GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 2 Sample Test, June 5, 2014 | Page 6

By Denis O’Brien

Making
the grade

When people look back on the
recent Memorial Day weekend
US college GAA national finals at
New York in years to come, they
might mark it down as something
of a milestone, a turning point in
spreading Gaelic Sports throughout America.
It was an event that can only
be described as triumphant and
historic for it brought together
12 colleges from across the country - the largest number of US
college teams ever assembled in
both hurling and Gaelic football
to compete at national level in
America.
The National Collegiate Gaelic
Athletic Association (NCGAA)
formed back in late 2009 by current chairman and Irish native
from California, Eamonn Gormley. The chairman was instrumental in getting hurling started
in the west at Stanford University, California around 2006,
while at Purdue in the Midwest
interest had just begun to bubble
with growing support for a hurling team on campus. More teams
began to sprout until the new organization decided the time was
ripe for a national competition.
The NCGAA held its first college
nationals in hurling back in May
2011 with Purdue, Indiana University and University of California, competing for the NCGAA
Championship. Over the next
two years the Cal Berkeley and
Stanford teams competed in the
west for the right to square off
against Midwest colleges. Last
year another chapter was written when North East Collegiate

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College GAA on the
horizon in America
Gaelic Athletic Association was
born with several new colleges
starting to play hurling with
some already having experienced
Gaelic football through youth development at NY GAA.
This year it was decided to
move the nationals from the west
and midwest to the east for the
first time and the decision proved
fruitful as the biggest ever number of teams gathered – seven in
hurling and five in football – to
play over two days at Paddy’s
Field and NYGAA’s Gaelic Park
in the Bronx.
Teams from as far afield as Cal
and newcomers from the University of Montana made the trip to
New York, and with football on
the ticket for the first time at nationals.

The team were:

Hurling

Football

University of California,
Berkeley (Cal)

Iona College, New York

University of Montana Grizzlies
Indiana University
University of Pittsburgh
Iona/Kean
(joint team from New York)

Kean University, New Jersey
Boston College
Manhattan College
St Joseph’s University,
Philadelphia

St Thomas Aquinas College,
New York
University of Connecticut

The number of teams represents a quadrupling in size for
the four year-old competition,
and more than one field was required for the first time. A total
of 39 games were played over the

two days, with Gaelic Park’s famous pitch hosting two seven-aside football games at once while
the hurlers battled it out on the
full size field Paddy’s Field in
Woodlawn on the Saturday, with