A neighbor boy, Larry Schwilk, age 8, and I, age 11, both of us living in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, arrived on Aug. 15, 1955, at Camp Miller, a Lutheran boys camp at Shawnee on the Delaware River, for two weeks of camping.
Larryâs brother Sandy, age 16, had already been there as a camp counselor for the summer.
It started raining all day Aug. 17, and when we woke on Aug. 18, the Delaware River had risen 20 feet, to the top of the banks it banks. Our cabin was no more than 100 feet away.
By the time we finished breakfast, the river overflowed its banks and reached our cabin. The counselors decided to evacuate the camp, and by the time we started to leave, we had to walk across a farmerâs cornfield 100 yards wide, in chest-high water, holding hands in a human chain.
Winning is not everything - not for anything would I part from my Leitrim team mates” - Packie McGarty
The late great Galway defender Jack Mahon penned this tribute to his former opponent Packie McGarty in 1993, describing him as “irrepressible, a born footballer”
Reporter:
14 Apr 2021
A picture of Leitrim s Columba Cryan, Packie McGarty & Cathal Flynn on the Connacht Railway Cup winning team of 1958 );
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It s a dangerous game naming anyone as the greatest ever. A writer can only cover what he saw himself, his own lifetime.
Leitrim won the county s only Connacht Senior Football Championship title in 1927 and that was five years before I was born.
The greatest Leitrim footballer of them all - Legendary Packy McGarty passes away
April 06, 2021
Leitrim legend Packy McGarty (RIP).
Packy McGarty was hailed as one of the greatest footballers of all time as the passing of the legendary Leitrim footballer drew widespread sadness across the GAA community.
The proud Mohill clubman, who died this morning at the age of 87, is widely regarded as the best player ever to wear the Leitrim jersey.
Making his Leitrim senior debut at the tender age of 16, Packy went on to win Railway Cup medals on two different occasions and played in six Connacht SFC finals, including four-in-a-row against Galway, during an inter-county career which spanned from 1949 to 1971.