I’d often heard of it — of course I had! To anyone with even a
faint interest in sport, the name Yankee Stadium was familiar.
It was in the Bronx, and was one of the most famous venues in the whole of
the United States and I was to give an exhibition of ball control there, at a home
game between New York Cosmos and the Boston Minutemen. Not
only that, but I’d be doing it in the presence of the Brazilian star who was known as “The King of Football” — Pele. I’d met him briefly at the training ground the day before.
I had an 11-city tour with Cork Hibernian’s behind me, giving exhibitions at half time at all their matches on America’s east and west coasts. When the lads returned to Ireland, I stayed on. But Yankee Stadium, New York Cosmos, and Pele — that was something
else!
To save money (I was raising funds for the Irish Wheelchair
Association) I had, perhaps ill-advisedly, booked into a cheap hostel
in a not exactly salubrious part of town.
Was I nervous about performing the pre-match and half-time entertainment? Not really. After all not once had I dropped the ball at any of Hibs’s 11 games. But the heavy New York humidity might raise a problem.
I walked to the stadium, carrying my kit in a bag. After going through Security, I found my way to the Cosmos changing room. Pele hadn’t yet arrived. I changed, and made my way to the tunnel leading to the field of play, and as I made my way up the steps leading to the pitch, the volume of sound coming from the stands made it clear that there was already a huge throng of supporters in their seats. Moving from the edge of the pitch, I went into a warm-up routine, the stadium announcer informing the crowd about me. They were very generous with their applause.
I kept the ball up for about 40 minutes, and then deliberately
caught it to bring that part of the exhibition to a finish.
The spectators again delivered a great ovation. “The King of Football” came towards me and shook my hand, and clapped me warmly on the back in congratulations. I was on
Cloud Nine, and photographer Jerry Liebman fired off dozens of photographs of Pele and me together on the Yankee Stadium pitch. Cosmos beat the Minutemen 4 — 1, Pele scoring twice. When the game ended, I went back into the dressing-room with the players.
Pele came across to me, patted me again on the back,
then gave me a thumbs-up as he said, “You did good.”
I will never, ever, forget that.
Nor afterwards, walking back through what I later learned was a very dangerous area, carrying my bits and pieces in a football bag that had a football design on each end. I became convinced that somehow the bag kept me safe. But I was very relieved to get back to the hostel where I closed the four bolts on my bedroom. The room was so tiny that when lying on the bed I could reach out and touch 3 walls!
