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.