Sad passing of Francie Niblock
January 20, 2011Francie was a member of the Derry side which broke new ground in 1947 when it brought the National Football League title to the county for the first time.
The O'Donovan Rossa, Magherafelt clubman wore the No 11 jersey in that final, scoring a goal and a point in a 2-9 to 2-5 win over Clare at Croke Park.
Indeed, he played a central role in that victory, with his run and shot, which was saved by the Clare goalkeeper, setting up Derry's opening goal for John Eddie Mullan before he added the second after the interval after another trademark drive through the centre of defence.
Many years later, his teammate Roddy Gribben would reflect on the physical nature of that encounter, with Niblock in particularly feeling the brunt of it, losing a couple of teeth in one collision with an opponent.
In all, Francie wore the Derry jersey for 11 years in the 1940s and '50s and was a key member of one of the greatest Derry sides in history, helping the county to Dr Lagan Cup wins in 1945, '47, '50 and '53 and Dr McKenna Cups in '47 and '54.
Apart from the All-Ireland senior title triumph of 1993, the year 1947 could well go down as the best ever in the history of Derry GAA, with the county winning a treble of McKenna Cup, Lagan Cup and National Football League.
Neither did Francie's exceptional year stop at the county boundaries - he was also the only Derry representative on the victorious Ulster side in that year's Railway Cup, during an era when the provincial competition held great prestige.
Eight years later, he was part of only the second ever Derry team to reach an Ulster senior football final, and the first in more than 30 years, when they went down by three points to Cavan.
Derry eventually made the Ulster breakthrough three years later in 1958, but unfortunately by that stage Francie Niblock's time in inter-county football had come to an end.
He later served as Chairman of the O'Donovan Rossa club, with which he had won two Derry senior football championship medals in the 1940s.
The Niblock clan has also been synonymous with the GAA in the intervening decades, with Francie's nephew Mickey Niblock a great player with Derry in the '60s and '70s and three members of the next generation of the family playing for different counties - Jonathan in Derry, Mickey's son David in Cork and Kevin in Antrim.
Francie Niblock RIP - ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dilis. Tweet
