Why is Colm Cooper called The Gooch?
It's one of the biggest mysteries in the GAA, but just how did Colm Cooper get the name Gooch? It's undoubtedly one of the strangest nicknames out there, and one of the best too.
A one-word name for a player who's the best of his generation seems somewhat apt. Would his career have seemed to amazing if he was merely "Colm Cooper"?
S0 Why is Colm Cooper Called The Gooch?
It's fair to say there are plenty of theories out there as to how the name came about, but the one that's generally accepted now is "the one about the doll", as Tomás O'Sé described it on RTE's Morning Ireland this morning.
The name was bestowed on him, at least in legend, by former Kerry goalkeeper Peter O'Brien. He told the Irish Independent in 2012:
There was a doll out in the '80s called the Goochie doll. The doll had pink hair and one day it struck me that it looked like Colm so I said it to him and then everyone started calling him Gooch. I had no idea that it would catch on like it did.
All seems straight forward... except for the fact that we can't find anything about "Goochie Dolls" online.
A google search for them turns this up -
... which seems fair enough.
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Except when you look at it, it actually appears to be a "Gucci Doll" and is far from the only one around the place. We somehow doubt too many "Gucci Dolls" were knocking around Kerry in the 1980s.
More likely, O'Brien was just thinking of a "Rag Doll" and somehow thought it was called "Goochy". Or maybe his daughter called it that. Or else, the internet has somehow not recorded a huge Irish toy from the 1980s.
Another possibility is he was talking about a "Coochie Coo Doll" which would have been popular around the time (early nineties).
Anyway, wherever it came from, it provided us with one of the great Irish nicknames, and a name that will always been associated with one of the greatest to ever play the game of Gaelic football.
Read Copper's book to learn more about his nickname, playing days and life inside and outside of football here.
How many All-Ireland medals does Colm Cooper have?
Colm Cooper has five All-Ireland medals, four national league title with Kerry and has one All-Ireland club championship medal, seven Kerry senior football championships with Dr Crokes.
How many All Stars does Colm Cooper have?
On an individual level he has won eight All-Star awards.
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