Scruffy City Invitational - 2021 Hurling - Knoxville Gaelic Athletic Club

Knoxville hosted the Scruffy City Invitational hurling tournament on October 2, 2021, hosting teams from Nashville, Charleston, Naperville, Raleigh, Greenville, and Memphis. Charlotte was slated to attend but was unable to ultimately; we missed having their fierce competition in the mix. Several teams had smaller numbers and combined to play together. Knoxville has experienced a lot of growth in the last couple of years and was able to field a second team to round out the bracket given Charlotte’s absence.

We had a number of fine sponsors for the event, including Dayton’s Pest Control, Fisher Tire, Trotta Montgomery Real Estate, and Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House.

Pre-game

We kicked off the event with some brief remarks from KGAC board heads Ben Conaway and Adam Ingle, followed by the American and Irish National anthems. Knoxville had a table with tournament shirts and KGAC caps for sale, and a Knoxville team member’s kids were selling homemade screen printed posters commemorating the tournament (proceeds to benefit a cause). We also had a music canopy under which people could stop by to pick up an instrument or listen. This added some nice ambiance to the day. Click through the images below to see full, uncropped photos.

Hurling Matches

We held the tournament on the two soccer fields at Holston River park. It was a beautiful day for southeastern hurling — a scorcher perhaps for those used to playing in Ireland but a clear and mild day for those accustomed to early Autumn southern heat and sun. It was a fun day of hurling for all (we hope), and as a bonus for the KGAC, the stronger of the two Knoxville teams won the day.

The Knoxville B team was slated to play Greenville a second time, but a short-handed Greenville team suffered an injury that led them to withdraw (understandably) from that consolation match (listed in the results below with a 0-0 score).

Below are just a few of the many photos taken by Knoxville team member Meritt Rollins Brown and KGAC friend Ben McGue.