Paudie O’Connor to be posthumously inducted into basketball Hall of Fame

THE late Paudie O’Connor is among six names to be inducted into the Basketball Ireland Hall of Fame, with the Killarney man to be posthumously inducted close to the first anniversary of his sudden death last Mayo.

O’Connor is fondly remembered as one of the greatest players and characters to ever grace the Irish basketball scene and for creating such an outstanding legacy for the game.

O’Connor will be inducted into the Basketball Ireland Hall of Fame along with Siobhan Caffrey (nee Stapleton), Danny Fulton, Kelvin Troy, Susan Lavin (nee Moran) and Liam McHale on Saturday, May 11 in the Cusack Suite at Croke Park, with the 2019 National Awards also presented on the day.

These latest inductees will join the six other Hall of Fame members – the late Fr. Joe Horan, the late Harry Boland, the late Tom Collins, Liam McGinn, Danny O’Connor and Paul Meany.

Born and raised in Killarney, Paudie O’Connor captained the senior national team, winning over 100 caps, and in 1977 had the distinction of being the first Irish player to make the All-Star Five of an international qualification tournament.

Domestically he was widely considered the finest player of the 1970s, the Irish league’s equivalent of Magic Johnson; while every other 6’4” Irish player in those days would play the four or five spot, O’Connor would operate as a point guard due to his remarkable ball-handling, vision and court leadership skills.

He famously brought in the first professional Americans to play in the Irish national league, establishing a precedent for other clubs to follow, setting in motion a glorious period in the history of the sport. Towards the start of that era, the club he served as both a player and administrator for – St Vincent’s, Killarney, commonly known as Gleneagle after the ground-breaking sponsorship he helped secure – would twice win both available national titles – the National League and prestigious end-of-season National Top Four Championship (1979-80 and 1981-82).

He continued to play with St Vincent’s right up until 1986 when he then moved to America where he would run a successful golf touring business before unfortunately passing away there in May 2018, aged 66.