When Caddyshack star Michael O’Keefe showed up at the U.S. Open this week, it was just the latest big role played by the Irish at the elite golf tournament. From the Irish Americans who dominated the Open’s early days, to top 21st Century golfers like Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy – both competing this week at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York – the Irish have left … [Read more...] about Irish Links at the U.S. Open
Sports Archives
John B. Kelly: An American Champion
This story first appeared in Irish America in the summer of 1996 as the games of the Games of the XXVI Olympiad began. John Brendan Kelly, father of Princess grace of Monaco, won two Olympic Gold medals in 1920 and one in 1924, competing in a sport which was the reserve of gentlemen, the single and double sculls. He remains the only American ever to win the Gold in single … [Read more...] about John B. Kelly: An American Champion
Window on the Past
The Irish Bambino
In late 1990s baseball, home runs were everywhere. The balls were allegedly juiced. The sluggers were definitely juiced. Players who had been lanky rookies would later display cartoon-sized muscles, thanks to a regimen of syringes in the posterior. Even hitters of mediocre power were expected to belt 15 home runs per season. About one century earlier, however, 15 round-trippers … [Read more...] about Window on the Past
The Irish Bambino
Running Rings Around the Empire: The 1908 Olympics
In 1908, as the world’s attention focused on the Olympic Games in London, Britain had decided again not to allow Ireland to field its own team, imperiously stating, “Ireland is not a nation.” All Irish athletes would have to compete as members of the British team. The policy had worked well for Britain in the 1906 Intercalated Olympics in Athens, where Irish athletes won … [Read more...] about Running Rings Around the Empire: The 1908 Olympics
New York Hurling Classic 2019
℘℘℘ Four all-star hurling teams descended on the city of New York to battle it out for the top spot in the New York Hurling Classic 2019 in mid-November. Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Limerick faced off against one another at Citifield in Queens. The festivities kicked off at the Harvard Club on Thursday, November 14, at a dinner honoring Tipperary, the reigning … [Read more...] about New York Hurling Classic 2019