Three time winner Loftus launches Sigerson Cup *

Dr Mick Loftus launches the Sigerson Cup image: mediacontact.ie

DR MICK LOFTUS returned to his old college last week and reminded everyone present of the importance of the Sigerson Cup in the lives of young footballers. At a time when the tussle between counties and colleges over players is so intense his words have a special resonance.

Dr Loftus was the special guest at the launch of the 2012 Sigerson Cup finals which was held on Monday 13 February. The finals are in NUIG this Friday and Saturday, 24 and 25 February and before the ceremony he shared some of his memories of the Sigerson Cup.

He reminisced about the six years he played football for UCG (now NUIG) and the three Sigerson Cup winning teams he played on. His memories are not just of matches won and lost but of the friendships forged on the college football field that have lasted a lifetime.

These friendships and the bonds formed between players are what have endured in the decades since. “I think it was one of the greatest benefits I accrued from it, being involved in the Sigerson. What it meant, not alone playing and meeting all the players and being involved and all the travelling but also the friendships. Those friendships have lasted up to this day and that’s 64 years ago.

“To be involved in the Sigerson meant so much and in so many ways, the commitment, the involvement, the friendships. What it meant, away from the games was the friendships,” he added.

The young Mick Loftus embarked on his career as a medical student after winning an All-Ireland minor medal with Mayo and that victory brought him to the attention of the football captain. He recalls in vivid detail the day he was asked to join the team.

“I came to college here in October 1947 and that year I played in the minor All-Ireland with Mayo. I always remember I was just down in Johnny Ward’s, a little store down by the canal, and Billy Kenny who was captain of the team at the time came over to me and says ‘Would you care to be involved with the team?’ and I says ‘Sure.” He knew I had played in the All-Ireland and he was getting his panel together.

The launch was held in the Aula Maxima and it was an apt venue for the occasion for it was where he spent many hours training indoors with the football team. “We did our main training, the running and that, out in Fahey’s Field out the Dublin Road and believe it or not we used to have to run out there. They were hard sessions and we were very fit.”

Modern football managers employ many strategies and techniques in their quest for glory but even sixty years ago, managers were using innovative ideas in their to bid develop and improve their teams. NUIG’s Aula Maxima was the venue for novel training sessions for the football team.

“We used to come in here to do our press ups and all the rest and Paddy Higgins, God be good to him, even had somebody with us doing ballet sessions. It was here in the Aula we used to do it, at night time and then we’d go down to the boat club for a shower afterwards. Out in Fahy’s field the showers were cold and that in November wasn’t great,” Dr Loftus adds.

Dr Loftus won three Sigerson Cups during his six years as a medical student in UCG, in 1948, 1950 and 1954. The second of those triumphs came during a glorious year for Gaelic Games in the college. “I remember in 1950 we won the Fitzgibbon (hurling), the Ashbourne (camogie) and the Sigerson and they gave a free day here in the college,” he recounts.

Dr Loftus not only recalls his former teammates but he has fond memories too of the men who guided the football team. “When I think of the people who were in charge of us, Paddy Higgins, Mick Higgins and Professor Eoin McKenna, was the chairman of the club and the supervisor of exams, and he didn’t do us any harm on occasions that he was in charge of that area!” he smiled.

Dr Loftus said that it was an honour and a privilege to be asked back to NUIG to launch this year’s competition and had one wish for his countymen on this year’s team. “Thinking of 1950 and 1951 I hope that the Mayomen on the team can do this year what they did in ’50 and ’51.”

Sadly those Mayomen will not be following in Dr Loftus’s Sigerson footprints this year as NUIG bowed out in the quarter finals last Wednesday. Hopefully come next September they will be climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift the Sam Maguire just as he did all those years ago.

* This article first appeared in the Western People on 21 February 2012