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Trainer of 8 winning
Kerry All Ireland football teams and the powerhouse
behind the magnificent Fitzgerald Stadium are living
proof of the greatness of Dr Crokes `much acclaimed Dr
Eamonn O’Sullivan. but there was much more to his
achievements.
He played football with Dr
Crokes ,with UCD in the Sigerson Cup and also with the
Combined Universities. He founded the Munster colleges
football and athletics competitions. He was a keen
golfer starting with a handicap of 24 and he got that
down to 9 before settling for a more manageable 18
handicap in later life. He played in the old Deer Park
course and then went on to O’Mahony’s Point. He was
captain on two occasions.
Dr Eamonn wrote two
historic books in areas dear to his heart, ‘The Art and
Science of Gaelic football’ (1958) and ‘Textbook of
Occupational Therapy ‘(1955).
He was one of the main
organisers of the game of Bridge in Killarney ,which is
still thriving to this day.
Eamonn was highly
motivated and competitive in all of his sporting
activities and demonstrated the same talents in the
adminstration of his many activities.
Son of the legendary J P O’Sullivan, a renowned athlete and
footballer with Laune Rangers and with Kerry, he was
only 12 years old when he was sent to school in St
Vincents ,Castleknock in . He entered St Brendans
College Killarney in 1911 and was honoured to be chosen
on the Munster Colleges team v Leinster Colleges in
1914.
What may not be known was
that he entered St Patrick’s College Maynooth in 1914
to study for the priesthood,but transferred to UCC in
1917. He played Sigerson with UCC in 1917 and spent a
brief period studying in Rome. Back to UCD, where he
captained the team in the Dublin SFC.
He also had the
distinction of playing on the Munster team which
defeated Leinster in The Tailteann Games. He had the
distinction of winning theAll Ireland javelin
competition in 1932. This revived his interest in
athletics and he went on to play such a pivitol role in
the organization of athletics in second level colleges.
He started working in St
Finans in 1925 and became RMS in1933.
His return to Killarney
in 1925 proved a god-send to Dr Crokes, where he served
as player and captain,secretary,vice-president and
club president for life when Eugene O ‘Sullivan died in
1942.
His other huge
contribution to Dr Crokes was to mastermind the erection
of The Fitzgerald Stadium (1930-1936). It was a hugely
ambitious project and there is no doubt that the
enormity of such an significant project would not have
seen the light of day only for the vision of the Doc.
When one considers the two big recent projects, Croke
Park and Landsdowne Road and all the modern technology
and machinery at their disposal, you realise the mind boggling logistics that Dr Eamonn encountered,
when he wanted the Dr Croke club to build a fitting
tribute to Dickeen, one of its greatest heroes.
He was a great believer it
the value of Occupational Therapy for the mentally ill
and many of those hospitalised in 1930 worked on the
development of the stadium. Dr Eamonn was well ahead of
his time in this respect, proving the theory of
progressing to mental health from ill health, as
outlined in his book on O.T. published in 1955. There
were 1000 patients in St Finan’s in the 30’s.
Dr Eamonn gave the touch
of the master’s hand to the Kerry football teams and
trained All Ireland winning teams in five different
decades, the 20’s right through to the 60’s. It started
in 1924 when Phil O ‘Sullivan was the winning Kerry
captain.What is known by only a few is that Phil was
the man that persuaded Eamonn to take over the training
of the Kerry team. AT that time collective training was
the norm in the latter stages of the All Ireland series
and there was no one better than Dr Eamonn to utilize
this time to mould his players into a winning unit.He
understood the importance of getting the mental attitude
right as well as the physical. The Kerry team was based
in Killarney,staying in The Park Place Hotel, going to
morning Mass and training twice a day in The Fitzgerald
Stadium. In recent years many of the top teams, Kerry
included, employ psychologists to complement the
physical training.
Just one man could do all
that for 40 years.
The abiding memory this
writer has of Dr Eamonn is the excitement of Munster
Final day in The Park, where he ensured that the classy
chairs were brought down for the VIPs from St Finan’s
and then my childhood heart leapt as the heroic
footballers of Cork and Kerry skipped their way through
the gate on the western side of The Park
Dr Eamonn was cool,calm
and recollected eyeing up his charges. Invariably Kerry
won, another title for the Doc on the way to Croke Park.
Dr
Eamonn died in 1966 and Jimmy Cullinane penned a song in
his memory,
Your name shall be remembered in the Kingdom’s Hall of
Fame,
As the one who always taught us to play a sporting game’
Like the Village Schoolmaster I gazed and gazed,
‘and still the wonder grew, how one small head could
carry all he knew’
Dr Eamonn would be very
proud of the development and progress of the Dr Croke
club,now in its123rd year.He showed us his winning
formula on his famous blackboard as far back as 1923.
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