Philip Francis "Fan" Larkin (born 5 October 1941) is an Irish former hurler who played as a right corner-back at senior level for the Kilkenny county team.
He arrive don the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up with the Kilkenny minor team.
As a member of the Leinster inter-provincial team on a number of occasions, Larkin won five Railway Cup medals.
Larkin was named at right corner-back on the Kilkenny Hurling Team of the Century, while he was also chosen as one of the 125 greatest hurlers of all-time in a 2009 poll.
In 1969 Larkin was in the last line of defence as James Stephens qualified for the senior hurling championship decider for the first time in over thirty years.
James Stephens subsequently qualified for the provincial decider, with Offaly champions St. Rynagh's providing the opposition.
"The Rockies" got off to the better start, with two goals by Éamonn O'Donoghue and Pat Moylan giving them a 2–1 lead at the quarter mark.
A hat-trick of goals by John McCormack, together with a ten-point haul from Billy Walton, saw James Stephens fight back from seven points down to record a 3–13 to 3–8 victory.
Three years later in 1962 Larkin made his senior competitive debut in a National Hurling League game against Tipperary.
"The Cats" entered the game as underdogs, however, ace marksman Eddie Keher proved to be the difference with a magnificent display in which he scored fourteen points.
The All-Ireland final on 6 September 1964 saw Kilkenny enter the game as firm favourites against fierce rivals Tipperary.
John McKenna scored Tipp's first goal after ten minutes as the Munster champions took a 1–8 to 0–6 interval lead.
[11] After surrendering their provincial crown in 1965, Kilkenny bounced back the following year, however, Larkin was dropped from the team.
During Larkin's absence from the team Kilkenny won two more All-Ireland titles, however, he returned to the starting fifteen in 1971 as "the Cats" began their complete dominance of the provincial championship.
On 5 September 1971 Kilkenny faced Tipperary in the All-Ireland final, the first to be broadcast in colour by Telefís Éireann and the only eighty-minute meeting between the two sides.
Kilkenny's ever-dependable goalkeeper, Ollie Walsh, had a nightmare of a game in which he conceded five goals, one of which passed through his legs, while that year's Hurler of the Year and Larkin's direct opponent, "Babs" Keating, played out the closing stages of the game in his bare feet.
The game hung in the balance for the first-half, however, eight minutes after the restart Mossie Dowling got a vital goal for Limerick.
On 7 September 1975, Larkin lined out in another All-Ireland final, with surprise semi-final winners Galway providing the opposition.
In 1976 Larkin was appointed captain of the team as Kilkenny looked a sure bet to capture a third successive All-Ireland crown.
Cork secured a first three-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles for the first time in over twenty years, as a Jimmy Barry-Murphy goal helped the team to a 1–15 to 2–8 victory.
[17] In one of the worst All-Ireland finals of the decade, Tipperary-born 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.
The citation on his first All-Star that year read: "For his dependability in defence, which combines with his natural hurling skill to establish him as one of the great corner backs of today."
His father, Paddy Larkin, was a member of the defence forces and was a four-time All-Ireland medallist with Kilkenny between 1932 and 1939.