Every Chicago sports fan loves an underdog story, especially with a dash of curse-breaking thrown in, so here’s a fun one: The famous One Prudential Plaza, which often displays slogans backing Chicago sports teams, decided to adopt an Irish squad this week.
“Mayo for Sam,” shone in lights on the building’s front facade Monday night, in support of a Gaelic football team from County Mayo getting a surge of goodwill ahead of a much-hyped All-Ireland championship match Saturday against the big city favorites from Dublin.
“In honor of the fine gentlemen from the County Mayo playing in the All Ireland Game this weekend, we offer this token of appreciation from Chicago’s Unions and the Windy City,” Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, tweeted alongside the image. (The labor federation as an ownership stake in Sun-Times Media.)
The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship — basically the country’s Super Bowl — is the culmination of a national Gaelic football tournament and regularly draws crowds of more than 80,000. The winner receives the Sam Maguire Cup, aka the “Sam,” awarded every year since 1928.
Mayo, representing a county of roughly 130,000 people from the northwest part of the country, hasn’t won the Sam since 1951. A few years ago, an Irish bookmaker even posted an ad calling for the Cubs, who recently broke their own championship curse, to give Mayo advice on ending its drought, now at 69 years.
But close calls in recent years have always ended in defeat to Dublin, the five-time defending champions who represent the nation’s most populous county. The big city boys keep winning in the end.
On Saturday, Mayo gets another crack at the Sam. The match stars at 11 a.m. Chicago time at Croke Park in Dublin. Maybe some love from the Chicago skyline will help.
In honor of the fine gentlemen from the County Mayo playing in the All Ireland Game this weekend, we offer this token of appreciation from Chicago’s Unions and the Windy City. #MayoForSam @MayoGAA pic.twitter.com/w33ROZehBe
— Bob Reiter (@BobReiterJr) December 15, 2020
