Ted Nealon R.I.P.

Back 29/01/2014 @ 22:28 | mainnews | Ted Nealon R.I.P.

Ted Nealon R.I.P.

 

Sligo GAA is deeply saddened at the passing of Ted Nealon. A native of Coolrecull, Aclare, Ted had a distinguished GAA playing career. He played for the Sligo Minor Football team in 1947 and went on to play for the Sligo Senior Team during the first half of the decade of the 1950’s. Most of his football was played at corner back where he starred against the powerful Mayo team in an epic championship battle at Corran Park, Ballymote in 1953. Mayo won on a score line of 2-6 to 1-6. That Mayo team featured some of the all-time greats like Paddy Prendergast, Sean Flanagan and Padraic Carney while the Sligo team on that occasion was one of the finest ever to represent the county including Tommy Murphy, Frank White, Nace O’Dowd, Ray Tully, Ned Durkin and Joe Masterson. The following year in 1954 Sligo went on to contest the Connacht Final against Galway at Tuam Stadium with Ted Nealon again in his familiar No. 2 jersey. That game has gone into local GAA folklore with Sligo losing by 2-10 to 3-4 after an incident in the dying seconds of the game when the ball seemed to have crossed the Galway goal-line for the equalising score, but the referee awarded a free out. Joe Jennings, writing in ‘The Sligo Champion’ summed up the feelings of the Sligo supporters when he wrote ‘I could have cried in Tuam on Sunday but I was never so proud of a Sligo team’.

At club level Ted had the distinction of winning County Senior Football Championships with two different clubs. He played on the Tubbercurry team which won the Championship and League double in 1950 and the Championship again in 1951.  Later he played with his native parish on the first Tourlestrane team to win the County Senior Championship in 1956.

Sligo GAA extends deepest sympathy to his wife Jo, daughter Louise, son Fergal and all his extended family and many friends.

Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam dílis.