John Clifford (1934 – 19 October 2007) was an Irish hurler and hurling coach. After All-Ireland Championship victories as a player and manager during a five-decade association with the Cork senior hurling team, he is regarded as a "Cork legend." After beginning his career at club level with Glen Rovers, Clifford joined the Cork minor team as a 15-year-old in 1950, captaining the team to the All-Ireland Minor Championship in 1951. He was almost immediately promoted to the Cork senior team and won his first All-Ireland Championship as non-playing substitute in 1953 before claiming a second winners' medal on the field of the play in 1954 after scoring the winning goal in the final. A severe head injury ended Clifford's inter-county career in 1956, by which time he had also won two Munster Championship medals. His club career ended in 1960; however, in spite of being brief he claimed a full set of available county championship medals including minor, junior, intermediate and three senior triumphs. After his playing career, Clifford found success as both a club and inter-county coach and selector. His association as a mentor with the Glen Rovers senior team spanned three decades and culminated with the winning of All-Ireland Club Championship titles in 1973 and 1977. Clifford enjoyed three separate tenures as coach of the Cork senior team, while he also served as a selector in an association that lasted from the 1960s until the 1990s. During that time he was involved in two All-Ireland Championship-winning teams, while he also coached the Cork minor team to the All-Ireland Minor Championship in 1985. Playing career Glen Rovers Clifford began his hurling career in the locally-organised North Parish Leagues in the 1940s before later coming to prominence at colleges level with the North Monastery. Around the same time he joined the hugely successful Glen Rovers minor team that claimed three successive county championships between 1950 and 1952. Clifford had just turned 16 when he was also drafted onto the Glen Rovers junior hurling that claimed the county championship title after a 4-06 to 3-00 victory over Mallow in the 1950 final. Still in his second of three years with the minor team, Clifford was promoted to the Glen Rovers senior team in advance of the 1951 County Championship. He made his debut on 15 April 1951 when he scored five points in an 8-08 to 0-03 first round defeat