Recalling when they were kings

The Landmark lies half a century back down the road in the Polo Grounds, clearly visible for its novel aspects and its neat anniversary. Cavan and Kerry. New York. Fifty years ago.

The two counties had their hands on each others throats for quite a while before that. Look past the Polo Grounds, peer back into the 30s and Cavan and Kerry were the biggest show in town. Their clash in 1937 marked both the end of a great era for Cavan football and the start of the boom time for Gaelic football generally. By then the path to New York and other parts far west had already been well worn by both Cavan and Kerry but their most celebrated clash - that of 1937 - pre-dated Michael O'Hehir, came before the Cusack Stand, arrived before the second World War.

Before the second World War? Don't scoff. When Cavan won their first All-Ireland four years earlier, their Anglo Celt described the win as an "event of international importance."

Sometimes we forget the huge contribution which Cavan and Kerry made to the development of Gaelic football. The 30s was a boom time when the GAA was growing in confidence and the popularity of the games was moving to a different dimension.

The first crowd of over 50,000 people to attend a sporting event in this country attended Cavan's defeat of Kildare in the 1935 All-Ireland. Cavan's victory brought them their second Sam Maguire Cup in three years. By then the rivalry between Kerry and Cavan was well established. The Ulster county had reached their first All-Ireland final in 1928, having been beaten at the semi-final stage by Kerry in each of the previous two years.

Cork came out of Munster in 1928 but Kerry re-emerged the following year having regrouped. They went on to win the next four All-Ireland titles and it would be 1933 before they were beaten again. On the way they took the scalp of an emerging Cavan team in a memorable national league final in 1931.

As it happened, when Kerry's championship run ended it was Cavan who ambushed them. For that year's All-Ireland semi-final in Breffni Park, the biggest crowd ever to attend a football match in Ulster up until then (17,111), turned up to see the most famous All-Ireland champions in history get beaten. Cavan won. Kerry's first championship defeat since 1928. The Kingdom denied the five-in-a-row. A blow to morale and a blow to the coffers.

By then Kerry were old hands at the business of touring America. Their jaunts across the Atlantic brought crowds of over 40,000 to venues like Yankee Stadium or Comiskey Park. The financial spin-offs were immense. One promoter was reputed to have made £20,000 off Kerry, with the Kerry county board gaining sufficient funds to purchase Austin Stack Park in Kerry.

Cavan, having gone on to win their first All-Ireland title in 1933, duly boarded the Stateside gravy train in the spring of 1934 (the 50th anniversary of the GAA itself). The importance of such jaunts was such that teams were generally given byes in to the latter stages of their own provincial championships to facilitate them.

The journey was an epic, starting on May 5th with a parade through Cavan town and parts adjacent and ending on May 14th in New York after a lengthy voyage from Galway. Cavan played New York in front of 40,000 in Yankee Stadium as the kick-off for the tour, which brought them to a slew of Irish American centres, before they returned to New York for a re-match, which was interrupted by a mass brawl involving spectators, players and officials. The game had to be finished with mounted police ringing the pitch. And we think that Gaelic football ain't what it used to be.

Cavan escaped from Ulster again that year (1934) but both themselves and Kerry got beaten at the All-Ireland semi-final stage.

In 1935 Cavan won the All-Ireland again but Kerry had declined to compete as they were protesting the conditions under which republican prisoners were held in the Curragh. In the final against Kildare 50,380 people paid in (a record for any Irish sporting event at the time).

In 1936 Kerry and Cavan both lost All-Ireland semi-finals again but by 1937 however Kerry were back for their first football final in five years. They needed no motivation - Cavan were their opponents. It took two games to decide the outcome.

Croke Park looked a tad different then. During the 1934 jubilee celebrations the idea of a new stand for Croke Park had been born. The All-Irelands of 1937 were supposed to mark the baptism of the Cusack Stand, a wondrous edifice which would bear testimony to both the GAA's new sense of confidence and its bank balance. A building strike through the summer of 1937 stymied plans for the opening however and the hurling final that year was moved to Killarney.

Cavan and Kerry went ahead in Croke Park with three sides of the ground filled with another record GAA crowd of over 60,000 (figures are imprecise as the gates burst and at least 10,000 non-paying customers joined the 52,325 who had handed over cash). The crowd was so vast that dozens found breathing space on top of the scoreboard. As the edifice creaked the scoreboard operator abandoned his post.

The final itself proved to be an epic. One of those matches which goes on to the list of `games that made the GAA'.

Kerry were young and hungry. Joe Keohane and Tadgh Healy were both still in the minor grade. Cavan were vastly experienced and on a bit of a roll having put an end to Mayo's long, long unbeaten run in the All-Ireland semi-final in Mullingar (Mayo, the All-Ireland champions of the year before, were two thirds of the way through a six-in-a-row National League title run).

Kerry tore into Cavan early on in a clash which was viewed widely as being `Cavan's brainy forwards against Kerry's brawny backs'. Kerry got two early goals, both of them from the boot of John Joe Landers. Cavan got back on terms and went into the half-time break just two points down. With Big Tom O'Reilly having one of his greatest days, Cavan steadied the ship in the second half and pulled back a goal through Packie Devlin.

In the final minute of the game with the scores level a Cavan attack ended with Packie Boylan handpassing the ball over the Kerry bar. The Radio AC]Eireann wireless commentator, one Fr Hamilton, gave the game to Cavan. Most of the crowd celebrated the win too, a pitch invasion having ensured that few saw that the last kick of the game was a free out and not a kick out.

In county Cavan the celebrations were great and joyful until it was discovered that Boylan's handpassed point had been deemed a throw and a replay had been arranged for the next month. The national papers of the time both deemed the game a classic (The Irish Times was unsure about the entire business) and concurred with the referee's decision to disallow the last point. "It was a wonderful game," said former Kerry star John Joe Sheehy, "there is no doubt that the standard of football seen here today exceeded anything ever seen at Croke Park."

With the drawn game having won such rave reviews, a crowd of 55,000 turned up late in October for the replay. As in many replays, familiarity became contempt.

There was an ugly altercation between Micko Doyle and Jim Smith which caused the Cavan man to retire injured with blood pouring from the mouth and nose. A Cavan player was assaulted by a spectator after a bad tackle and play was held up for five minutes. At one stage in the second half Cavan had seven players down injured.

Cavan tried to lace a way through the big Kerry defence with short passing and, more often than not, they ran straight into chunky defenders. Kerry made some positional switches which paid off and three second half goals at key times sealed the game for them.

Larry Stanley, famously "roughed out of football" himself a decade or so earlier described the exchanges as "much too robust", while the referee's report described the match euphemistically as "very rough and difficult to handle."

The fall-out lasted for some time. Cavan were angry. Kerry triumphant. The following spring somebody devised the mother of all Stateside tours, Cavan and Kerry replaying their epic grudge match in front of thousands of paying exiles. Kerry refused to travel as they still had not received an apology from Cavan for remarks made in the aftermath of the final.

The 1937 final marked the end of the road for the first of the great Cavan teams. Having won seven Ulster titles in-a-row they surrendered that crown the following year to Monaghan before embarking on another seven-in-a-row from 1939.

The county won its first All-Ireland on the day of the drawn game and retained the title a year later.

Cavan didn't win a senior All-Ireland again for 10 years after 1937 but Kerry reached the final again in 1938 losing to Galway in front of yet another record crowd (70,000). The following summer they came back and started on a three-in-a-row.

Cavan and Kerry. Once they were kings and, in that storied time, nobody could imagine a semi-final like tomorrow's being as novel and sentiment-laden as it is.