Portal:Okinawa 1977-1978 Men/Intro

The team (the Wild West Show) practiced and played most games on the grounds of Kue Army Hospital, but we were considered a Kadena team.

There was a Camp Hansen team that drifted in and out of existence during the same time period.

By 78, most of our competition was played against the three Japanese Self Defense Force teams on the island (Air, Ground, Naval). The one Japanese civilian team on the island refused to play any of us US military teams because we played “football”, not rugby. Within the year, with proper refereeing by Marine Mike Malone, we got them to play a few games, convincing them US rugby teams could play rugby if properly reffed.

Other teams were Koza City Old Boys, Camp Schwab, and wevmade annual trips to Taiwan to play the Taipei Giants and Taiwan Orthopedic College, and an annual trip to Clark AN

In the early summer of ’78, Mike Malone (MC), Dennis Gill (AF), Eddie Hutsell (Navy), and the Army 2dLt met with the civilian Japanese team leaders and the JSDF team leaders and formed the Okinawa Rugby Union.

POST CHRISTMAS EVE MATCH Back, L to R: Grit Harding, Mike Malone, Eddie Burnette, ?, Frank Egan, Dennis Gill, John Blanchette, Steve Forberg, Tom "Spud" Simmonds, Bob Guzzo, ?; Front: Eddie Hutsell, Doug Fisher, ?, Mike Knowles, Paul Berube, Tom Gripo, ?, Dave Jenner, ?, Dennis Harkness Lying down: Way Moy

Dennis Gill, behind Paul Berube. Also in the back row, 3 to the right of Mike is another Marine organizer. I think he may have played with Fort Sill and maybe 29 Palms as well as in Okinawa. Also in the back row, 3 to the right of me is Tom "Spud" Simmons (tlsimmonds@msn.com ) who had played football for Annapolis, great for 20-40 meters every time he got his hands on the ball. Lots of other familiar faces, but can't put a name to the face. The one sitting with the ball and the big mustache might be Mike Mancuso.