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Ft Bragg Rugby Football Club

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Brief Early History of Ft Bragg Rugby Club The Founding – Exact dates may vary but the club was founded in the spring of 1992. In that year a bunch of guys who had experienced rugby in their universities got together and decided to attempt to form a team. The core membership of the founders were officers who had graduated West Point. Others came from Norwich University and several other New England schools where they had learned the sport. Unfortunately, the gathering of players happened too late to get a true schedule going but we participated in a round robin event with various colleges in a Raleigh Park hosted by the NC State Rugby Club. Fortunately, all had a great time and it was decided to publicize the next attempt in the Ft Bragg newspaper to find prospects and to really get the team going. In the late summer of 1972 the Ft Bragg Rugby Club took off in earnest. The paper generated a lot of interest and nearly 30 prospects turned out for the first practice which was held on the parade field. Almost all had some sort of rugby experience but there were a few novices. One early impediment was the rebirth of Brigade level football which took away some of our talent. However, a few of us played both because the football games were mostly played on Thursday nights in the stadium. Rugby was almost always played on Saturday. The first issue involved uniforms. It was decided by unanimous vote to get camouflage jerseys due to the recent arrival of most of the players from the Southeast Asian War Games. Whoever led this drive was sadly fooled that these jerseys were readily obtainable. Throughout the fall we waited patiently for our kit to turn up. After all we had paid in advance. Thus in every game in the fall of 1972 and almost all of 1973, we played as the Ft Bragg Motleys to the refs. Finally, it was decided to get red, white, and blue hoops which were much more obtainable. Well, we lost every game in 1972 which was not surprising. Early opponents included a home and away with NC State, Camp LeJeune, the Marines at Cherry Point who filled out their numbers with the Jacksonville lads, Ft Campbell, UNC, Duke, Ft Jackson, a trip to Atlanta to play the Renegades or Old White (I forget which), Davidson, etc. We never came close in 1972 and I believe our final record was 0-9. Ah!! but 1973 was far different. One of the West Pointers found amongst his company of 82d Airborne types a Samoan who claimed he played some rugby. He was ushered to practice and there changed our misfortunes on the pitch. Although a bit flaky, he not only could run and pass but kick for goal and touch as well. The most astonishing thing was he played without boots in his bare feet. His officers had to drive him on every occasion and in one notable incident, sent a cab to fetch him and bring him back. We went immediately from losers to 7-2. The fall of 1973 loomed ominous and we all looked forward to a great season. Sadly, due to unforeseen events our games and season were cut short and rugby like everything else on base was aborted on 25 October when Nixon ordered DEFCON 3. The Yom Kippur War which began on October 6 had already led to base activities being curtailed but this ended it all. The base was closed and many of us were readied for deployment including yours truly whose MOS was a Vietnam Cryptanalytic Specialist. Just what help I would offer the 82d in Arabic or Israelis in code breaking I did not know. All I knew was that I whom had never worn a uniform or been issued a weapon since arriving at Ft Bragg in May of 1972 (I was a lifeguard) was now dressed (in jungle fatigues no less), issued an M16 and was ready to go and with only one month left till my enlistment was up. Thus, our most successful season ended with 6 wins and only one loss including clobbering NC State (We were 0-5 with them at the time), Davidson, and Camp LeJeune.

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