[2][3] He first discovered association football in the village hall in Gortahork, where he was a spectator at parish league games, and began playing the sport when he was around 11 years of age.
[1] McGeever also received another offer after his encounter with McGowan in the bog: "Busty [Blake] spoke to me after that about going to [Finn] Harps, but I had already the form signed with Sligo.
[1][4] The same year he captained Donegal in midfield (alongside Denis Bonner, twin of Packie) against Monaghan in the final of the Ulster Under-21 Senior Football Championship, but his team were defeated by two points.
[1] McGeever's career progressed to the extent that the English professional club Tottenham Hotspur invited him to train with their team in the summer of 1982 shortly after their FA Cup win.
However, after only two weeks in London (where he trained under manager Keith Burkinshaw with 1978 FIFA World Cup winners Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, as well as Glenn Hoddle, all three of whom were late back to their club as they had been playing in that summer's World Cup),[3][5] McGeever returned to Ireland and injured one of his cruciate ligaments in a Gaelic football match in which he was not supposed to be playing.
[3][5] He had only returned from London for two nights when he heard that Seosamh Kelly was organising a Cloich Cheann Fhaola team to play a match against St Michael's at the Burn Road in Termon, and — ignoring his mother's advice to rest — off he went.
[1] McGeever then made matters worse by carrying on and, while contesting a header in the opening minutes of that season's first league game against Bohemians, "came down and the knee buckled under me" as he put it in a 2012 interview with the Sunday Independent.
[1] He then signed for Finn Harps (managed at the time by Bobby Toland after Patsy McGowan was sacked), scoring a goal on his debut against Drogheda United.
[3] Donegal manager Brian McEniff had invited him to train with the county team in 1990 on the back of McGeever's performances alongside Con McLaughlin in the Cloich Cheann Fhaola full-forward line.
[1] McGeever restarted his playing career at Fanad United, with whom he won the 1987–88 FAI Intermediate Cup by defeating Tramore Athletic 1–0 in the final at Dalymount Park.
[1][4] When Harps sacked McGowan for the fifth and final time in December 1995, McGeever again took over as caretaker manager for a three-month spell until Dermot Keely arrived in late February 1996.
[1] His wife suggested they move to Clonmel, the town in County Tipperary from which she came, and which is located in Munster, the southernmost province on the island.
[3][4][5] After a brief lull,[3] McGeever adapted to the move from the north-west by taking on the role of managing the local association football club Clonmel Town.
[1][8] Tipperary qualified for, and then won, the 2020 Munster Senior Football Championship Final, defeating Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
One son played on the Clonmel Commercials minor football team, while the other is a golfer and the daughter is a camogie player at county level.