Of The o Donoghue Cup, and it is immaterial whether he played with Kerry or not. It is entirely up to each man to pick his 21 players on whatever grounds and criteria he chooses, that is the beauty of the exercise. Thirteen good men and true using their own initiative and while club loyalties will unquestionably appear this too is a good thing because the players of each club is guaranteed he is not being forgotten as the process continues and each selector has been and still is a dyed in the wool one club man.


And so to the second of our 13 teams, and this selection was chosen by Johnny Barry of Gneeveguilla, in my opinion one of the all time great club men, a former goalie with his side he has served Gneeveguilla in every single officer ship and capacity, his friend and club man Richie McAuliffe the man assigned the task of training Gneeveguilla this year told me,' Johnny Barry was one of the greatest servants our club ever had and is as active to day as he has been down through the decades'.

Declan O' Keeffe, (Rathmore), Donie o Sullivan, (Spa), Michael oSullivan, (Rathmore), Dan oKeeffe, (Gneeveguilla), Seamus Moynihan, (Glenflesk), Tim Sheehan, (Kilcummin), Connie Murphy, (Dr. Crokes), Ambrose o Donovan, (Gneveguilla), Pat Casey, (Spa), Diarmuid o Donoghue, (Killarney Legion), Mick Gleeson, (Spa), Sean Og O' Leary, (Gneeveguilla), Johnny Crowley, Glenflesk), Tom Long, (Dr Crokes,) Colm Cooper, (Dr. Crokes),

Subs: Johnny Culloty, (Killarney Legion), Derry Crowley, (Glenflesk), John Joe Tagney, (Listry), Pat Moynihan, (Gneveguilla), Michael McAuliffe, (Spa),Jerry Murphy, (Rathmore
Fogra; Next week news of a great new monthly awards scheme for Terrace Talk, 'Unsung Heroes Of Kerry GAA', one person each month will be chosen by their respective Kerry divisional board, just one recipient each month will be honoured.