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1988-1993
1994-1996
1997-2000
1988-1993
The Stamford Gaelic Football Club was founded in 1988 by a small group of Irish emigrants, including Donnacha O'Dwyer, Tom Williams, Johnny Fahy, Eamon McBrien, Tom McQuillan, Micheál Brady and Adrian McCann. The idea being to provide the traditional past time of Gaelic Football to the growing Irish community in Stamford. Their dream of a Stamford Club became a quick reality and in a short 12 years the club is not only competing in the highest division of the New York Championship, Senior 'A', but it is competing very successfully.
The first committe was elected in January 1988 with Donnacha O'Dwyer as President and Pat Ryan as Secretary. A record 65 people were in attendance at the first meeting in the Old Hibernian Hall, Stamford, CT.
The club entered the New York Championship that same year at Junior 'B' level - played our first competitive game against Dublin - and made it to the quater finals. The following year the team proved to hold more than entertainment value (although they certainly had that) and became the New York Junior 'B' Champions of 1989.
The year 1989 saw the beginning of the New England Tournament. The trophy was named in honour of Colm McKiernan (R.I.P)., from Ballycastle, Co. Antrim who was tragically struck by lightning while playing for Stamford. Stamford won the Tournament in it's first year, reached the final in 1991 and brought the trophy back to Stamford again in 1992 - with Micheál Brady as captain.
Meanwhile in New York we were gradually proceding up through the ranks. We played a couple of years at Junior 'A' level and reached the final in 1992 - unfortunately we were beaten by Down in a replay by the narrow margin of one point. Never a team to lay down, we returned the following year to win the Junior 'A' Championship - we were undefeated in the Championship that season (1993).
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1994-1996
In 1994, a short 6 years after the founding of the Club, we were promoted to the Senior 'B' division. The population and interest in football in Stamford was growing so we were also able to enter a Junior 'B' team into the competition. After three years at Senior 'B' level we reached the final in 1996. September 29th proved a glorious day in Gaelic Park as our team, with Justin O'Halloran as captain, beat Monaghan easily by a goal and five points (1-16 to 11pts) bringing the Senior 'B' cup up the I95.
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1997-2000
In 1997 the Stamford team were promoted once again and now set their sights on the coveted Senior 'A' cup. The stakes had gone up tremendously as we were now running with the big guys -so to speak. Stamford were given the honour of playing on opening day in Gaelic Park in April 1997 under the management of Donnacha O'Dwyer. It was not to be our year but we were certainly gaining experience for a future date.
In 1998 Stamford again had the honour of opening the season in Gaelic Park meeting division favourites Donegal ( to say we were well beaten is an understatement - final score 5-14 to 2-6). We recovered and at the seasons end we had been beaten only by Donegal and Westmeath. The semi-finals saw Stamford face Westmeath and Donegal face Leitrim and on October 25th 1998 Stamford and Leitrim played the New York Senior 'A' final to a packed Gaelic Park. However 'lady luck' was no lady to Stamford as the crossbar denied us more times than we care to remember.
With Noel Connolly, again as manager and Brendan Brady as captain we were back in Gaelic Park and the team to watch for in 1999. We finished the season at the top of the division - unfortunately not always the best place to finish - and after a 6 week game lay off we fell to Kerry in the semi-final (Kerry went on to become the Senior 'A' Champions of '99).
Noel Connolly decided in January 2000 to step down as manager but, thankfully he will still provide his experience and support in his role as selector alongside Tommy Moran. Donnacha O'Dwyer is back at the helm and as a club we feel the experience and drive of these three men will guide us all the way this year. The role of captain goes to Richie Purcell and we wish Richie success in his role.
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