City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations and Theses City College of New York 2014 A Brief History of the Irish-American Athletic Club: The "Winged Fists" of Celtic Park Ian McGowan CUNY City College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/265 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] A Brief History of the Irish-American Athletic Club: The “Winged Fists” of Celtic Park Ian McGowan February, 2012 City College, City University of New York, Department of History Thesis Advisory Professor Gerardo Renique Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of History at the City College of New York 1 Preface The research for this thesis began quite unintentionally as an exercise in intellectual curiosity in 2004, when I moved into an apartment complex called Celtic Park, in Sunnyside/Woodside, Queens. I was curious as to where the complex got its name, and when I scratched the surface, I soon discovered that Celtic Park had an incredibly rich and almost completely forgotten history, and that it was once the home of a world-renown group of athletes called the Irish-American Athletic Club, also known as the Winged Fists of Celtic Park. As a result of my research, I have since become the founder and executive director of a non-profit historical society called the Winged Fist Organization, which is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Irish-American Athletic Club.