Club
History
The
"Express" newspaper of Waterford City carried the
following news item in its issue of Saturday February 10th,
1923,
"A
meeting was held in the City Hall on Friday night, the object
being to start an athletic club for the city".
This
was the start of the present-day club, but athletics in the
city go back much further than 1923. There are reports in the
local Waterford newspapers of athletic contests that took
place in the vicinity of the city in the 1850's and these same
papers tell the tale of continuous athletic activity from that
period and into the twentieth century. These contests were in
a limited number of disciplines and chief amongst them were
the throwing and jumping events so beloved of the Irish in
those days. There is a report of a meeting in 1869 in Tramore
where the great Maurice Davin won the high jump and placed
second in slinging the 56lb weight. The city was particularly
noted for the Harrier clubs and the newspapers of the second
half of the nineteenth century are peppered with 'challenges'
from one club to another. These were, invariably, over
cross-country or on the roads and these 'challenges' were
usually accompanied by a side-bet.
From
its earliest days Waterford Athletic Club had its fair share
of famous sports people as an examination of its first
officers illustrates. The President was the famed G.A.A.
referee Willie Walsh, one of the giants of the early years of
that association. The vice President was Peter O'Connor,
double Olympic medallist in the 1906 Games where he won gold
in the triple jump with 14.08m and silver in the long jump
with 7.02m. After his final attempt victory in the triple
jump, O'Connor (who had been forced by political
considerations to compete for Great Britain) climbed the
flagpole, pulled down the Union Jack and replaced it with the
green flag of Ireland. The treasurer was Matt Flannelly, who
won numerous All-Ireland handball championships at both
singles and doubles and the secretary was Roddy Kirwan. The
committee was representative of the following sports in the
city; Gaelic football, Handball, Hockey, Rugby, Rowing,
Cricket, Athletics, Cycling, Boxing and Hurling.
The
club has been in continuous existence since 1923 and in that
time it has seen both good and bad times. Almost every decade
has witnessed an 'emergency' meeting to revive the flagging
fortunes of the club and the call has always been answered. At
the time of writing, as we approach the new millennium, the
club is very active in the area of track and field but our
once dominant position in Irish cross country running has long
since passed. The present committee is concerned about this
and there are hopes of a revival. For all the great athletes
that have competed for the club, including five Olympians with
three Olympic medals and two world titles, we had to wait
until 1998 to celebrate our first track success as a club.
This success was achieved by our women's team that won the
National League Division 2 track and field title.
