P. J. Duke (gaelic footballer)

As a footballer, Duke could play as a half-back, midfielder or as a forward. Cavan's historic win over Kerry in the 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final played at the Polo Grounds in New York was arguably P.J. Duke's greatest ever hour.^{[original research?]} Cavan found themselves eight points down against Kerry. Team-manager Hughie O'Reilly switched Duke from midfield to right half-back to mark Batt Garvey who had threatened to win the game on his own.^{[citation needed]} The switch saw an immediate tightening up of the Cavan defence and this changed the pattern of the game with Duke making several runs out of defence, and the inter-passing speed and skills of Mick Higgins and Tony Tighe.^[1] He again formed a half-back partnership with Simon Deignan and J. J. O'Reilly to reclaim the title in 1948. He won a National Football League medal in 1949 and he collected a Railway Cup medal with Ulster in 1950. He won three Sigerson Cup medals with University College Dublin.^[2][3]

Duke died, while still a young man, on 1 May 1950 after a short illness at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin. He was just 25 years old.^[4]

• Number 124 in the "125 greatest stars of the GAA"^{[citation needed]}
• Selected at right half back in Cavan's "Team of the Millennium" in December 2000
• Picked for the Combined Universities team against Rest of Ireland selections in 1949^{[citation needed]}