ON the eve of the Championship clash of Down and Armagh, the first St Colman’s Newry team to win the MacRory Cup came together last week to mark 50 years since their historic success.
The school now sits second on the competition’s roll of honour with eight successes but despite several attempts, it wasn’t until 1967 that they were able to make the breakthrough.
They had been hit by misfortune in their attempts of both 1957 and 1963. On the first occasion, key player PT Tracey was struck down by injury ahead of the final, and in ’63 it was Larry Powell that missed the semi-final.
When the elusive success eventually came, it was fittingly at the expense of college giants St Jarlath’s Tuam, who had six titles to their name and were warm favourites to collect a seventh.
But a St Colman’s team that had come past St Patrick’s Armagh in the MacRory final and then beaten Dublin outfit Belcamp OMI in the semi-final proved a gritty opponent.
A bright start by the Newry school saw them lead by four points early on thanks to a superb goal from Martin Murphy, but by half-time they’d been pegged back to 1-3 apiece.
It stayed nip and tuck to the bitter end. St Jarlath’s had won the previous year’s final courtesy of a last-minute point but were on the receiving end this time as Con Davey took a pass from John Purdy and kicked the decisive score in a 1-8 to 1-7 victory.
The St Colman’s team was captained by Armagh’s Noel Moore and contained future stalwarts Jimmy Smyth, Frank Toman as well as future Down stars Purdy, Peter Rooney and Paddy Turley.
St Colman’s wore an unfamiliar white kit in the Hogan Cup final as there was a clash with St Jarlath’s blue.
“Fr John Treanor [who coached the team with Gerry O’Neill] was from Burren and he got their white jerseys,” recalls Jimmy Smyth, who went on to play for Armagh in the 1977 All-Ireland final.
“Gerry O’Neill [elder brother of Republic of Ireland manager Martin] was at the college and he would have been a great psychologist.
“He decided that white was a great colour because you had the great Leeds team and the great Real Madrid teams at the time. He had this idea that white made you look bigger.
“We had white jerseys and there were blue ‘V’s sewn on them. People from Newry arrived and were cheering for the blue team, only to realise that we were actually playing in white.”
Purdy and Rooney would go on to win the All-Ireland with Down the following year, while Hugh Dowd went across the water to play for Sheffield Wednesday.
Frank Toman – who was unable to attend the reunion as he watched his daughter Anna in action for the GB ladies’ hockey team – was just 14 when he came off the bench in that Hogan decider and went on to create history by winning a second medal in 1971 following a switch to St Mary’s.
The reunion night began with a commemorative tree being planted to mark the occasion, thus beginning a new tradition, before captain Noel Moore recalled his memories of that year in fascinating detail.
The team was then surprised by each receiving a framed team photo and a copy of priceless and previously unseen archived footage from the game, which was played to them on the night.
There were also special medal presentations to Paddy Turley and Kevin Stevenson. They were members of all three of the successful MacRory winning teams from 1967-69, but had the third MacRory medal missing from their collections.
