Kevin Mussen
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Right half-back | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kevin Mussen (born 8 October 1933 in Hilltown, County Down) is an Irish retired Gaelic footballer. He played for his local club Clonduff and was a member of the Down senior intercounty team from 1951 until 1962. Mussen played at half-back and captained Down to their first All-Ireland title in 1960, the first time that the Sam Maguire Cup had crossed the border to the North.[1] He was a substitute when Down retained the title in 1961.
Mussen has three Ulster Championship medals. He is twice a winner of: the All-Ireland, National League, the Railway Cup, inter-provincial colleges, the MacRory Cup, the Down Senior Football Championship and Down Senior League.[2] Mussen also won an Antrim Senior Football Championship medal for Rossa while teacher-training in Belfast.[1]
As of June 2025, Mussen confirmed that only five of the Down team that started the 1960 final against Kerry were still alive; even at the age of 92 he was able to name the fifteen players.[3] Mussen recalled that when the Sam Maguire Cup was being carried across the border,[4] after being temporarily brought off the team bus, a Northern Ireland customs officer "messed us around for a little while" before weight of numbers prevailed.[3]
Mussen stated that he had never played against anyone better than Jim McKeever of Derry, whom he knew from St Mary's Training College (the Ranch), and Mick O'Connell of Kerry.[3]
He was married in August 1960, lived in Newcastle where his wife Josie was from and was a teacher in his native Hilltown. His wife died in 2004. They had five children, Grainne, Marcella, Fionnuala, Damien and Adrian.[1]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "Profile of Kevin Mussen". www.hoganstand.com. 24 October 1993. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- ↑ Micheal McGeary, 'Then and now: At the double'. Belfast Telegraph, 31 March 2002. Retrieved 21 June 2025
- 1 2 3 'Kevin Mussen. The first man to bring Sam across the border'. BBC Sport, 17 June 2025. Retrieved 20 June 2025
- ↑ Peter Makem, 'When Down's 1960 All-Ireland victory brought down barriers'. The Irish Times, 30 September 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2025
 | This Down Gaelic football biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |