| The Top 100: Sport  Tom
Brady
Tom Brady played an important role in this year’s Super Bowl, though
it wasn’t what he had envisaged for himself a few weeks earlier.
The New England Patriots quarterback performed the pre-game coin toss
between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks.
It must have been an eerie feeling for Brady, who up until this season
had never lost a playoff game, and at the tender age (for a quarterback)
of 28, has three victorious Super Bowl appearances under his belt. But
it was not to be for the Patriots this year, as critical injuries to defensive
linemen deprived the New Englanders of their top team all season. That
they persevered to the playoffs is tribute to both Bill Belichick’s
great coaching and Tom Brady’s incredible talent.
But you don’t get too far paying compliments to Brady. As modest as
they come, he usually laughs off all plaudits and stresses the importance
of his teammates and coaches. Such was his commitment to the team concept
that he chose to stay with the Patriots when he could have signed a far
more lucrative contract at any other NFL team. This among NFL players,
some of whom would sell their grandmothers for a better deal, is as refreshing
as it is unique.
Coming from a family who have always supported him (they were there for
him when 100,000 fans at the University of Michigan saw his first pass
for the school intercepted and returned for a touchdown, and again when
he was named MVP in Super Bowl XXXVI and Super Bowl XXXVIII), Brady knows
about loyalty and fighting for the greater cause.
When Irish America asked Brady about his Irish heritage at a Patriots press
conference earlier this year he was a little taken aback. “Well,
I have to be cued up for this one. My father is all Irish and I’m
half Irish. I’ve seen the family tree. I actually had to do a family
tree when I was younger. I don’t know, I wish I had a better answer.”
Luckily, Brady’s father was better informed, telling the magazine
that Brady’s paternal great-grandmother came from County Cork and
his great-grandfather came from County Cavan during the Famine. Little
did these struggling Irish immigrants know that a few generations down
the line one of their descendants would become one of the greatest American
sports heroes of his era, and, probably more important to them, one of
the most respected role models of his time. - DOK.
Jim Calhoun
Say what you want about Jim Calhoun, but the fiery basketball coach of
the University of Connecticut has a record that speaks for itself. The
Boston native has just started his 20th season at UConn and his 34th in
all as a collegiate coach. As we go to press his team is one of the favorites
to win the NCAA championship.
Calhoun has led his team to the promised land on two previous occasions,
capturing NCAA championships in 1999 and 2004. In March 2005 he also joined
the exclusive club of college coaches with over 700 wins. Such phenomenal
success was recognized when he was admitted last year to the Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
When Calhoun took up the reins at UConn in May 1986, he vowed to “do
it the right way with no shortcuts.” True to his word he has set
up a basketball program that is the envy of the nation. His touch as a
coach and a motivator has rubbed off on many of his players, nineteen
of whom have gone on to careers in the NBA.
The 63-year-old coach, who traces his roots to County Cork, has two sons,
James and Jeffrey. Calhoun and his wife Pat have been instrumental in
developing the cardiology department at the University of Connecticut
Health Center and raising funds for The Jim Calhoun Food Drive.
This season has seen its fair shares of highs and lows. On the court
the team has performed well, but off-court incidents have seen Calhoun
receive a lot of flak from the press. A theft involving two UConn players,
and the perceived lenient punishment of one in particular, led many in
the press to question UConn’s priorities.
The only place Calhoun can answer his critics is on the court, and if
his team lifts the third NCAA crown of his reign come the end of March,
there won’t be too many complaints from the vast majority of people
in Connecticut. – DOK
 Kelly Clark
The fact Kelly Clark did not win a medal at the 2006 Olympics in Turin,
Italy is almost insignificant — she had already reached that pinnacle
with a gold medal in women’s snowboarding in Salt Lake City in 2002.
On her last run this year in the halfpipe championships in Bardonechhia,
Clark knew she needed to ride big to grab the gold.
What she proceeded to do instead was to take women’s snowboarding
to a new level. Jumping as high as men, she was making a run of legend
until, after attempting one last frontside 900 (a jump where the front
of the rider’s body faces outwards for two and a half rotations),
she fell on landing. Her score pushed her just outside the medals but
her performance won her immense respect. NBC described her feat as follows:
“Kelly Clark was denied a podium spot today, but her performance
earned her a spot in snowboarding history.”As she told the Boston
Globe, “I had the best run of my life up until that point. I was
going to go for it. Snowboarding is very joyful for me, so I was just
enjoying it.”
And enjoy her career the 22-year-old emphatically has, with numerous
outstanding wins to her credit. The 2002 Olympic champion also won the
X-games title just before this year’s Olympics. Her dedication to
excellence has not come without its price, and a lot of her 2003-2004
season was spent convalescing from arthroscopic surgery on her knee.
She recovered well and won the February 2005 World Cup competition on
the same Bardonechhia halfpipe she rode during the Olympics. She now lives
in Mammoth Lakes, California, but was born in Newport, Rhode Island, and
moved to Vermont when she was eight. – DOK
John Daly
No matter what you call John Daly, “Big John,” “Long
John,” or his favorite “The Lion,” there is no escaping
that both the man and his career are large.
Daly was born in Carmichael, California on April 28,1966. His passion
for golf began at the age of four when his father gave him two cut-down
clubs, and from then on his love affair with the sport only grew. At the
age of 12 Daly hit the ball farther than most men and had already claimed
his first victory, beating the locals in a country club men’s classic.
After high school Daly attended the University of Arkansas where he
played on the golf team. In 1987, during his junior year, Daly left the
academic world to turn his attention to professional golf. In 1990 he
had his first professional victory with the Ben Hogan Utah Classic, and
in 1991 he joined the PGA tour and won his first major, the U.S. PGA.
The win was doubly shocking because he was an alternate called into the
tournament at the last minute. The same year he was named the PGA rookie
of the year. John then went on to win the B.C. Open in 1992, the BellSouth
Classic in 1994 and his second major, the hallowed British Open, in 1995.
Daly is widely recognized by his interesting swing and monster drives.
It is not unusual for John to make drives as far as 350 yards, hence the
name “Long John.” No wonder he has won the Driving Distance
crown a record 11 times!
Alcoholism and personal and family struggles shook John’s career
after the British Open win. Players and spectators alike would comment
on seeing him visibly shaking while playing and at times melting down
on courses, receiving scores in the double digits for a single hole.
But on February 15, 2004 Daly won the Buick Invitational, demonstrating
that he had gotten his life back under control. His 2004-2005 seasons
were marked with some of his strongest performances to date.
John loves to drive his RV from tournament to tournament while on tour
and has recently recorded an autobiographical album, My Life, with the
help of such stars as Willie Nelson and Johnny Lee.
On January 18 this year, the man dubbed by many as a “walking country
music song” gave Golf Channel viewers a rare glimpse inside his
pedal-to-the-floor life in The Daly Planet, the cable network’s
newest reality show. With his career and life back on track, there will
be much to see from this prominent Irish-American athlete. –LM
John Duddy
“Ireland’s John Duddy,” as he is known in the game,
will not attend our gala event to celebrate the Top 100 honorees of 2006.
As much as this will disappoint the ladies, the dashing Derryman has a
more pressing appointment on March 16, namely fighting for his first professional
belt, the WBC-sanctioned Continental Americas Middleweight Championship.
On St.Patricks’ eve the 26-year-old will top the bill at Madison
Square Garden when he fights Shelby Pudwill for the title. It has been
a meteoric rise for the Irishman, whose record is an impressive 15-0,
with 13 knockouts, and the deafening din that will greet him as he enters
the ring will be a million miles away from the green fields of Derry he
sometimes misses. Duddy has blossomed in New York and has no regrets about
leaving Ireland to further his career.
“Ireland will always be home for me. It’s a wonderful country,
but not for boxing. Over here you have the best trainers, the best fighters,
the best sparring fighters, the best of everything is here.” His
last fight, against Haiti’s Julio Jean, afforded Duddy his first
10 rounder as a pro. “Julio was a better fighter than his record
shows. He gave me a good test, but I was delighted to come through the
ten rounds so strong,” he said at the press conference for his upcoming
bout.
Under the tutelage of the much unheralded Harry Keitt, Duddy has a trainer
who will guide him carefully. As Keitt explained at the press conference,
“We’re taking it one fight at a time. We’re not jumping
over mountains here. He’ll get there when he’s supposed to,
no sooner, no later.” Here’s hoping Duddy can deliver and
kick off St. Patrick’s weekend in style. – DOK
 Emily Hughes
When women’s figure skating icon Michelle Kwan pulled out of the
2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy in February, Irish-American Emily Hughes
stepped up to take her place.
Seventeen-year-old Hughes, a native of Great Neck, New York, and a sister
to Sarah Hughes who took home the gold in the last Olympics, finished
third at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January. Though this
made her eligible to make the team, she did not make the trip to Italy
because Kwan received a medical bye onto the team and took the last place
on the squad.
Hughes was at a Japanese restaurant on Long Island with her family when
she got the call to compete. “My dad got the call and from his expression,
I could tell it was really good news,” she told the New York Daily
News “But we were told to keep it a secret. We had to actually leave
the restaurant because it was so exciting.”
Hughes, who comes from a family of six children, and is finishing her
senior year at public high school in Great Neck, continued to practice
at her home rink before flying to Turin in time for the beginning of the
figure skating competition on February 21. She skated to a seventh place
finish in the Olympics.
Hughes’ grandfather John was a soccer player in Northern Ireland
before emigrating to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. - CM
Brian McBride
How far the U.S. can go in the next World Cup will depend on how fit
Brian McBride stays. He has been in imperious form for Fulham FC (a London
club in the English FA Premier league) since he signed for the club nicknamed
the Cottagers in January 2004.
McBride has persevered to make it overseas, having played in England
on loan at Preston and Everton. He jumped at the chance to go to Fulham
and test himself against the best, instead of remaining a big fish in
the small pond of Major League Soccer. This cannot be said for a couple
of his international colleagues. The gamble has paid off handsomely with
gutsy performances week in week out for the London team, and his reputation
as a quality striker firmly established.
As Fulham manager Chris Coleman puts it, “Brian is a great talent
who can combine assisting attacking play as well as getting his fair share
of goals. He has superb aerial ability and has already proved that he
can perform each week at the highest level.”
McBride was born in Arlington Heights, Illinois in 1972. Soccer was his game
from the get go and the man is widely regarded as possessing the best
aerial skills of any U.S. soccer player ever. He began playing at Buffalo
Grove High School and had a stellar college career at Saint Louis University.
After graduating he played minor league with Milwaukee Rampage and then
went on to be the first choice in the draft for season one of Major League
Soccer in 1996. McBride joined Columbus Crew and became one of their most
beloved players. He weighed in with his fair share of goals, netting 62
goals and 45 assists in 161 games.
Any striker worth his salt performs when the pressure is greatest, and
in this regard McBride has never let his country down. He has played over
80 times for the national team and scored 26 times. This will be his third
World Cup, and he has scored at both France ’98 and Japan/South
Korea 2002.
More impressive is the fact that the two goals he poached in 2002 won
the games against Portugal and Mexico. Germany 2006, which kicks off in
June, will see the U.S. in the same group as Italy, Ghana and the Czech
Republic. In such a challenging group the U.S. will need all their stars
to shine. If Brian McBride avoids injury until then, the U.S. can look
forward to another good showing in the biggest soccer competition of them
all. – DOK
Kevin McBride
Kevin McBride shocked the world (and some may argue himself as well)
when he beat Mike Tyson last June. Regardless, the “Clones Colossus,”
as he is known in the game, etched himself in Irish boxing folklore when
he beat the infamous former undisputed world champ.
“I went in there with a strategy and it worked, you know? I said
I would shock the world and I did shock the world. I believed in myself
and I told everyone around me to believe and I am the new Cinderella man
in boxing,” he told Irish America just after the bout.
McBride’s origins in boxing began, in a way, through necessity.
Growing up in Clones, County Monaghan, he was affected by a speech impediment,
and at age nine took up the sport at the local boxing club in an effort
to protect himself from bullies. He later joined the bigger Smithboro
boxing club and went on to enjoy a stellar amateur career, the pinnacle
of which was representing his country in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
A few months after his return from Spain he turned professional and
went on a journey that would eventually lead him to Brockton, Massachusetts.
After spending a few years fighting opponents on the lower rungs of the
professional ladder, 2005 saw him finally get his chance for a high-profile
fight. When finally presented with the opportunity to fight Tyson, he
employed both a strength coach and Boston hypnotherapist Patrick Brady
to get in the best possible physical and psychological condition.
“I didn’t want to leave any stones unturned. We worked on
thinking and talking positive to help the mind and help the subconscious.
With the help of my strength coach, I was benching 265 pounds and was
as strong as an ox.”
When the fight got under way, McBride weathered an early storm, but once
he imposed himself in the later rounds he wore Tyson down. It soon became
clear that Iron Mike was not up for it, and when he could not come out
for the sixth round, McBride had claimed his biggest scalp.
After such a win there was talk about a title fight with Boston-based
John Ruiz, but that never materialized as Ruiz lost his title in December
to a Russian. Equally there were rumblings of a big fight at home in Ireland,
but so far nothing concrete has emerged. In any case, 2005 will go down
as a landmark year for the genial giant who, as he put in his own words,
“will be known as the man who retired the baddest man in boxing.”
– DOK
Cam Neely
In 2005, Cam Neely, who led the Boston Bruins to their finest moments,
received the most prestigious honor in hockey: induction into the Hockey
Hall of Fame.
During his ten seasons with the Boston Bruins 1987-1996, the 6’1”
power winger led the team in scoring seven times, including three campaigns
with 50 or more goals. In both 1987-88 and 1989-90, the Neely-led Bruins
reached the Stanley Cup final, facing the powerful Edmonton Oilers. Although
Edmonton won both finals, Neely was superb.
Cameron Michael Neely was born on June 6, 1965 in Comox, British Columbia.
The Vancouver Canucks originally drafted him in 1983. He played for the
Canucks for three seasons before being traded to the Boston Bruins for
Barry Pederson and a premium draft pick the following year.
In his first year with the Bruins he led the team with 36 goals and established
himself as a powerful force on the ice. Only ten players in NHL history
have achieved a better goal-per-game average. In the 1993-94 season he
managed to score 50 goals in 44 games, which won him a badge for the “all-time
great scorers” (50 goals in 50 games or less)
Even though Neely was plagued by injuries throughout his career he managed
to score an astounding 344 goals for the Bruins and holds the team record
for most goals, 55, scored during the playoff schedule. He played in five
NHL all-star games and was awarded the Bill Masterton Trophy in 1994 for
his sportsmanship and dedication to the sport of hockey.
In 1996 Neely was forced to step away from the sport he loved because
of serious continual hip problems. The Bruins retired his Jersey into
the rafters in 2004, making him only the tenth player in team history
to earn that distinction.
Since his retirement Neely has continued serving hockey as a sports analyst
for select Bruins games as well as pursuing his work with The Cam Neely
Foundation for Cancer Care, which he founded in conjunction with the New
England Medical Center. The foundation provides accommodations for cancer
patients at “Neely House” while they undergo treatment. Neely
has also made appearances on the big and little screen with parts in Denis
Leary’s television series Rescue Me and the movies Dumb and Dumber
and Me, Myself and Irene. –LM
John O’Flynn
John O’Flynn grew up loving and playing Irish football, and he
will undoubtedly grow old doing the same. A game he learned as a child
has transformed him into a man who spends massive amounts of time organizing,
coaching, and promoting Irish football here on American soil.
John was born and raised in Milford, County Cork. He started playing Irish
football as a youngster for the local Milford GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association).
At twelve years old he attended Irish school at Trabolgan in Cork where
he started playing hurling in addition to Irish football. After finishing
grammar school there, he moved to boarding school at Pallaskenry in County
Limerick for secondary school, where his passion for sports grew. He played
soccer, hurling, football and basketball there throughout his teen years.
No matter what school or college he attended, or what profession he
worked in, John played football. He graduated from horticultural college
and began a career in farming, while still traveling every weekend to
play in matches. But it appeared that all of that was going to come to
an unexpected end when he had an accident in 1980. He was operating farm
machinery and his hand was permanently damaged.
The medics agreed that he wouldn’t be able to move his fingers
again and he was asked if he wanted his hand to be set in a fist for the
rest of his life, or as an open palm. He said that he needed it set as
an open palm, for how else could he catch a football? With sheer determination
on his side, John exercised his fingers, treated them with hot water and
eventually got full use of his hand and fingers again. Football was too
important to miss!
In 1981, John decided it was time to travel, so he spun a model globe and
decided that wherever his finger landed would be his destination. The
spinning stopped on San Francisco, California, and he was on a plane immediately.
As soon as he arrived, he met up with relations and friends. Before he
knew it, local GAA enthusiast Louis Roache had recruited John for the
Shannon Rangers team.
Soon after, his girlfriend from Ireland, Josephine, came to visit him
and they married in January1983. Laughs Josephine, “When I came
out to visit San Francisco at first, I didn’t like it at all. But
it grew on me over time, and last Sunday we celebrated the fact that we
have been here 23 years!” Today they live in the city of San Francisco
and raise their four children: Aidan, Niall, Aisling and Maura. John works
as a contractor and specializes in painting and restoration.
John’s involvement with youth sports teams started when his son Aidan
began kindergarten in 1990. John was out on the field coaching soccer
right away, and he loved it. But a few years later he was concerned that
soccer was the only sport his American kids would learn to play. John
realized that it was really important to him, and to his children, that
they learn Irish sports. He decided to get a group together.
“A lot of our other Irish friends had kids the same age as our
kids, and there wasn’t any Gaelic available to them,” he says.
At an informal gathering in January 1994, the Irish Football Youth League
was born. John was elected chairman, a position he has served in ever
since.
He laughs, “Oh, if I only knew then what I was in for!” John’s
initial concept of an Irish football youth league has become an active,
formal organization that spans the U.S. and Canada with teams for boys
and girls. With the league’s expansion has come the expansion of
John’s role. He is so involved and dedicated to the success of the
organization that he often spent about 60 hours a week fulfilling his
football league duties last season.
Although he laughs off how much work is involved, John had huge ambitions
for the league from the start. He explains, “Well, by the end of
the first season we knew that we needed to get a lot of other teams together
so we’d have people to play against. So I went to the North American
Adult Convention for Irish Football in the fall of 1994, and they agreed
that we should start Irish Football Youth throughout the U.S.
Then I became the North American liaison.” His primary responsibility
is to get more teams growing in more cities, something he has done with
amazing results. In 1995, four U.S. cities had Irish football youth teams;
now there are teams in most major U.S. cities. But there have been many
challenges along the way to success. In 1997 and 1998 there was a major
wave of reverse migration, and John and Josephine witnessed a mass exodus
of Irish people from California back to Ireland. The Irish Football Youth
League lost about sixteen coaches one season, and many players.
“Since that time,” says John, “we realized that we had
to promote beyond the Irish community and get Americans with no Irish
connections involved in the sport.” Many non-Irish have taken to
Gaelic games, and John believes it is because Irish football combines
a number of sports that American kids are very familiar with already:
soccer, basketball and volleyball. “If you play one of those, it’s
easy to adapt to Irish football,” he explains.
The ultimate competition for the players, coaches, family and fans is
the Continental Youth Championships (CYC). Having piggybacked on the adult
league’s final competition for a few years, the leaders of the youth
league decided it was time to have their own stage. Thus, the CYC was
born in 2004 and was played at Purchase State College in New York.
It was a major success and grew even more the following year. The 2005
CYC was played in Foster City, California, just an hour’s drive
from San Francisco. John says proudly, “The CYC here was the largest
Gaelic sporting event held in one location in the whole world; 143 games
were played in three days.”
John is also passionate about the American teams traveling to Ireland
to play in competition. The major annual competition in Ireland for youth
players is the Feile Peil Na Nóg, or festival of young footballers.
In 1998 and 2002, American teams participated in the festival. If the
league didn’t have to worry about costs, they would go every year.
But this year they will return again, John proudly announces. They have
an American under-fourteen team going over to the Feile this year, which
will be played in County Wicklow in the summer.
John still has great ambitions for Irish football in North America. “I
think if we could get the grammar schools to start teaching kids how to
play the sport, it would really take off. We haven’t even scratched
the surface of how big it could be. Before the 1970s, no American kids
were playing soccer. But now soccer is the number one youth sport here.
If we could introduce Gaelic like that, we could really make inroads to
becoming just as successful.”
At the end of the day, it’s not just the sport that motivates John
to keep Irish football alive. “Gaelic football and the Gaelic language
go together. I’d like to introduce some Irish phrases and bits of
conversation to all our players, so that they can speak Irish to each
other while they are playing.” Reflecting on the past decade in
the youth league, John feels satisfied with what has been accomplished.
“When I first took on this challenge, it was very demanding. You
have to be passionate about the sport to do it. The sport wins and your
culture wins. And you get to leave a legacy of your culture.”
Brady Quinn
Brady Tyler Quinn is the 6’4”, 231-pound star quarterback
for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He was born October 27th, 1984, to
Robin and Ty Quinn. Quinn attended Coffman High School in Dublin, Ohio
and was ranked one of ESPN’s top 100 players. In 2003 he began his
career with the Fighting Irish, playing all twelve games, starting in
nine. Brady set the Notre Dame freshman QB record for pass completions,
yards, and attempts and came in a close second for touchdown passes.
During the 2004 season Brady accumulated the best statistics of any sophomore
quarterback in Notre Dame history. He started all twelve games completing
more than 190 passes (seventeen of which were touchdowns) with only ten
interceptions. It was his 2005 junior season where Brady truly came into
his own. He was voted one of two team captains and proved himself more
than worthy of that distinction. Quinn threw 292 completed passes with
only seven interceptions.
He accumulated over 3,900 passing yards and had an impressive 32 touchdown
passes. All in all he was one of the statistically best college football
QBs for the year. He was awarded, along with his receiver Jeff Samardzija,
the 2005 Notre Dame Most Valuable Player Award. Brady placed fourth in
the 2005 Heisman Trophy Award balloting but is the only player returning
for the 2006 season, making him a front runner for this year’s award.
Brady also picked up the Sammy Baugh trophy of the Touchdown Club of Columbus
for the 2005 season.
Brady is currently enrolled in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business
majoring in both finance and political science. The ju-jitsu black belt
holder says that he ultimately aspires to go to law school and become
an attorney, like those in the law firm he works part-time for in the
summer. May the luck of the Irish be with him and may his pre-game ritual
spoonful of honey keep it that way. – LM
 Dan Rooney
Bill Cowher’s driving ambition since he became Pittsburgh Steelers
coach fourteen seasons ago was to present the Vince Lombardi trophy to
owner and president Dan Rooney. This February he accomplished that objective
and gave Rooney his fifth Super Bowl ring, “the one for the thumb.”
Rooney, who started working with the Steelers in 1955 and who took over
from his father Art as team president in 1975, believes in continuity.
Since 1969 there have been only two coaches at the Steelers, Chuck Noll
and Bill Cowher. Since 1972 the Steelers have won fourteen AFC Central
Division champions titles, six AFC championship titles and five Super
Bowls. Even when Cowher went three seasons without making the playoffs,
Rooney never doubted his man and reaped the benefit of this faith in Detroit
on February 5.
Rooney favors a more open management style and is credited with coming
up with the “Rooney Rule,” which requires NFL teams to interview
minority candidates when a head coaching role becomes available. And like
his father before him, Dan was inducted in the Football Hall of Fame in
2000. Rooney is married to Pat and they have nine kids. He still lives
in the same house that his father raised his family in. Indeed the family
tradition in the Steelers organization looks like it will continue for
a third generation. Dan’s oldest son, Arthur, was named club president
three years ago.
Rooney’s role in Irish and Irish-American affairs has been immense.
Alongside Tony O’Reilly, Rooney founded the American Ireland Fund
in Pittsburgh in 1976. Since that time the fund has raised over $250 million
dollars and is the largest organization helping Ireland in the world.
Rooney is an extremely proud Irish-American and traces his Irish heritage
to Newry, County Down.
With former SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon he founded the Newry/Pittsburgh
Partnership to foster and develop relations between the two towns. The
Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh and Enterprise Newry Ltd. run the partnership.
One of the most successful projects they undertake is The Rooney Fellowship,
which is an annual donation for the best student at Newry & Kilkeel
Institute of Further Higher Education to do a one-year undergraduate program
at a Pittsburgh university and then intern at the Steelers or Heinz. –
DOK
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