Timothy J. Crowley (24 April 1921 – 3 December 1963), also known as Tadhgo Crowley, was an Irish Gaelic football player and referee. Throughout his 18-year club career, he played for his hometown club Clonakilty, winning seven County Championship titles during a golden age for the club; he also played hurling for 'Clon', and had much success in the West Cork Championship. At inter-county level, he captained the Cork county team to the 1945 All-Ireland Championship title; he had earlier won an All-Ireland title as a member of the Cork minor hurling team in 1939. As well as being a successful captain for club and county, Crowley led Munster to win two Railway Cups: in 1946 as captain, and in 1948. Towards the end of his career, he served as a referee at club and inter-county levels. Crowley is widely considered one of the best players of his generation, and among the greatest of all time, as well as being regarded by many in the sport as Cork's greatest ever centre-back. A Cork Examiner obituary stated that his "high fetching, fearlessness, long kicking and clever anticipation put him in a class apart." Crowley remains the youngest of Cork's seven All-Ireland-winning captain and was the first of those to accept the Sam Maguire Cup. He was posthumously named in the centre-back position on the Cork Team of the Century in 1984 and the Cork Team of the Millennium in 2000. Playing career Clonakilty Crowley joined the Clonakilty club at a young age and was just out of the minor grade when he was added to the club's senior team. His debut championship season culminated with him lining out as midfield partner to Mick Finn in the 1939 county final. Crowley was described in newspaper reports as being on the more "prominent" Clonakilty players, and he ended the game with his first winners' medal after a 0-07 to 0-05 win over Beara. Crowley had just turned 21-years-old when he was appointed club captain and it was in that role that he guided Clonakilty to the 1942 county final against arch rivals of the time Fermoy. The 1-08 to 1-05 victory gave him a second county championship medal. It was the first of three successive defeats of Fermoy in finals, with Crowley acting as captain on each occasion. Crowley handed the team captaincy to Dessie Cullinane for the 1945 championship, however, four-in-a-row proved