UCD legend is Kean on Sigerson glory for Mayo duo

A former Mayo footballer will be hoping that his alma mater wins their first Sigerson Cup since 2018 when they face Ulster University in the final this evening at Austin Stack Park, Tralee, 7.30pm.

John P Kean won four Sigerson Cup medals in his five years at University College Dublin (UCD). Kean has an incredible medal haul, one to rival anyone in Co Mayo.

1971, in particular, was a special year for John, where he captained Mayo to an All-Ireland minor title and had a phenomenal year with his home club, Claremorris. He helped them capture both a Mayo senior football and hurling title, an incredible feat, and also won a minor title in both codes in the same year, all while winning an U21 title in football. Claremorris haven’t won a Mayo senior football or senior hurling title since.

Not only did the footballers win the county, but they also went on to capture provincial honours by defeating Gay McManus’ Milltown in the Connacht club final. They were then beaten by a University College Cork (UCC) team who had legendary Irish rugby player Moss Keane as their full-back. UCC went on to lose the All-Ireland final to Derry’s Bellaghy.

John would win two more Mayo U21 titles with Claremorris, to add to his minor medals from 1969 and ’70, and he helped Mayo win an All-Ireland U21 title in 1974 and a Connacht SFC medal with Mayo in 1981. He even won a Galway senior league with Tuam Stars in 1980, the town where he had a solicitor practice for over three decades.

If you didn’t think John had won enough, he played in six Sigerson Cup finals during his time at UCD, winning four, drawing one and losing one. Coached by the late Eugene McGee, not only did they have success at collegiate level but they also won two Dublin SFC titles in 1973 and 1974 and followed those up with All-Ireland club title successes in 1974 and 1975.

A replay was needed to overcome Armagh’s Clan na Gael in ’74, while they beat Cork kingpins Nemo Rangers 1-11 to 0-12 the following year. John still believes they would have won three Dublin SFC titles in-a-row, had the Dublin County Board not scheduled the 1975 county final during exam time.

“We looked to change it, but they refused to play it on the day it was set. They effectively awarded the final to St Vincent’s, who we had beaten the previous two years, and they were full of Dublin players like Tony Hanahoe, Jimmy Keaveney, Brian Mullins and Bobby Doyle. They were an exceptional team, they went on to win the All-Ireland that year,” John said.

“It was just a freak collection of players that came together at the same time. We had John O’Keeffe from Kerry, Ogie Moran from Kerry, Kevin Kilmurray from Offaly and then the younger lads came in like Colm O’Rourke from Meath and Tony McManus from Roscommon, who was one of the best footballers I ever played with.

“Tommy Murphy from Wicklow, Jackie Walsh from Kerry, who was on the Kerry senior panel, and he actually made the Sigerson Team of the Century such was his contribution to football in UCD. He was an exceptionally gifted footballer.

“Ogie Moran went on to win eight All-Ireland senior medals with Kerry, I think John O’Keeffe won five and Kevin Kilmurray has two with Offaly. Pat O’Neill had a couple of All-Ireland medals with Dublin and you had Colm O’Rourke who won two with Meath.

“Despite all those stars, Eugene McGee said the best player he ever managed at UCD was Mick Carty, who was a legend in Wexford football. Mick was an incredible teammate, he would put his head where most people wouldn’t put their boots.” 

Kean won his first Sigerson Cup in 1973 when they beat St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (now Maynooth University) at the Mardyke in Cork, UCD’s first since 1968. It kicked off a golden era in the competition for the college; they beat University College Galway (now University of Galway), with Gay McManus and Martin Carney, in the 1974 final in Newbridge, and ’75 was John’s favourite Sigerson Cup title, as it was hosted by Queen’s University in Belfast during the Troubles.

“It was a very difficult time travelling into the North of Ireland in the climate with the Troubles,” Kean recalls. “We were in our hotel for the weekend and there was no going out and about exploring. We met Queen’s then in the final, I think that’s the final that everyone wanted to see. It was a very close match in the first-half and we won by six points in the end,” he said.

“We became such a close-knit group of players as we were confined to the hotel together.” 

In 1976, Maynooth stunned UCD in the final as Mayo’s Fr Dan O’Mahony captained a team of mostly clerical students to capturing the Sigerson Cup. It was a particularly tough loss for John as he was the captain of UCD that year.

However, they came back the following year to win the 1977 title. Having played every minute of the other four finals leading up to this, Kean was sidelined for the start of the final against UCG at Pearse Stadium as he suffered a lower leg injury, but he came on for the last fifteen minutes and helped secure a draw. They won the replay with Ballina man Ivan Heffernan captaining the side.

UCD will keep the Mayo tradition alive against Ulster University tonight as Westport’s Rory Brickenden and Ballina Stephenites’ Sam Callinan have started full-back and centre-half-back on their team for the whole campaign.

John, who managed the Mayo minor team to five Connacht titles between 1996 to 2002, is hoping that UCD will capture their 35th Sigerson Cup title. They will be playing a strong Ulster University side that contains the likes of brothers Darragh and Ruairí Canavan.

“I’d be a big fan of UCD because of everything it gave to be in my days, all the wonderful friendships and successes on the football field. It was an incredible time in the history of UCD football club, which is over 100-years-old. They won the 1978 title when I left, so that Maynooth loss stopped a seven-in-a-row!

“It’s great to see Rory and Sam playing, keeping the Mayo connection alive. I hope they go on and do it.”