John Connolly (born 14 June 1948) is an Irish retired hurler who played as a full-forward for the Galway senior team.
He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up with the Galway minor team, before later joining the under-21 side.
As a member of the Connacht inter-provincial team at various times, Connolly won one Railway Cup medal in 1980.
As the eldest of the Connolly dynasty, many of his brothers, Pádraic, Joe, Michael, Tom, Gerry and Murt, played with distinction for Castlegar and Galway.
Turloughmore were the opponents in the county decider, however, a 5–5 to 0–8 victory allowed Connolly to add a third championship medal to his collection.
Both Castlegar and Tremane contested the subsequent provincial decider for the second year in succession, with Connolly picking up a second Connacht medal following a 7–8 to 1–7 victory.
[4] Old rivals Tremane provided the opposition in the subsequent provincial decider, however, a 4–12 to 0–5 victory gave Connolly a third Connacht medal.
[6] Connolly first came to prominence on the inter-county scene with the Galway minor and under-21 teams during their ill-fated tenure in the respective Munster championships.
In 1971 Connolly was honoured when he was named as midfield partner to Kilkenny's Frank Cummins on the inaugural All-Star team.
A 4–9 to 4–6 defeat of Tipperary gave Connolly, who was captain of the team, a National Hurling League medal.
[8] In one of the worst All-Ireland finals of the decade, Galway goalkeeper Séamus Shinnors had an absolute nightmare of a game.
A 70-yards free by Liam "Chunky" O'Brien after just four minutes dipped, hit off Shinnors and ended up in the Galway net.
Galway fought back and went two points up twelve minutes into the second half, however, they failed to score for the rest of the game.
[9] It was Galway's first All-Ireland title since 1923, with Connolly picking up a winners' medal and the celebrations surpassed anything ever seen in Croke Park.
Connolly retained the same position on the team in 1980 as Connacht faced Railway Cup specialists Munster in the decider.
On 11 October 2000, Noel Lane defeated incumbent Mattie Murphy by 33 votes to 21 to become manager of the Galway senior hurling team.
In his opening season as coach and selector, Connolly's team surrendered their National League crown, however, a shock All-Ireland semi-final defeat of reigning champions Kilkenny propelled Galway to a championship showdown with old rivals Tipperary.
He played competitive hurling and Gaelic football as well as participating in boxing, in which he was crowned Connacht junior champion at light-welterweight in 1965.