Difference between revisions of "Portal:Ft Bragg 1972-1973 Men/Intro"

Latest revision as of 22:51, 8 January 2018

The base 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.