GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 38 – November 16, 2015 | Page 8

to give it a try and got hooked,”
she explained.
“I started playing hurling a
year after I moved to St. Louis.
An acquaintance of mine commented that I looked Irish and
invited me to check it out. I had
the opportunity to captain one of
the city league teams.
“One of our top picks was a
rookie called Johnny “Sticks”
Watson. Little did I know that
not only would he prove to be a
major asset to our team which
won the city league but that I
would fall in love with him.”

The first practice. Photo courtesy of Nashville GAC.

Not only did Anji find romance through the sport but
made many friends in St. Louis and also got to travel to
tournaments and was invited to play Camogie with the St.
Mary’s team there where they would go on to win three
National Championships.
It was hurling that brought the husband and wife team
together in the first place but with no club yet in Nashville,
and only one other college club in Tennessee, they paid
homage to the sport that had stolen their hearts by starting
a club of their own.
Said husband club co-founder John, “we knew that if we
wanted to keep playing, we would have to start a club on
our own. There was a collegiate presence at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), about an hour south of
Nashville, where Ryan Buckley and Jamie Norris had recently started a club.
“Initially, I was making the drive down there to coach and
play with the college students, but it seemed like the oppor-

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tunity to introduce hurling to Nashville was one we should
not pass up.”
THE START
Things got going in late 2012 and by March of the following year Nashville Gaelic Athletic Club, started promoting themselves with a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and by hanging up flyers around the city.
They received a good start to their fledgling setup
when a couple of the MTSU hurlers, including founder,
Ryan Buckley had graduated from university and were
now living in Nashville.
On April 20, 2013, Anji, Ryan, his girlfriend at the time
and now wife, Molly Webb Buckley, David Smith, and
John Watson gathered at Centennial Park in Nashville
for their first practice and introduction to hurling and
the ancient sports had its first ever showing in Music
City.