Newry's Olympic connection

BILLY RECALLS BATTLE FOR BRONZE...

While 37 years ago might seem like a long time to many, the Olympics of Los Angeles 1984 are fresh in the memory of Newry native Billy McConnell and understandably so. He was part of the GB team that collected the bronze medal stateside. 

Having topped their group with four wins and a draw from their five matches, ahead of eventual gold medallists Pakistan; GB, coached by David Whitaker, were narrowly beaten 1-0 by West Germany in the semi-finals, before getting the better of Australia 3-2 in a pulsating bronze medal match.

Former Newry High School pupil McConnell, who played with Queen’s, Belfast YMCA and Holywood 87 after beginning his career with the Olympic, fondly recalls that summer 37 years ago and remembers that it certainly wasn’t all plain sailing for Team GB.

“In 1984, the Great Britain team weren’t actually going and then the Russian team pulled out. We were first reserves and got called up, so basically, our build-up only started in May. We began so late in comparison to everybody else. It was full-on and began with a four-day training camp, which was brutal!” Billy recalls.

“At that stage I had played for GB in Hong Kong the December before, so I felt there was a fair chance I was going to get picked but, at the same time, you just never know. You have four countries competing to get on the team and that time, for GB, it wasn’t good enough just to be the best in your own country. You had to be the best in your position across four countries. That was a challenge."

“Once we knew the team was going, you did everything you could to get as fit as you could and to make sure you had a seat on the plane. There was a 6 to 8 week period before we played any games and then we took a squad to Europe to play the Dutch and Spain a couple of times each." 

“The key focus was on catching up with everyone else and getting ourselves into a position where we could compete and basically not let ourselves down,” he admits. 

“We also wanted to prove a point to people. The hockey selection for the Olympic Games at that stage was a bit of an arbitrary thing. They took the champions of every continent, the previous holders if they weren’t one of the aforementioned and then they picked the next lot of teams allegedly on track record. But GB didn’t really have a track record then, so you were relying on England’s, which wasn’t brilliant. I think Malaysia were picked so there was extra motivation there,” Billy added.     

“A lot of the guys in the 1984 squad were also in the squad for 1980 but an embargo was placed on Moscow, so none of the sports went. A lot of those guys were extra motivated – the likes of Ian Taylor, Paul Barber and Norman Hughes – because they had missed out four years earlier because of politics really."

“You worked as hard as you could to get on the team and it was quite long into the process before they named the actual squad for the Games. The reason for not naming it too early, was that it could lead to losing a lot of guys and then there is more time for the remaining players to get injured."

“In the warm-up games, we were beaten 3-0 in the first game by the Dutch, who only had three shots on goal but had a clinical finisher! But the next day, we drew 1-1 with them and I think that was when the penny dropped where we thought ‘we can compete’. That certainly gave me a lot of confidence before we went to LA.”

FROM LITTLE ACORNS…

So how does a young lad from Newry realise his ambition of making it onto the biggest stage there is? 

“The dream of going to the Olympics was something I had for a long time,” says Billy. 

“I remember watching hockey in the Olympics in 1968 when I had just started at Newry High School and thought ‘I’d like to do that’.  But you never think that it’s every going to be possible, especially when you’re not even on the Under-13s at that stage."

“I didn’t really grow or fill out until I was in Lower Sixth. Up until that time, I wasn’t particularly quick or strong either. I was probably pretty ordinary, but when I filled out, the strength came with it and I was selected for the Ulster Schools team at centre forward. I did reasonably well and then managed to get into the Irish Schools side.”

Prior to that, it was Billy’s older brother Marshall, who would go on to become a teacher at Newry High, that sparked his interest in the game. 

“I was only in primary school when Marshall went for an Ulster Schools trial in Belfast and it was something I wanted to do. My Mum and Dad took me out of school to go and watch him. He didn’t get picked, but it whetted my appetite. He then went to play for Newry and I would have gone up to the school every Saturday when there was a game. I would have hung about when the Firsts were playing and the Seconds might have been playing too. I always wondered if they had enough players. I was only 13 or 14 so I wasn’t even legally allowed to play. But I just hung around with a stick hoping they only had 10 players and I could get a game. I got a few left-wing berths when I was 14 and then when I turned 15, I was able to join and get into it properly."

“At Newry, they were the first people that put me in midfield and then at the back. My first game at the back was against Portrush in the Kirk Cup, where we played four at the back and I was one of the two centre-backs. I was only 17 at the time and that was my first experience of playing in that position,” muses Billy who recalls some of the giants of the game he played alongside while in a Newry shirt.     

“Dennis Preston was a huge presence in terms of playing for Newry at the back. He would have kept me right. Marshall was playing too and because he was nearly 10 years older than me, he was someone I always looked up to and was keen to follow and be like."

“Davy Cummins was a great player. He was a quiet, strong man and was almost my minder on the pitch. Around that stage at Newry, we had Norman McGladdery who I had played with at school and I think was capped when he was 18 or 19. We had a fantastic school team at that time, and although we didn’t win anything, there were a lot of guys with a Newry background who were successful."

“Back in the day, Noel Mears was a big name, Bob Poots and then Freddie Martin. They were all huge players and were big names for me as a kid.”

“I only really played for three clubs – Newry, Queen’s and Belfast YMCA, which morphed into Holywood 87. Belfast YM was probably a more successful period than Hollywood, even though we had a better team at Hollywood."

“When I joined YM in 1978 and played through to 1987, we were very successful and, back then there were a lot of levellers. The pitches for a start – on the better pitches, the better players shone – the rules were slightly different and they didn’t protect the skilful players the way they are protected now. I had a great time in that period and a lot of the guys I played with then are still my best mates.” 

MODERN DAY GAME...

While the game has changed significantly in the years since Billy hung up his stick before going into coaching with Pegasus and Queen’s, the medal-winning Olympian, now 65, doesn’t necessarily feel that those changes – structurally at least – have proved beneficial for the game and for provincial clubs like Newry Olympic in particular.   

“I’m not convinced that the Irish Hockey League has done what it was intended to do. The standard of the Irish national team improved because a lot of guys went and played elsewhere, outside Ireland. For Ireland, as a country, the player base isn’t big enough and deep enough to merit the All-Ireland League in its current form."

“In terms of Newry, one of the biggest problems was hockey stopping at the High School. I can understand that numbers were dropping and demographics were changing, but I still think there should always be a place - given the history of the school - for the game,” he feels.         

“We were lucky in my time that we had enthusiastic hockey people in the school in terms of coaches. If you don’t have that enthusiasm and motivation from the people taking it, then the kids aren’t going to get enthusiastic about it." 

“When you look at it, hockey is a route for people with stick skills to go to an Olympics where they’re never going to do it any other way. If you play hurling or you play camogie, you have got certain skills, generally you’re fit and you’re strong, you’re able to play and are prepared to put a stick in and be brave." 

“The Irish Ladies side that competed in the Tokyo Olympics are a great example, a lot of their side have played camogie growing up,” he adds.

Getting more of both communities involved in the sport might be an answer to help boost the numbers playing in the hockey club. 

A VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE WILL APPEAR IN THE WEDNESDAY AUGUST 18 EDITION OF THE NEWRY REPORTER.

Footnote:

• In recognition of his fantastic achievements at the 1984 Olympics, Billy was made an Honorary Life Member of NOHC. In turn, Billy presented the club with the shirt he wore in Los Angeles, which is still proudly on display in the clubhouse.
• Another Olympic connection for NOHC is with our former player and coach, Stephen (Sam) Martin. Sam played on the same team as Billy that won Olympic bronze in 1984.  He also went on to strike gold with GB & NI at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
• Not to forget Lennie McCaigue, who was Head Coach of the USA men's field hockey team at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta Georgia and brought the USA national team to play at Newry in 1995.

Acknowledgement:

• Irish hockey photographs courtesy of the 'Irish Hockey Archive'