The Oughterard native held his head high. He had every reason to. The procession had lasted nearly an hour, but, now, standing before an 85,000 strong Wembley Stadium crowd, Cummin Clancy was proud to be one of the 4,104 competitors representing 59 nations at the 1948 Olympic Games. As Galway’s first ever Olympian, Clancy holds a special place in the county’s sporting and social history. Yet, little is known of him. Born on November 9, 1922, Clancy is a man of humble beginnings who went on to become a central figure in Irish athletics and later, indeed, in New York’s business community. Simply, if Clancy’s life was a novel, then Jeffrey Archer would have been its author.

Sitting in a house his late brother Patrick built in Glann, Oughterard – overlooking the picturesque Lough Corrib and the rolling hills of Connemara – Cummin Clancy has returned with his wife Maureen on what has become an annual pilgrimage to West Galway. For the former national discus champion and record holder, Oughterard is to him what pigment is to the blood and these are the moments the 86-year-old now cherishes. A chance to mix with the abundance of Clancy relatives in the area, some of whom call in on this Saturday afternoon to chat freely and recount old tales. His nephew Kevin leads the way, making the introductions. As one imagines he was in ‘48, Cummin Clancy is an imposing figure, with broad shoulders and height to match. He shakes the hand warmly and seems through those early days when he dreamed of glory and greatness. Yet, Clancy’s story begins with a tragic prologue. One of five children – two brothers and two sisters – his childhood years were tinged with sadness, as his father died when he was four years of age while his mother sadly passed away when he was 10. Relatives and the community rallied around the family, however, and Cummin does speak of happier days thereafter. Jumping on to his teenage years and one of the fundamental events of his life took place. Through one his brothers, a District Leader in the Local Defence Force (LDF), Clancy met Ned Tobin, a local based Garda from Tipperary who was the national champion at the discus. Clancy recalls: “So he used to come to Oughterard to see my brother. He was a big man, must have been around 6 ft. 6” and he used to practice in our field. He would take out and throw the discus and I would then throw it back to him. Eventually, I could throw it further than he could.”

Indeed, so impressed was Tobin with the 17-year-old, that he took him under his wing. In the ensuing years, the Munster mentor encouraged Clancy to take the Civil Service exam, which he did through Irish, and he later was one of 80 candidates selected to join An Garda Síochána. Now, in Dublin, Clancy teamed up with Tom Maguire, a coach at Trinity College, and Chapelizod athletic club Donore Harriers to perfect his game, while he also joined St. Mary’s RFC upon the encouragement of a young man named Ulick O’Connor, who would later become the great Irish writer. As Clancy was to find out, discus throwing and rugby proved to be two sports that were to complement one another.

“If a guy is a good athlete, he is highly adaptable to other sports,” says Clancy, who states there are two things, then, that you need to be successful. “Firstly, you must love what you are doing, and secondly, you must be disciplined. That goes for everything, be it Gaelic football or rugby or, indeed, life. Those are the two qualities you must have to secure any measure of success.”

A non-smoker all his life and a man who had not touched a drop of alcohol until he emigrated to America, Clancy had both the love and the discipline. Vitally, though, he also had the drive. “Ned Tobin had competed at the highest level in Ireland and I wanted to do the same,” continues the adopted New Yorker.

“So I worked hard and I eventually became Irish champion, breaking the Irish record. That throw, a new PB, was to stand for 19 years. Then, I took part in the British Championships (AAA) and I won that.” That event took place just two weeks before the 1948 Olympic Games and the victory was hugely important in cementing his place at the XIV Olympiad. Clancy’s star was rising.

“The Olympic Games was the biggest event in the world and it was also a great experience in my life to be in Wembley Stadium. A few of the family travelled over for it. I suppose, at that time, I was the best around the British Isles, winning contests in Ireland, England, Wales and the Highland Games in Scotland.” So there he was, this strapping 25-yearold Oughterard man, standing before 85,000 spectators in one of the world’s greatest stadiums at what was a hugely significant and historical event.

These, after all, were the first Olympic Games to be held in 12 years, since the 1936 Games in Berlin, after the 1940 and ‘44 Games were dropped due to World War II. London, though, had been campaigning hard through Lord Burghley (chairman of the British Olympic Council) for the honour of hosting the global event and in early March 1946, the British capital held off the bids of Baltimore, Lausanne, Los Angeles and Philadelphia to successfully claim the ultimate prize –becoming the third city to host the Olympics twice, following Athens and Paris.

So, when Big Ben, under glorious sunshine, struck 4p.m. on July 29, 1949 King George VI declared the Games open. Approximately 2,500 pigeons were set free, the Olympic flag was raised, the Royal Horse Artillery sounded a 21-gun salute and the last runner, John Mark, lit the famous flame.

For Clancy, the whole Olympic experience – particularly his own participation in the qualifying round – is difficult to put into words, but one thing he does remember is the performance of Dutch wonder woman, Fanny Blankers-Koen.

A housewife, Blankers-Koen became the first female athlete to win four gold medals in track and field in one Olympics. As an 18-year-old, she made her debut at the ‘36 Games, where Jesse Owens claimed his four gold medals, and she would surely have secured her first Olympic accolade if the Games had gone ahead in 1940 or ‘44. As it was, the mother of two – who, as a housewife, came under severe criticism for taking part in the event – was the oldest woman to compete in the ‘48 Olympics at the age of 30. Yet it did not deter Blankers- Coen.

“She was the outstanding competitor of that Olympics,” says Clancy. “She won four gold medals, competing in the 100 metres, the 80-metre hurdles, the 200- metres and the 4 x 100 metre relay.” For his part, Clancy could only watch on as Italian Adolfe Consoli took gold in the discus, with another Italian Guiseppi Tosi and American Fortune Gordien claiming silver and bronze respectively. Still, the Galway man had made an impact. “I made Jumbo Elliott (an American athletics coach, often considered to be one of the greatest of all time. His achievements included producing five Olympic gold medal winners between 1956 and 1968) at the London Olympics and he invited me over to America to Villanova University.”

Clancy seized the opportunity, making the six and a half day trip by boat – “steerage” he chuckles – to the United Stated. It did mean, however, that he would have to leave another of his great passions behind. That passion was rugby.

“I played all my rugby in Dublin, lining out for St. Mary’s College. Ulick O’Connor asked me to join the club, so I did, and I played at No. 8. I loved the rugby and, probably, would have played for Ireland if I Connacht, though, for three seasons. “In those days – and that was 60 years ago – it was highly usual to have a Connemara man joining that elite club of Connacht rugby. I was from the boglands and rocks! The rest of the guys were university men, so it was unusual to see a Connemara man up there, getting and keeping the honour of third row forward,” he laughs.

Indeed, in that Olympic year of ‘48, Clancy lined out for the province in the interprovincial series and registered Connacht’s only try of the season in their defeat to Munster at the Mardyke. “Well, I was big and I was strong and I was fast,” chuckles the sporting legend.

In any event, Villanova University was calling both him and Jim Reardon, the latter of whom at the distinction of being the fastest 400m European runner at the Games, although he just missed out on a place in the final. Clancy and Reardon, though, were to become the first of a long line of Irish athletes who were to travel to the States on sports scholarships.

Indeed, 1956 Olympic 1,500m gold medallist, Ron Delaney once said: “I am indebted to Cummin Clancy, as are so many other great Irish athletes – the Ronny Delaneys, the Noel Carrolls, the Eamon Coughlans, the Sonia O’Sullivans, and the Marcus O’Sullivans. I could go on. In the late ‘40s, he was a pioneer. He was the trail blazer. He enrolled in Villanova and led the way for us like a true Irish chieftain.” No wonder, then, Clancy and Delaney were subsequently to become good friends.

While Clancy represented the University with distinction, he now began to look to the future. In the Fall of 1950, he met New York girl Maureen O’Grady and in June 1954 they married. In the interim, Clancy had graduated from his alma mater with a Bachelor of Science and Economics degree in 1953, before going on to work in the insurance division of General Motors immediately after college. However, in 1956, he set out to open his very own insurance brokerage firm with his wife and, today, that seed has grown to become multi-million brokerage firm, Clancy & Clancy, in Garden City, New York.

Over the years, he has received due recognition by both Villanova University and the Society of the Sons of St. Patrick in America for his contribution to sport and business, for which his three sons – Sean and twins Brian and Brendan – and two daughters – Maura and Sheila – have shown varying degrees of application. Indeed, interestingly, his eldest son Sean once played American football with the Miami Dolphins. One of his grandsons, James Clancy Waugh, then, is a 14- year-old 6 ft 2” scratch golfer, while another grandchild, Duncan Clancy, is on a Lacrosse scholarship at Rutgers University. In many respects, Cummin Clancy is a true American now, yet, while he is the only surviving member of his immediate family, he still has not forgotten his Oughterard roots.

“In life, there were three people who were responsible for giving me guidance and direction. One was Peadar Duignan, who was the head teacher in the technical school in Oughterard. Another was Canon O’Dea, who was the parish priest in Oughterard. And the other was Ned Tobin.” That is not to forget the Clancy clan in the area, and the fondness both sides of the family have for each other is plain to see throughout the afternoon. For Cummin – a granduncle of Galway footballer Mattie Clancy – they are still very much part of the fabric of his life, just as playing for Connacht, winning national titles or representing Ireland in the Olympics was back in that glory year of 1948.

A true sporting legend.