A KILLARNEY basketball club has been turning back the clock to remember a multi-talented team that clinched an All-Ireland title 21 years ago.
The St Paul’s senior men’s team, playing under the Revelles nightclub banner, won the national regional league crown in impressive fashion in April 1993.
The players involved in that historic victory were united again in recent days for a 21st anniversary celebration and, to mark the occasion, they recreated a team photograph almost identical to the official snapshot taken back in the day.
The return of American coach Matt Vaughn to Killarney for the first time since 1993 sparked the idea of having a team reunion and club member Eamonn Keogh, a professional photographer, came up with the plan to recreate the old black and white photograph.
Vaughn, currently head basketball coach at Lake Forest Academy in Illinois, returned to coach at a St Paul’s Easter camp and he was delighted to meet up with the former players who made a special effort to come together.
The reunion also coincided with the anniversary of the death of the late Seán Coleman, chairman of St Paul’s in 1993, and his brother, Kevin Coleman, represented him in the nostalgic photograph.
Team sponsor Niall O’Donoghue of the O’Donoghue/Ring Hotels Group was also there.
The 1993 victory saw the Killarney club overcome Blue Demons, on an 82-69 scoreline, in a tough decider at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin.
Matt Vaughn said that meeting up with all the squad again after 21 years was a highlight of his return trip to Ireland.
“My coaching career started in Killarney and it was a very exciting time in my life when I lived here.
“The players I coached were very competitive and skillful. There was great team spirit and we also enjoyed some fun times,” he said.
Don MacMonagle’s team photograph from 1993 shows coach Vaughn, back left, with Simon O’Shea, Pat O’Connor, Edward O’Donoghue, Pat O’Shea (captain), Niall O’Callaghan, Cormac O’Donoghue, Vince Daly and Seán Coleman, chairman, (RIP). Front, from left, Mike Stack, Brian Clarke, Joey Sheehan and Niall O’Donoghue, Revelles.
The only changes in personnel in Eamonn Keogh’s team photograph from 2014 has Kevin Coleman (back right) standing in for his late brother Seán while captain Pat O’Shea was not available.
