1975 captain Gerry recalls Minors fine run-50 years on

ONE moment in his hometown of Fintona shortly after Tyrone’s All-Ireland Final loss against Kerry in the 1975 All-Ireland Final still rankles with the captain of the Red Hands on that Croke Park occasion almost 50 years ago.

Gerry McCallan – then a towering teenager – was bitterly disappointed at his team’s 1-10 to 0-4 loss against the Kingdom. While he was contemplating what had went wrong and looking forward to the future with confidence, he met a fellow Fintonian on the street.

“I was walking down through Fintona a couple of nights after the final. Someone came up to me and said ‘sure it doesn’t matter Gerry you were beaten by the Kingdom that beat you. I thought fxxx the Kingdom. That’s how I thought then. I still think of that moment now half a century on.

“To this day, that statement galls me. There’s no excuses. That’s why I have such admiration for the Tyrone teams who have gone on to beat Kerry.”

At the time, of course, Tyrone were among the very strongest counties at Minor level. They reached the All-Ireland final in 1972, before returning in 1973 to win the Thomas Markham Cup. Add in three further Ulster titles,and it’s clear how much they were respected.

As the 2025 Minors prepare for their Championship and the seniors get set to meet Cavan in Omagh on Sunday, the championship fervour which will grip the county at Healy Park on Sunday, will bring back memories for Gerry and his teammates of their days in the sun in 1975 when they accounted for the Breffni Blues in the Ulster Minor Final.

“We were beaten in the first round in 1974 by Antrim. I was made the captain by Art McRory and that put a whole different level of responsibility on me. I was always considered to be fun-loving, and then Arthur put me in thinking that I would thrive with the captaincy,” he said.

“After that, I had to look at things differently. In those years you had to earn the Tyrone jersey because there were none to buy. Fintona was a small club which maybe didn’t have a county player. It was a real honour for me to take on that roll.”

One gesture by Art McRory which Gerry remembers is being given the ball after each match they won. That continued in the aftermath of the provincial final success against Cavan. The ball had been given to the Down team prior to their senior final against Derry.

Gerry eventually received the ball when his Dungannon manager drove to Fintona to present it to him. But the young Gerry had ideas other than keeping his prized possession.

“Art always got the ball and presented it to the captain. He got the ball going up the steps into the dressing-room and Down got the ball on loan. He had terrible trouble getting the ball back and then left me home. I said ‘thanks very much,I’ll get £20 for that ball tonight’.

“The cup was filled five or six times that night and I sold the ball. I was on a real adrenalin run in those years. We had won something, and we had a feeling that all the practice was paying off. We were all starting to believe that we were good enough.

“People like Art, Pat McCartan, Johnny Dooher and Frank Rodgers who were on the Youth Board at the time gave us that believe. Then, supporters were congratulating us after wins and that positive reinforcement was coming all the time.”

Tyrone comfortably defeated Kildare in the All-Ireland semi-final, and then faced a talented Kerry team which included future senior stars Charlie Nelligan, Jack O’Shea and Eoin Liston. Gerry was interviewed on TV before the tie, and that Tyrone also included a few future stars who would also go on to makea big impact in the senior ranks.

“I will never forget standing at midfield in the Ulster Final looking up at the at the old dressing-rooms and seeing the Cup. Things weren’t going our way and I thought that this was now my chance. So I caught one ball, passed it and we got a point,” he added.

“It was always my aim to replicate that moment in the years that followed. Periodically they would come, but not to the levelof Eugene McKenna or Frank McGuigan. It’s great when you think back and Aidan Skelton, Kevin McCabe, Damian O’Hagan and Ciaran McGarvey who were all on that Minor team of 1975 played in the Senior final against Kerry in 1986.

“Looking back now, I really looked forward to those games. After that, we missed that camraderie,going to training and so on. But from September on, I definitely wondered where I was going to go from there. But those are great memories to reflect on.”