Alan Nicholl won’t forget the day his friend Tony McCourt passed away.
It was Wednesday, July 25, 2012. McCourt, 37 years old and born in County Derry, Northern Ireland, had been dealing with a liver disease for about a decade. He had been admitted into Abington Memorial Hospital to have fluid drained from his lungs.
Nicholl and McCourt were close friends, in part because they were both from Ireland—Nicholl was born in County Monaghan, and grew up in Dublin. But they forged their closest ties through soccer. Both played for the Phoenix Sport Club in Feasterville, which boasts one of the hottest soccer programs in the country.
Theirs weren’t the only Irish accents out on the field, Nicholl recalls, but in part because of their similar backgrounds they quickly became the closest of friends. When Tony married his sweetheart Liz, friend Alan was his best man. The reception was at the Phoenix Club.
Because of his disease, McCourt had experienced “some close calls,” Nicholl says, but still he wasn’t overly concerned. “We didn’t think it was life-threatening.”
Nicholl’s wife was eight months pregnant with twins, and they had scheduled a doctor visit at Abington for the morning of July 25. “After that, we thought we’d just slide over and visit Tony.”
That visit never happened. At about 7 o’clock on the morning of the 25th, Nicholls’ phone rang. It was Liz calling. Tony McCourt was gone.
“It was the worst phone call I had ever received,” Nicholls says. “It was my worst day. I got off the phone with Liz and I called my parents. They were like Tony’s parents here in the States. I could barely get the words out. It was unbelievable.”
It was all the more unbelievable because, to everyone who knew Tony McCourt, no one on this earth was more full of life.
Teammate Brian McKinney remembers when he first met McCourt. “I had just come out of college when I started playing at the Phoenix Club. Tony was like the mayor of the place. Everybody knew Tony as a friendly guy with a great laugh.”
McCourt’s fondest dream had been to play professionally, McKinney remembers. McCourt’s cousin Paddy played for Celtic Football Club, one of the most storied clubs in the British Isles, with a history dating back to 1887. Tony McCourt was a good player, but not good enough to play on the pro level.
All the same, what McCourt lacked in talent, he more than made up for with the enthusiasm—and the unstoppable force of his personality.
“He was never the most valuable player,” Nicholls concedes, “but he was the best teammate, that’s for sure. Socially, nobody came close to Tony. He was magnetic. Tony didn’t know how to be an acquaintance. He only knew how to be a friend.”
Word of McCourt’s death spread rapidly throughout the soccer community, and the news left his friends reeling. “It was shattering to some people,” Nicholls says.
For many of Tony McCourt’s friends, the pain of his parting was eased, somewhat ironically, by his wake.
“My mom and his wife were instrumental in having his body brought back to the house, and not the funeral home,” Nicholls says. “We stayed up with him all night. He was laid out in the house like he would have been back home. That was definitely up Tony’s avenue. We sang a few songs, we had a few laughs, we had a few cries. It was quite beautiful, actually.”
Nicholls’ twin boys were born two weeks after the funeral.
“My one son,” he says, “is named after Tony.”
Tony McCourt’s friends will continue to honor his memory on June 22 with “Tony’s Tourney,” a day of soccer matches, live music—and lots of other fun—at the Phoenix Sport Club. It’s a benefit to help fund a college scholarship for a worthy player on the Council Rock High School South soccer team, which Nicholls coaches. And “worthy,” in this case, does not carry the usual definition.
“It’s going to be awarded in a way that would be consistent with Tony,” says Nicholls with a smile in his voice. “It won’t go to the best player, but to the best teammate.”
The event runs from 12 noon to 6 p.m. The entrance fee is $20 for adults, and $10 for kids. The Phoenix Sport Club is at 301 West Bristol Road in Feasterville, Bucks County.
