Other Sports

Casey brothers feats left indelible mark on sport across the pond

October 13th, 2013
by John O'Brien

 Source: The Irish Independent

Somewhere around the turn of 1940, the members of the Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, staged a race to satisfy their nagging curiosity. So three brothers from the townland of Ballaugh, Co Kerry, who had arrived in Boston two years previously, set off along a 2,000m course with furious intent and confirmed what those watching already suspected: these Irishmen were among the quickest oarsmen they had ever witnessed.

At the finish line, Jim Casey held the upper hand by half a boat length from Tom with Steve narrowly trailing in third. Jim had been clocked through the line at six minutes 35 seconds, smashing the course record by 22 seconds, a record that had stood for 38 years. The men on the riverbank – several state champions among them – rechecked their stopwatches and looked at each other in astonishment.

To put Jim Casey's time into context, consider that when the Belgian Tim Maeyens set an Olympic single sculls' record at the 2012 Olympics, his time was 6:42.52. And that the 2,000m world record, set by Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand four years ago, stands at 6:33.35, less than two seconds quicker than Casey. Leave aside the uncompetitive nature of the event and whatever conditions prevailed and Casey's performance can only be called remarkable.

We know too that it was no freak occurrence. Four years earlier, Steve and Tom had been part of a quad that had won the All-England Championship and qualified for the Berlin Olympics. Two more brothers, Mick and Paddy, made up the four-man crew. Jim hadn't yet left the family home near Sneem where he remained in training with two more brothers, Dan and Jack. The audacious plan was to leave Berlin cradling a hatful of gold medals.

That their ambitious plan was thwarted left behind one of the great what-ifs of Irish sporting history. Unaware of the strict Olympic eligibility rules, both Steve and Paddy had competed in professional wrestling contests while Tom had fought among the paid boxing ranks. Effectively, the brothers' Olympic aspirations were undone not merely by an unfortunate broken rule, but by the gloriously rich tapestry of their own sporting lives.

That tapestry is neatly woven in Jim Hudson's book with Jim Casey, The Legendary Casey Brothers, first written in 1991 after they had become friendly in Casey's adopted home of Galveston, Texas, and now published in Ireland for the first time due to the diligence of Weeshie Fogarty of Radio Kerry and Christy Riordan, both of whom have shared an obsession with the Caseys' story since their early childhood days.

As one of his county's keenest sporting folklorists, Fogarty was never in much doubt that their story wasn't merely one of the most extraordinary to hail from Kerry, but could be measured favourably against anything ever witnessed in Ireland and, maybe too, the world. "They earned undying fame," he writes in the foreword, "and it can be said, without fear of contradiction, that this family of seven boys was the greatest of all."

Strangely, though, the most famous of the brothers might not even have been the most gifted. The Caseys did not often compete against one another, but there were theories. Jim held that Dan was the most accomplished oarsman. Steve felt that accolade belonged to Tom while deeming Paddy the best wrestler. "But the only man he ever feared, on the water, or in the ring," claimed an acquaintance of Steve's, "was his younger brother Jim."

It was Steve who carved out the biggest reputation, though. He'd left Kerry for London in 1934, aged 26, in search of work and new sporting territory to explore. Steve had first come to prominence rowing with his father's senior crew when he was still 15 and as part of a junior crew with his brothers that never lost. It's all but established that the brothers, whether they rowed as a pair, a quad or an eight, were never beaten in a competitive event in Ireland.

Steve brought the same unquenchable spirit to the wrestling ring. Four years after taking up the sport, he beat the reigning world champion, Lou Thesz, in Boston, a contest refereed by the legendary slugger Babe Ruth, and began a decade of huge success in the ring. At the height of his fame, Steve would throw down a $50,000 challenge to Joe Louis to fight for his heavyweight crown. For whatever reason, Louis refused to accept the challenge.

Given their strength and versatility, nothing seems far-fetched about the story. Encouraged to take up boxing shortly after reaching London, Tom became British amateur heavyweight champion nine days later. Two weeks after first entering a wrestling ring, Jim sparred a Finnish champion and beat him comprehensively. The story goes that, due to face Ralph "Ruffy" Silverstein, a former world champion, in Massachusetts, the American refused to leave his dressing room.

And the suspicion is that Steve was right to be wary of his younger brother. In 1940, Jim showed his class when easily disposing of George "KO" Koverley, the tough American, who was said to have ended the brief wrestling career of one of Ireland's greatest ever Olympians, Dr Pat O'Callaghan.

Even more notably, that same year Jim had beaten another great wrestler, Danno O'Mahoney from Co Cork, with considerable ease. Two years previously, in a defence of his world title, Steve had drawn with O'Mahoney in Dublin before narrowly winning the rematch in Mallow. Logically, Jim should have been the rightful challenger to Steve's crown but, having grown up as team-mates and friends, it wasn't a contest either of them was mindful to seek.

Jim ended his days in Texas where he kept kennels and trained a champion NASA tug-of-war team and where he is survived by his 92-year-old widow, Myrtle. It was in Galveston that Jim came to know Hudson, also since passed on, and through their friendship came the only written account of the feats of the legendary brothers from Ballaugh. For that we give thanks.

The Legendary Casey Brothers
by Jim Hudson with Jim Casey
Published by The Collins Press



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