To all he coached at Killarney Legion, Johnny Culloty was humble but also superhuman
Killarney Legion clubman suggests that no person has spent more time at the Derreen grounds than Johnny Culloty. Pic: Eamonn Keogh (MacMonagle, Killarney)
This week Killarney will bid farewell to one of its most revered sporting heroes when the legendary Kerry footballer and hurler Johnny Culloty is laid to rest.
An unassuming gentleman off the field, Johnny’s achievements on the field were nothing short of legendary. Five All-Irelands with the footballers, a junior All-Ireland with the hurlers, county titles in both codes with East Kerry and Killarney, and three O’Donoghue Cups with the Killarney Legion.
Not to mention his time as a manager and selector with Kerry, and all the years he gave coaching Legion teams in the Derreen club grounds.
After his playing days were finished, he always retained a huge interest in the club. As well as training the seniors, he looked after countless juvenile sides over the decades. One clubmate suggests that no person has spent more time in Derreen than Johnny Culloty, which goes to show you the grá he had for the Legion and how invested he was in the club’s fortunes.
It was through those efforts as a trainer of underage teams that I was fortunate enough to cross his path. He trained us at juvenile level for a number of years and it’s safe to say he left a lasting impression on all of us.
While the full nature of his status was partly lost on me then – it’s certainly not as though he would bring up the glory days of his own accord – we all knew the headline: this fella has five All-Ireland medals in his back pocket.
I can safely say that he was a hero to me and he was a hero to my father as well. I know many of our clubmates, young and old, would feel the same way.
As a trainer he was diligent and demanding, always pushing us to reach our full potential. He was fighting a losing battle with a lot of us unfortunately but if we had any good habits, we probably picked them up from Johnny. He definitely had an impact on our footballing sensibilities. As a person who had Kerry football coursing through his veins, he passed his philosophy on the game down to us passionately and with great conviction.
He was a proponent of fast, stylish, attack-minded football, and had little time for what he termed “tip-toeing around the place”. In fact, a catchphrase of his that we still smile about many years later was, “What handpassing have you, only [put it] over the bar!” He was great with his time, often pulling players aside to offer specific advice or to work on a certain aspect of their game that needed improving.
Another thing that stands out from that time was how incredibly fit he was. He would have been well into his sixties by then and one day at training he noted that we’d want to get a bit stronger if we had ambitions of winning anything. “I’m 68 and I’d say I could do more push-ups than all of ye,” he said. We thought he was joking.
Down we went for a push-up competition and sure enough, as the younger men slowly wilted and gave in, there was Johnny powering away. He did 10 extra ones after the last of us had collapsed, just to hammer home his point. To us he seemed superhuman.
He was still very active up to his final days and he regularly visited the club gym, even at 88 years of age.
For someone who achieved so much, he was unbelievably humble. I know it’s not unusual for GAA stars to be down to earth but Johnny was exceptionally modest when it came to talking about himself.
I recall phoning him up a couple of years ago in relation to an article I was writing. I was looking for insight on his own career and some information on a few of his contemporaries. He had no trouble at all telling me about the other guys he played with, but he was politely dismissive of what he had done himself. “That’s just the way it happened,” he’d say. As though he won all those All-Irelands by accident.
The reality was that he was a remarkably talented man who loved all sports and excelled at everything he put his hand to. He and his brother Michael spent years honing their skills together outside their home on Lewis Road, a handy puck or kick of a ball away from Fitzgerald Stadium. Michael, who was also a fine footballer and hurler by all accounts, sadly died after he collapsed outside Croke Park following Kerry’s victory in the 1997 All-Ireland final, a match he attended with Johnny and Johnny’s sons, Seánie and Donal.
I love the stories about Johnny spending the days immediately after his All-Ireland triumphs fishing on the lakes of Killarney from dawn ‘til dusk. It’s a beautiful image and I think it sums him up perfectly.
In his autobiography ‘Keys to the Kingdom’, Jack O’Connor described Johnny as a man with “no ego” and someone who “knows the romance of Kerry football better than anyone”. Those words will resonate with anyone who was fortunate enough to know him.
Johnny will be fondly remembered this week. And in a town and a county where GAA is like a religion, he will be worshipped as an icon for evermore.
Not that he would be too bothered about all the fuss.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
