In the process of providing Off The Ball with the four sportspeople who shall forever more adorn Wexford's 'Mt Rushmore', Liam Griffin shared his memories of the one undisputed selection, Nicky Rackard. 

There was only a hint of bitterness about Liam Griffin as he revisited once more the GAA's decision to omit Nicky Rackhard from their Team of the Millennium.

Sixteen-years before a committee of former GAA presidents and journalists selected their millennial XV, Rackard, alongside his brother Bobby and former teammate Nick O'Donnell, had been selected at full-forward by a panel of Sunday Independent readers, former players and GAA aficionados in the Team of the Century.

So, what happened?

"He should be one of the people on hurling's Mt Rushmore," remarked the former All-Ireland winning manager of Rackard. "That they dropped Nicky off the Team of the Century [for the Team of the Millennium] was a disgrace.

"It was a crazy thing to happen but we took the insult and the family did as well and that's it, but he was the main man."

While Tipperary's Jimmy Doyle and Kilkenny's Eddie Keher retained their places in the full-forward line, it was Cork's Ray Cummins who replaced Nicky Rackard second time around.

"It was a GAA three-card-trick," he reasoned of Rackard's exclusion. "They took two people of this Team of the Century (Tipperary's Jimmy Finn) that never played a game, but can you imagine what an insult that was?

"You can say what you want about Christy Ring and he was an absolutely magnificent hurler, and I don't want to take from him or any of the Kilkenny or Tipperary greats, but where Nicky Rackard had come from, it was absolutely an aberration that he could be taken off it and I remember being incensed when I saw it.

"That's the way it works and we move on. We know what we did and we know where he came from and that's all that matters to me and the people of Wexford."

In the process of selecting him as one of Wexford's outstanding sportspeople, Liam Griffin, who managed to witness Rackard first-hand in his later years with the county, explored what it was that continues to set him apart.

"I saw him playing a game against Kilkenny," he recalled of a fixture that took place in Enniscorthy, " and Wexford were losing by about five or six points and he scored three goals in the last few minutes.

"I just remember him going out to the middle of the field, grabbing the ball and coming down the middle of the field with everyone hopping off him.

"He was a giant of a man, Cúchulainn's son."

1 September 1996; Wexford manager Liam Griffin, left, celebrates with selector Rory Kinsella following the All-Ireland Hurling Final match between Wexford and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by; David Maher/SPORTSFILE

In later years, Liam Griffin would encounter Nicky Rackard in an alternative role.

"I was lucky enough to be on a Wexford team that he was involved with," recalled Griffin. "He put his hand on my shoulder and that was like the hand of God touching you.

"He was a fantastic man and his presence was just unbelievable. To see him standing there in a dressing-room, you wouldn't be worried about going out on the pitch, you'd just be looking at him."

Despite his many years of service to Wexford GAA, Nicky Rackard's life was cut tragically short and at only the age of 53, the legendary hurler passed on after a battle with cancer. As Liam Griffin recalled on OTB AM, Rackard had also had his struggles with alcohol.

"He was a gentleman as well, but look, he had his problems when he wasn't a gentleman as well when he had drink taken like most people," he explained. "But look, he was an inspiration too because he went on to do great work for alcoholics and so forth.

"But I'm just going to say this, and I'm not saying this to be smart but because I mean it sincerely. After the All-Ireland final when we won it we put the cup in the middle of the floor the next morning after the All-Ireland.

"In my view, he'd had such an influence on me and what we were that we stood around the cup and said a few prayers, and I'm not ashamed to say that I can tell you.

"I warned them, and I meant it because I had thought about it in the previous weeks and months before, about any of them becoming an alcoholic, like Nicky Rackard.

"He was one of the greatest but hero-worship is dangerous and when they walked out that door their lives would change forever. Nicky's life was spoiled by the worship he received and that's an unintended consequence, but it is the truth."

The prominent figure upon Wexford's Mt Rushmore in Liam Griffin's opinion, whatever of Nicky Rackard's troubles in life, Griffin believes his legacy as a hurler is unsurpassed.

"He led Wexford when we hadn't fields of barley let me tell you, we had pretty barren fields," he recalled. "Nicky Rackard carried on through a lot of thick and thin with Wexford, through a lot of heartache but he eventually put his flag on the top of the mountain.

"He's #1 in Wexford, that's for sure."

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