Eddie Keher

Edward Peter Keher (born 11 November 1941 in Inistioge, County Kilkenny), better known as Eddie Keher, is a former Irish hurling manager and former player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

Keher began playing under-age hurling with the Rower-Inistioge club as a young boy. His performances with the club and St. Kieran's College brought him to the attention of the Kilkenny minor selectors and he quickly joined the team in 1956 as a fourteen-year-old. A four-year tenure as a minor saw Keher fail to land an All-Ireland, however, he quickly progressed onto the Kilkenny senior team in 1959. That year he had played in the minor final and was drafted on to the Senior panel for the replay of the drawn Senior final. Over the next eighteen years Keher played in 50 championship games and established himself as the most prolific scorer the game had ever seen. He won six All-Ireland titles, ten Leinster titles and three National Hurling League titles before his retirement from inter-county duty in 1977. Keher also enjoyed an successful stint as joint coach (with Pat Henderson) of the Kilkenny All Ireland winning senior team in 1979.

Selected as the Texaco Hurler of the Year in 1972, Keher subsequently succeeded Christy Ring as the all-time top championship scorer. His tally of 36 goals and 307 points was a record which stood for over thirty years until it was surpassed by his fellow county man Henry Shefflin. His tally of 2 goals and 11 points in the All-Ireland final of 1972 was a record score for a final which stood until Nicky English surpassed it by a single point in 1989.

A winner of five consecutive All-Star awards between 1971 and 1975, Keher's reputation as one of the all-time greats of hurling was cemented in 1984 when he was named, by popular opinion, in the left corner-forward position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century. He swapped positions to right corner-forward when he was also included on the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium in 1999.