seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: 1957-58 European Cup


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Birth of Paddy Coad, Irish Football Player & Manager

Patrick “Paddy” Coad, Irish football player and manager, is born at 100 Lower Yellow Road in Waterford, County Waterford, on April 14, 1920. He plays as a forward for Waterford, Glenavon, Shamrock Rovers and Ireland. Although known, primarily, as a maker of goals, he scores 126 goals in the League of Ireland and a further 41 in the FAI Cup. In 1946–47, he is top goal scorer in the League of Ireland. As a player manager, he also guides Shamrock Rovers to three League of Ireland titles and two FAI Cups, before he returns to Waterford and guides them to their first league title in 1966. He is appointed manager of Limerick in September 1967.

Coad is educated at De La Salle College Waterford and first distinguishes himself as a sportsman playing hurling and table tennis, becoming a Munster champion at the latter sport. He also begins to play football with Corinthians, a local junior club based in the Lower Yellow Road area of Waterford. He is soon spotted by Waterford, making his League of Ireland debut in 1937 at the young age of seventeen. He then moves to the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) club Glenavon but returns to Waterford after the start of World War II. He is a member of the Waterford team that finishes as a runner up to Cork United in both the League of Ireland and the FAI Cup. Waterford could have won the league title, but their players refuse to turn up for a play-off game against Cork after a dispute over bonus payments.

Coad signs with Shamrock Rovers in 1942 and on February 8 makes his debut against Brideville in the FAI Cup. During his early seasons with the club, he plays alongside Peter Farrell, Tommy Eglington, Jimmy McAlinden and Tommy Breen. He also helps Rovers win the FAI Cup three times. In November 1949, after the untimely death of Jimmy Dunne, he reluctantly accepts the position of player manager. He brings in many young players, including Liam Tuohy, and the team becomes known as Coad’s Colts. The Colts win 19 trophies between 1954 and 1959. Under his guidance, Rovers win three League of Ireland titles and the FAI Cup twice. In 1957, they also make their debut in the European Cup. Despite losing 9–2 on aggregate to Manchester United, Coad at the age of 37, dominates the away game at Old Trafford. He makes two appearances in the European Cup. On May 2, 1955, he is rewarded with a benefit game against Chelsea F.C. with Rovers winning 3-2.

Coad returns home to manage the Blues in 1960. In the 1965–66 League of Ireland season Waterford wins the Championship for the first time. Coad reflects on his legacy: “To bring the first title to my native Waterford leaves everything else in the shade.”

Between 1946 and 1952, Coad also makes eleven appearances and scored three goals for Ireland. He makes his debut on September 30, 1946, in a 1–0 defeat to England. On March 2, 1947, he scores his first goal for Ireland in a 3–2 win against Spain. During this game he also sets up both of Ireland’s other goals for Davy Walsh. On May 22, 1949, he scores the only goal, a penalty, in a 1–0 win over Portugal. His third goal for Ireland comes on May 30, 1951, in 3–2 away win over Norway. Ireland is 2–0 down until Peter Farrell and Alf Ringstead level the score. Then in the 82nd minute Coad scores from 20 yards to win the game. He plays his last game for Ireland in a 6–0 away defeat against Spain on June 1, 1952.

Coad wins the Texaco Hall of Fame Award in 1981 and the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI) Merit Award in 1983.

After his professional playing career Coad works for twelve years as a commercial traveler for B. P. Ganley Ltd, a bacon and pork distributor in Waterford. He and his wife, Bud, have two daughters and a son. He is ill for six months prior to his death on March 8, 1992, at his daughter’s home in Waterford.

Coad’s brother, Seamus, plays for Waterford in the late 1960s and manages the team in the 1990s. Seamus’ sons Gary and Nigel Coad continue the family name by lining out for the Blues under their father before both going on to win many trophies locally. Amazingly, both Gary and Nigel become only the third set of second-generation brothers to play together for Waterford, following Paddy and Seamus, the Hales and Fitzgeralds. In 2012, Seamus’ grandson, Conor, becomes the latest Coad to play for Waterford United.

The Shamrock Rovers Player of the Year trophy is named after Paddy Coad.


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Birth of Billy Whelan, Irish Footballer

William Augustine Whelan, known as Billy Whelan or Liam Whelan, Irish footballer who plays as an inside-forward, is born at 28 St. Attracta’s Road, Cabra, Dublin, on April 1, 1935. He dies at the age of 22, as one of eight Manchester United players who are killed in the Munich air disaster.

Whelan is the fourth of seven children born to John and Elizabeth Whelan. His father is an accomplished centre half-back for Dublin club Brunswick and is instrumental in winning the FAI Junior Shield in 1924. His mother is an avid Shamrock Rovers supporter. His father dies in 1943 when Whelan is just eight years old.

Whelan plays Gaelic games, winning a medal for St. Peter’s national school in nearby Phibsborough. After leaving school at the age of fourteen, he works in Cassidy’s, an outfitter on South Great George’s Street. He is an accomplished Gaelic footballer and hurler, but association football is his first love.

Whelan begins his career at the age of twelve when he joins Home Farm before joining Manchester United as an 18-year-old in 1953. He is capped four times for the Republic of Ireland national football team, including a surprising 4–1 victory against Holland in Rotterdam in 1956, but does not score. His brother John plays for Shamrock Rovers and Drumcondra and his eldest brother Christy plays for Transport.

Whelan makes his first appearance for Manchester United during the 1954–55 season and quickly becomes a regular first-team player. He goes on to make 98 first-team appearances in four seasons at United, scoring 52 goals. He is United’s top scorer in the 1956–57 season, scoring 26 goals in the First Division and 33 in all competitions as United wins their second successive league title and reaches the semi-finals of the 1957-58 European Cup. He also gives a commanding display in the 1957 FA Cup final despite losing 2–1 to Aston Villa. Such is the strength of the competition in the United first team that he is soon being kept out of the side by Bobby Charlton. He is a traveling reserve for United’s ill-fated European Cup match against Red Star Belgrade in Belgrade on February 6, 1958, and is one of eight players to die in the subsequent air crash that destroys Matt Busby‘s young team and claims twenty-three lives. Fellow Irishman Harry Gregg, United’s goalkeeper and a survivor and hero of the Munich air crash, recalls Whelan’s last words as the plane is attempting take-off for the third and final time as “Well, if this is the time, then I’m ready.”

Thousands attend Whelan’s funeral on February 12 in St. Peter’s Church, Phibsborough, Dublin, and line the streets as the funeral procession makes its way to his burial-place in Glasnevin Cemetery. In December 2006 Dublin Corporation unveils a commemorative plaque on a bridge at Faussagh Road, Cabra, which was renamed Liam Whelan Bridge.

Although of a cheerful disposition, Whelan is also modest and shy by nature, and a quietly devout Catholic. He has a particular dislike of swearing and tends to fix a look of pained disappointment on teammates who use bad language. Nobby Stiles admits that he “would rather be caught swearing by the pope than by Billy Whelan.” His religious devotion regularly fuels rumours that he is considering being a priest, although at the time of his death he is engaged to be married to Ruby McCullough.