ADRIAN TEER: THE EARLY YEARS

John Adrian Teer was born in the Mater Unit, a private maternity home on Belfast’s Crumlin Road, on Tuesday 14^th June 1945. Serendipitously his future wife, Mary Rose O’Boyle, was also born there. Adrian was the only child of Joseph (Joe) and Margaret Teer who lived in Adela Street, off the Antrim Road. Joe worked in the Accounts Department of Shell-Mex and BP Limited ‘s Belfast office. Margaret was a nurse.

Adrian attended St. Mary’s C.B.S, Grammar School. On completing his “A” Levels he sat the entrance exam for the Northern Ireland Civil Service and was accepted. In the early part of his professional life, he worked in the Benefits Centre in Corporation Street. Then he helped to manage a work exchange programme offering students the chance to spend time in Leuven, Belgium. Eventually, he settled into a senior role within the Training and Employment Agency.

In 1970 Adrian married Mary-Rose. The Best Man was a friend from school and fellow Glenavon supporter, Gerry Caher.

Adrian’s father, Joe, loved sport and was a committed supporter of Belfast Celtic. The West Belfast club was very successful during the years before the Second World War but went out of football in the summer of 1949 following the infamous attack on Jimmy Jones by Linfield supporters on Boxing Day 1948. Jones, Jackie Denver and Ambrose Wilson, three former Celts, put pen to paper for Glenavon. In time they were joined by Harry Walker, Norman Kernoghan and Jimmy McAlinden, three ex-Celtic players who became managers at Mourneview Park. Hundreds of Celtic supporters adopted Glenavon as their new club and went to matches on a regular basis. Joe Teer was one of those fans.

The first Glenavon fixture which Adrian recalled attending with his father was a match against Cliftonville at Solitude during the mid-1950s. The date might have been Saturday 7^th January 1956. The visitors won 7-1 with Jimmy Jones scoring four goals. The impressionable youngster was captivated by the Lurgan club’s unathletic, ungainly and slightly balding centre forward. “He didn’t have the build of most footballers, yet he scored goals almost at will,” said Adrian. “I was fascinated by him.”

In March 1957 Joe and Adrian were at Mourneview Park on a Wednesday afternoon to see Glenavon thrash Portadown 5-0 to clinch a second League Championship. Four weeks later father and son also saw the Lurgan Blues complete the coveted double by defeating Derry City 2-0 in the Irish Cup Final.

In 1959 Adrian was old enough to go unaccompanied to both the Irish Cup Final and Irish Cup Final Replay when Glenavon overcame Ballymena United 2-0. He also started to make solitary pilgrimages to Mourneview Park. When Cliftonville was the opponent, he travelled with his friend from North Belfast, Jim Boyce. One teenager wore a blue scarf. The other wore red.

By the early 1960s Adrian had become a wholly committed Glenavon supporter. He attended every game, home and away. In those days trips to the North-west to play Derry City were a day’s excursion. Glenavon manager Jimmy McAlinden permitted Adrian and the club’s other Belfast fans to accompany the team on the train which took the official party to the maidan city and back. It meant a cheaper fare – all were included in the group rate – and an opportunity to join the players for lunch at the City Hotel.

By the mid-1960s Adrian had established firm friendships with fellow Belfast supporters Billy Baxter, Billy Galbraith, Bob Orr and Freddie Shields amongst others. He, of course, already knew Gerry Caher. He became particularly close to Billy Galbraith. Billy was a Sandy Row man. He worked for Belfast Corporation. Adrian, Gerry and Billy became constant travel companions. On matchdays in the very early seventies, after Gerry acquired a vehicle, Adrian and Billy always arranged to meet him at the G.N.R. Station, Great Victoria Street. If Gerry did not turn up, Adrian and Billy caught a train.

In 1973, when Adrian was 28 years old, he was able to buy his first car. It was an orange Volkswagen Beetle. For the next twenty years, Adrian and Billy travelled the length and breadth of Ireland together watching football.

During the 1950s and first half of the 1960s, Glenavon won 13 major trophies in fourteen seasons. It was a phenomenally successful period. However, after the City Cup win in 1966, the club experienced a sharp decline in fortunes. By the early 1970s a malaise had set in. There seemed little prospect of a return to the glory days.

Adrian was one of a group of supporters who were not prepared to accept mediocrity. In November 1974, following a 4-1 home defeat against Larne, he led a protest outside the Boardroom at Mourneview Park. He told the Belfast Telegraph that change was needed. “The supporters seem to be the only people who care what happens to Glenavon,” he said. “We never miss a match be it in Dublin, Derry or anywhere else in the British Isles.”

In February 1975 the Belfast Supporters’ Group, led by Adrian, convened a meeting in the Social Club. Thirty fans, including Adrian, Billy Galbraith and representatives of the supporters’ clubs, gathered and afterwards exhorted the Board of Directors to provide the manager with funds to sign new players.

In late 1977, with the team’s fortunes improving, the Belfast Supporters’ Group and a handful of diehard fans from Dromore, County Down, formed the Blue Circle Glenavon Supporters’ Club. Its raison d’etre was to help Adrian to win a seat on the Board.

The Blue Circle quickly became the most proactive of Glenavon’s supporters’ clubs. In June 1980, at the Season Ticket Holders’ Annual General Meeting, a concerted effort was made to achieve its primary objective. Blue Circle Vice-Chairman, Henry Fairley, a farmer from Dromore, made a rousing speech in which he exhorted the members to elect Adrian. He said that the Belfast man had published a News Sheet at every home game for the previous five seasons and had organised trips for supporters to watch Glenavon play UEFA Cup ties in Holland and Belgium. He had also acted as both secretary and treasurer during veteran player Stanley Sheppard’s Benefit Season. He had the vision and the ability to guide Glenavon’s fortunes. There were seven candidates for six seats. The members responded positively to Henry’s exhortation and Adrian was elected.