His 1978–79 Northern Premier League success at the club won him a move to Everton in 1979, before he was sold on to Wigan Athletic in 1982, who were on the verge of promotion into the Third Division.
[8] This won him a chance in the Football League, and he turned down Crystal Palace to instead sign with Third Division club Plymouth Argyle in February 1974.
[9] He was told by manager Tony Waiters that he would never be anything more than a fringe player in the professional game, who then allowed him to leave Home Park on a free transfer.
[11] In November 1975 he flew out to Saudi Arabia for a trial at top-flight Al-Hilal, as manager George Smith, the man who had signed him at Stalybridge, offered him the chance to earn a tax-free contract in the oil-rich nation.
[14] Club president Prince Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz Al Saud bought O'Keefe a Pontiac Ventura,[15] before taking the young player on a luxurious tour of Europe, visiting five star hotels in London, Paris, Cannes, and Rome, before returning to Riyadh for the start of the new Saudi season of football.
[16] As Prince Abdullah was such as a wealthy and powerful man in Saudi Arabia (a member of the House of Saud), O'Keefe fled the country, fearing for his safety.
[17] As he needed Prince Abdullah's permission to leave the country, O'Keefe had to convince him that he was only going to stay in England for one week so as to visit his ill father (who was in fact in good health).
[18] As the Saudi affair was being resolved, Mossley manager Bob Murphy offered O'Keefe a contract at the Northern Premier League club.
[25] He played in the derby again on 24 January 1981, in an FA Cup Third Round clash, and unwittingly set up Imre Varadi for the "Toffees" second goal of a 2–1 win.
[36] During the following season, he played less regularly but carried two children to safety when a perimeter fence collapsed during an FA Cup 2–1 win at Macclesfield Town on 17 November 1984.
[38] He made his debut for the "Seasiders" two days later, in a 4–2 victory over Peterborough United at Bloomfield Road, scoring Blackpool's fourth goal.
[40] The following season, 1985–86, O'Keefe scored seventeen goals in nineteen league starts (including a hat-trick in a 4–0 home win over Doncaster Rovers on 1 October 1985).
[41] Upon the recommendation of Harry McNally, O'Keefe was appointed as manager of Cork City, a club in the League of Ireland Premier Division.
[45] O'Keefe also doubled up as the club's commercial manager, and he arranged four Sportsman's Dinner events, with special guests as Jack Charlton, Sir Alex Ferguson, Tommy Docherty, and Emlyn Hughes.
[49] He was also appointed as the club's commercial manager, and attempted to form a football pool for the entire Football League, in conjunction with the FA and the Daily Mirror; however, he could not break the Littlewoods monopoly due to a law that specifically banned newspapers from becoming involved in a pools game – O'Keefe believed that this arrangement "reeked of corruption".
Although he appeared in every game until the end of the season and became the club's penalty taker, O'Keefe only featured in three more matches in 1989–90 and drifted out of professional football circles, signing for Bangor City.
O'Keefe became an England semi-pro international, playing against Scotland and the Netherlands in a tournament in May 1979, scoring the winning goal against the Dutch in the final.
[55] He also played in a 1–0 win over the Soviet Union in a World Cup qualifier at Lansdowne Road on 12 September 1984, as he came on for Mickey Walsh as an 80th-minute substitute.
[56] On 26 March 1985, he played for Ireland in a friendly against England at Wembley; the English won 2–1, with Gary Lineker scoring his first international goal.
O'Keefe was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Bloomfield Road when it was officially opened by former Blackpool player Jimmy Armfield in April 2006.