Stacks womens to reunite for 40th anniversey of final win
COMING from as far away as America and as close as Rock Street, the 1977 Ladies County Senior Football Championship winning Austin Stacks team are set to gather for a 40th anniversary reunion at the end of the month.
Forty years on from that historic county final extra-time win over Castleisland Desmonds, which was played in Connolly Park, the old venue will be rocking again on September 30 when most of that winning panel of players are expected to meet up for a night of reminiscence and celebration.
The brainchild of Ann Slattery (nee Naughton), the idea for a reunion was floated to the Stacks Ladies Club chairperson, Noreen Power, and Ann Eager, and will culminate in a gathering of the team with former players coming from the United States, Britain, all over Ireland and more locally in Kerry and Tralee.
That 1977 county senior title was the first for the Stacks ladies, which has only formed as a football team a couple of years earlier. Under trainer Moss O’Carroll (RIP) the Rock’s female footballers took the ’77 county championship by storm and won the first of five county senior championship titles with that final victory over Desmonds.
Subsequent county titles came in 1979, 1982, 1989 and 1993 but the team of ’77 will forever be regarded as pioneers with regard to women’s football in The Rock.
“We’re expecting most of the panel of players to be there,” Ann Eager said, “but there is one or two ladies abroad who mightn’t make it over. It’s really meant to be a night of celebration and a chance for people to catch up who wouldn’t have seen each other in year. All former players, team mentors and officers have been invited, and we see the event as an informal gathering of old friends as much as anything.
“Pauline Barrett was the first chairperson of the Ladies Club and she will be there, along with current chairperson, Noreen Power, to make a special presentation to all the panellists on the night.”
Stacks had four players on the Kerry panel in 1976 - Sheila Power, Dell White, Jackie Moriarty and Eileen O’Connor - while eleven of the 1977 winning team went on to play senior football for Kerry after that.
Three players - Ann Eager, Dell White and Marina Barry Walsh - played on all five of Austin Stacks county championship winning teams from 1997 to 1993.