VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Tommy Armstrong: The World Cup has kicked off and put international sports in the spotlight, but one Syracuse club has preserved a different sport from overseas for more than a century. Gaelic football has grown by building a community that extends far beyond its roots. At first glance, it looks like a mix of soccer, rugby, and basketball. And for many Central New Yorkers, unlike anything they’ve seen before.
Sean Rooney: I wanted to introduce people to this other aspect of the sport and culture that they wouldn’t necessarily know about or have heard about before in terms of Gaelic football.
Armstrong: Gaelic football has been part of Syracuse’s story for generations. Irish immigrants brought the sport to Central New York in the early 1900s. When Sean Rooney moved from Ireland to Syracuse, the local club had been dormant for nearly a decade. Since helping it revive in 2009, Rooney has watched the sport attract players from all backgrounds.
Rooney: As the club has grown over the 17 years, we have people that have no connection with the Irish culture at all. But they just love the sport, they love the culture of the game, and they love the culture of the club.
Armstrong: The competition is fierce on the field, but for many members, it’s what happens outside of the game that attracts them to the sport.
Tim Cahill: What keeps you coming back is the community. You know, we’re real competitive during the games, but afterwards, it’s, you know, let’s go grab a beer with the other team.
Armstrong: And the club is growing the community even more this season with the city’s first ladies’ Gaelic football team.
Kristen Boyd: Through Gaelic, like, I’ve met lifelong friends. She’s my roommate now, so it’s been pretty great.
Lexie Bird: Yeah, it’s really easy.
Armstrong: For Rooney, those friendships are exactly what the club was built to create.
Rooney: We go out together, we hang out together, go to functions together, we do fundraisers, we help each other out when they need help. It’s more than just a club.
Armstrong: Members say they’ve seen all athletic backgrounds excel. Gaelic involves kicking to score, dribbling to advance the ball, and tossing it with a volleyball bump. And if that sounds daunting, one tradition remains the same. After the game, both teams gather for a drink to celebrate.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — On a field in Syracuse, players sprint with a ball that can be kicked like a soccer ball, carried like a football and dribbled like a basketball.
The sport is Gaelic football, one of Ireland’s national games, and has been played in Central New York for more than a century. Played on a large field with soccer-style goals, teams can score by kicking the ball over the crossbar for one point or into the net for a three-point goal, in a game that combines elements of several sports.
Today, the Syracuse Gaels are working to grow that tradition through a new generation of participants that coach Sean Rooney began recruiting when he immigrated from Ireland to Syracuse in 2006.
“I wanted to introduce people to this other aspect of a sport and culture that they wouldn’t necessarily know about or have heard about before in terms of Gaelic football,” Rooney said. “That was a way for an awful lot of people to connect with their Irish heritage when we first started off.”
Gaelic football has roots in Syracuse dating back to the early 1900s, when Irish immigrants brought the sport to Central New York. Teams competed throughout the 1920s and 1930s before participation declined during World War II and again during later periods of reduced immigration.
Rooney said the sport followed Irish communities that developed along the Erie Canal and in neighborhoods such as Tipperary Hill.
When Rooney got to Syracuse, the local club had been inactive for nearly a decade. He helped revive the organization in 2009 and has watched it grow ever since.
“As the club has grown over the 17 years, we have people that have no connection with the Irish culture at all, but they just love the sport,” Rooney said. “They love the culture of the game and they love the culture of the club and they have a great time.”
Today, the club competes against teams from Buffalo, Rochester and Albany while also participating in regional tournaments that can lead to national competition. Teams from across the country compete under the U.S. Gaelic Athletic Association, with national tournaments rotating through cities nationwide.
One of the club’s captains, Tim Cahill, discovered the Syracuse Gaels through social media four years ago despite having no previous experience with the sport.
“The first event I actually went to wasn’t athletic at all,” Cahill said. “It was a social pub crawl. Went there, liked the guys, liked the idea, so I just showed up to practice about a month later.”
Cahill said the community surrounding the sport is what convinced him to stay.
“Really what keeps you coming back is the community,” Cahill said. “We get together and we’re real competitive during the games, but afterwards, it’s let’s go grab a beer with the other team. Everyone’s family’s a part of the community.”
The social side of the club has also helped attract newcomers to Syracuse.
This year, the Syracuse Gaels launched the city’s first women’s Gaelic football team. Former Syracuse graduate students Lexie Bird and Kristen Boyd joined earlier this year after hearing about the club through another member.
“We were both looking for something community-based in Syracuse that was athletic,” Bird said. “We were like, game on, why not? We’ll give it a shot.”
Both women said they were unfamiliar with Gaelic football when they started, but quickly found a welcoming environment.
“Everyone here created a pretty safe and comfortable atmosphere to be able to make mistakes, be new to the sport,” Boyd said. “Everyone here is just super welcoming.”
Boyd, who moved to Syracuse from Missouri for graduate school and stayed after graduation, said the club helped her build relationships in a new city.
“It was great to meet everyone through Gaelic,” Bird said. “I’ve met lifelong friends. She’s my roommate now, so it’s been pretty great.”
Rooney said those relationships are exactly what he hoped the club would create.
“We’re more than just playing games at the weekend,” Rooney said. “We go out together, we hang out together, go to functions together. We do fundraisers. We help each other out when they need help.”
More than a century after Irish immigrants introduced Gaelic football to Syracuse, the sport continues to evolve while maintaining the sense of community that helped it survive.