Scholarships to get a university education aren't normally earned with your legs in Ireland, or most places on the other side of the Atlantic. After the 1948 Olympics, a steady stream of Irish athletes started landing on Villanova's doorstep to run, jump and throw, and build the beginnings of a pipeline that has helped change lives for innumerable Irish youth, who were given a pathway to a big academic opportunity.
The Irish Times goes into more detail on the story, but since the Wildcats kicked things off in the middle of the last century, hundreds of Irish athletes, male and female have been streaming into American universities.