Jack Charlton Nearly Run Down By a Delta 88 Covered in Shamrocks
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
VANCOUVER - Dublin-born Gavan Connolly, the President of the Vancouver Irish Sports and Social Club, along with several other members of the Irish Sporting Club were on hand at the Scottish Centre on May 16 to meet the famous Jack Charlton.
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| MEMBERS of the Irish Sporting and Social Club of Vancouver who attended the special birthday celebration for Jack Charlton at the Scottish Cultural Centre. (L-R) FRONT ROW (L-R) Denise Doyle, Tony Doyle and Richie Cannon. BACK ROW (L-R) Damion (of the Celtics Supporters Club), Brendon O’Leary, Mary Flynn, Sean Quinn, Gavan Connolly, Jack Charlton, Brendon Flynn and John Blainey. |
Everyone had their own personal memories of the World Cup and the Irish soccer team to relate to Jack, but it was probably the first time that Jackie Charlton would have heard that it was his six foot three size that saved him from accidentally being run over by one of his Irish fans while the Irish team was in Orlando, Florida.
Gavan Connolly said his history with Jack Charlton started a long time ago, “actually when I was working in Europe.” He said, “myself and my mates used to go round to a lot of the old World Cup qualifying games in Istanbul, Poland, Denmark – you name it, we were there. I was working in Canada when the World Cup was set for the USA. So, myself, my brother and some of my mates bought a Delta 88 Oldsmobile and drove to San Francisco, then all the way through Texas down to Orlando, Florida.”
As it happened Ireland was playing their qualifying games in Orlando and New York, and their first game was against Italy in New York and the next game was against Mexico in Orlando and then back to New York against Norway. And then when Ireland qualified into the next stage, it was back to Orlando for Ireland against Holland.
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| GAVAN CONNOLLY |
Gavin said, “it was our plan to drive to all these places.” He went on, “One of the funny things that happened was that we really wanted to see the Irish team training. So we went to the training grounds in Orlando where the Irish team trained in a segregated area.
“Because we happened to be wearing green jerseys, the ushers sent us into the area where the players were training. No one noticed us until the assistant coach noticed that we were just sitting there drinking water and not training. So we were soon ushered out of the area, but we had a great laugh.”
Eamon Coughlan, the famous Irish cross country runner operates a sports centre in Orlando, and Gavin and his crew were driving by the sports centre in their Delta 88, which was covered with shamrocks, they just happened to spy Steve Staunton (one of the Irish soccer players).
Because the weather was very hot, Gavin said, “we were shouting out the car window at him and asking him ‘how do you like the heat?’ and he was giving us a great slagging back. Here we were driving along yapping to him, when out from behind a parked bus steps Jackie Charlton. The only way we noticed him was because he was so tall. We slammed on the brakes and I don’t think he even noticed us, but it sure shook us all up a bit.”
Gavan Connolly had the opportunity to meet and talk to Jack Charlton at the Scottish Cultural Centre, and he related to “Big Jack” how he had almost run over him down in Orlando at the World Cup.
Speaking about his memories of Jack Charlton, Gavan said, “I have great memories of Jack and what he did for the whole Irish team and what he did for Irish soccer – he put it on the map. He’s one of the few men that you can meet who is a living legend.”
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