AMONG those honoured at the latest Opel Soccer Writers' Legends awards ceremony in Dublin yesterday was the former Cork United and Republic of Ireland defender Johnny McGowan.
McGowan, half a team in himself when the pressure built and the odds stacked against Cork was following in the footsteps of another member of that celebrated team, Florrie Burke.
The other recipients were John "Kit" Lawlor and Liam Tuohy, on a day when Dublin's East Wall basked in the reflected glory of two of its favourite sons.
Lawlor and Tuohy lived on the same road in East Wall, learned their trade on the same terrain and savoured the common fulfilment of international and top domestic honours.
"On our road, Kit Lawlor was the role model," said Tuohy. "There wasn't that much in age between us. But Kit was of a different generation - and a different class. We were on opposite sides when Shamrock Rovers met Drumcondra in the 1957 FAI Cup and I remember him calling round to my house at about 11 o'clock the night before the game to wish me good luck. Kit ran the game, Drums collected the Cup and our hopes of a three in a row success were went out the door."
Lawlor only rarely received the international recognition his talent deserved. Later, his son Mick followed him into the national team. And the remarkable contribution of the Lawlor family to Irish soccer was enriched when two other sons, Robbie and Martin, went on to win FAI Cup medals with UCD and Dundalk respectively.
Tuohy, capped eight times between 1955 and 65, is the man often credited with laying the foundations for Ireland's modern revival when he managed the national team for two years until 1973. His last game in charge was the World Cup meeting with France in Paris which was preceded by a warm up match in Poland three days earlier.
To mark his impending retirement and to take account of an imminent addition to the Tuohy family, the players bought a pram in Poland and presented it to him before the second leg of the journey to Paris. Pushing a pram from the airport baggage area, Tuohy was greeted by a bemused French media.
