Happy 80th birthday to Coke Boxing

On Thursday, Tommy Kelleher, the coach of the famous Glenn Boxing Club, will celebrate his 80th birthday.

Born on the North Side of Cork on 12th January 1943, Tommy has been involved in boxing for 70 years.

For a man his age, he embodies the essence of fitness and continues to stride day after day with pace and confidence as he puts Glenn Boxer’s pace to the test at Ireland’s longest established amateur boxing club.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association IABA was founded in 1911 and three years later in 1914 the Cork County Board was founded.

Two years later, in 1916, the Glenn Boxing Club was formed at a meeting held at a small house in Cross Lane, Blackpool.

The Kelleher brothers all attended the Glenn Boxing Club, and Tommy’s brothers John and Noel found national success at the club.

Ironically, John Kelleher joined the club in 1948, along with another great club stalwart, John Martin.

John Kelleher then went on to become a highly successful professional boxer under the pseudonym Sean Leahy.

In 1953, 10-year-old Tommy Kelleher was among his brother and his school boy friends skipping and spares at the Glenn Boxing Club, a small terraced house on Spring Lane. The natural beauty of Goulding Glen.

Over the past week, Kelleher spent five nights at the Glenn Boxing Club. During his illustrious career as a coach, he must have worked with thousands of boxers.

From the beginning, his fascination with coaching was greater than his ambition to become a boxer.

From his first day at the club, Tommy was intrigued by Glenn’s trainer but admits to being very aware of his surroundings. He recalls meeting Paddy ‘The Champ’ Martin, Jim Corbett, Mossy Condon, Timmy McNamee, John Morrison, and the legendary John Kidd He Cronin.

The clubhouse was very small, but the committee had prepared a great rota. This very organized club gave each boxer individual time as part of a very structured club.

Much of the outstanding administrative work was due to John Birmingham, who later became mayor of Cork and founder of Cork Polio and the Corp Foundation.

The Glenn Boxing Club is a proud sports organization and has earned respect among all sports in the nation. When the new City Hall opened in his 1936, the Glen Boxing Club was the first club to introduce a boxing tournament at the iconic venue, filling the concert hall on January 24, 1938.

The young Kelleher was well aware of the club’s pedigree and high standards.

Boxers, athletes and thugs produced by Glenn were not tolerated by the club. They stayed in his lane the spring of his 50-plus years. For many years, Tommy boxed at The Glen with success at the county and state level.

Kelleher gave everything for the club and always left everything in the ring to win or lose.

In 1976, Glen Harlers defeated Blackrock in their first county final at Peak Wi Chaoim. By that year, five Glen County winning captains had won county and Munster championships at the Glen Boxing Club.

Just before halftime of that match, Dennis Coughlan suffered a very serious head injury and was bleeding profusely. He was transferred to St. Finbarr’s Hospital. At the time, Tom Kelleher was a general ward patient after being injured on a construction site.

When the match at Pairc Ui Chaoimh ended, Jack Lynch, Christy Ring and Kid Cronin arrived at the hospital’s general ward looking for Coughlan.

“The Kid” leads the delegation and as they walk, he finds Tommy Kelleher in bed, turns to ring and lynching as a former coach, “There’s a guy who bled a bucket of blood for Glenn.” and Tommy shone… He got the thumbs up from two of the most famous hurlers Cork has ever produced.

In the history of cork boxing lore, Tommy is rated as one of Leaside’s finest boxing coaches.

He trained multiple All-Ireland winners, including his son Michael, who was an excellent exponent of the sport.

During his career he has traveled the world with many Irish international teams and has featured many greats such as Irish Olympic champion Michael Carruth. Coached and was a now defunct but very successful Ballyvolane BC.

But Tommy Kelleher says the past decade has been the most fun of his long sports career. He said boxing in Cork has come alive. People wanted to know about this sport and Echo did a great job.

Tommy says the sport has given him many great moments, but he cherishes a civic reception from the mayor at City Hall in 2018 and a trip to San Francisco last September as a boxing coach. will do.

Coke Boxing’s birthday.