Frankfurt American Logo and Jersey
(by Jim Tartari, 1980)
The Third Armored Division Rugby Club has had some problems with its identity. It has been through several name changes and numerous uniforms and colors as well. (As a matter of fact, we are occasionally seen playing in a variety of jerseys!) In 1974 the club was founded as the Third Armored Division (R....d), termed Frankfurt for short. Early newspaper articles referred to the team as the "Spearheaders". The German Bundesleague, although not officially recognizing the club, gave it the designation ARC (American Rugby Club), Frankfurt. When Jim began playing in January 76, the club was called the 3rd AD "Roughriders" a term perhaps extracted from the statue of the horse outside the Edwards kasere, across the street from the Division HQ (housed in an old cavalry stables converted to office use). Other 3AD teams were referred to as "The Herd".
Our uniforms were purple, black and white hoops alternating (and always a few blue, black and white jerseys) worn with black shorts. In 1977 we were sponsored by Kook cigarettes (thanks to our scrum half Gerry Classey who was their sales rep) and the jerseys they bought us were white with a large green hoop with gold border, resembling a pack of Kool's, of course. In our inventory it was discovered we also had eight solid blue jerseys which predated the others and were the original colors (other than our first 3-4 matches which were played in red and white jerseys borrowed from the Eintracht team). In 1978 Jim proposed we purchase solid blue jersies with white shorts and red socks to reflect our national colors, and place a red horse on the jersey. [also recommended were red pullovers with crest and ties. The tie idea was totally unacceptable at that time and nobody waned to buy new shorts. We did manage to acquire sweaters, however they were cheap green ones with a gold football on the breast designed by then team captain Rocky Roland.] Things began to change and while in England, Tom Nemmers and Ed Vogel bought white shorts and railroaded a vote to have whites (by then we all needed new shorts anyway). Harry Laws, then president and later captain, got together with Jim and designed several crests, eventually finding one acceptable to the club: A horses head superimposed over the 3rd AD triangle. To the left of the horse's head was the Frankfurt eagle, to the right an American eagle on a green shield. Harry suggested we go with two sets of uniforms, the white Kool and the solid blue, both of which could accept the patch.
As to the naming of the club, the 3rd AD wanted us to be the "3rd Armored Division" team because of their concerned when they were billeting and feeding visiting military teams that they would be providing support to non-division entities (civilians) who might be on the "Frankfurt American Rugby Club (FARC)". Tom Nemmers, a civilian who had been on the team since 1974 suggested we compromise and designate ourselves as the 3rd AD Frankfurt Americans. And thus it was so. [Ed Vogel, former president and captain and who also had been on the club since the beginning said the name 'roughriders' was arbitrarily selected by club founder, Kurt Meizenzahl, not as previously suspected)
[In summary, first jerseys were blue, then blue,black, white hoops, then purple, black,white hoops, then Gerry Classey got Kool cigarettes to buy us a set of jerseys that looked like a Kools pack. We had a bunch of leftover blues, so we bought blues as our main kit in 1979 and continued with the Kools, alternating them]
Click here for the story behind the Frankfurt American Logo design. After the logo was finalized, we ordered ties, patches, sweaters, t shirts, warmup jackets, hats and began to look like a real club.
