Difference between revisions of "Portal:1983 Spring Men"

1983 Spring Men Portal

In the National Championships, held in Athens, GA, the Navy match in the Semi Final was inspiring. Navy was without three of their starters at the beginning of the match and after putting in their only two subs, played the first 20 minutes down a man. There was no score until 12 minutes into the second half, when Navy went up on a Drop Goal, soon answered by an AF PK. One minute before the end, a Navy error resulted in an AF PK and the victory. WHEW!

The final, lost against a physically larger and more experienced California, was tied at 3-3 until the 23rd minute of the second half when the grinding Bears offense finally broke the tenacious AF defense. "Bob Williamson, who couldn't miss PKs in state and regional championships, went 2 for 8 in the final two matches, missing 4 of 5 in the final"

Team Record

A Side Record

Date	Opponent	Score	Notes
23 Feb	Metro State	25-3
12 Mar	CU	14-4
15 Mar	Cranwell		Scheduled but no results (home match)
3 Apr	Mines	19-0	State tournament round 1
4 Apr	Metro State	33-3	semi final State Tournament
10 Apr	CSU	10-3	State Tournament - Championship Match - try by Miller; converstion and PK by Bob Williamson
<date>	to Santa Fe Springs CA	<score>	Spring Break; one day "Tournament of Pain" - Won 5 games
12 Apr	RAF National team		Scheduled but no results (home match)
23 Apr	SE Missouri State	6-0	Western Regionals (College Station, TX) - PKs by Williamson and Wendleberger
23 Apr	Nebraska	9-4	Western Regionals - try by Heck, PK and conversion by Williamson
24 Apr	Oklahoma	13-9	Western Regionals - Tries by Miler, Koehn and PK and conversion by Williamson
2 May	Regina Rogues		Scheduled but no results (home Match)
7 May	Navy	6-3	National Collegiate Semi Finals (Athens GA) - 2 PKs by Williamson
8 May	Cal Berkeley	3-13	National Collegiate Finals - PK by Williamson
22 May	Colorado Springs	??
Season Record	9-1

B Side Record

Date	Opponent	Score	Notes
26 Feb	Littleton	tied
12 Mar	CU	??
16 Apr	CC	<score>
23 Apr	Highlanders A	<score>
30 Apr	CSU	<score>
7 May	DU	<score>
22 May	Colorado Springs B	??
Season Record	xx-yy

C Side Record

Date	Opponent	Score	Notes
12 Mar	Barbos C	??
23 Apr	Highlanders B	<score>
22 May	Queen City C	??
Season Record	xx-yy

Roster

Last Name *On Season	First Name	Class
Williamson*	Bob	84
Koehn*	Jim	83
Miller*	W Tom	85
Wendlberger*	Joe	83
Heck	Joel	83
Arauz	Luis	83
Barkate	Joe	83
Bartos	Pete	83
Burns	David	85
Carrubba	Paul	83
Cordes	Chris	84
Desantis	Bob	84
Fish	Dick	85
Ingalls	Jeff	83
Jolly	Bob	83
Knofczynski	Mark	84
MacDonald	Bob	83
McCoy	Keith	86
Murray	Mike	85
Savidge	John	84
Trundy	Mike	83
Volker	William	84
Annis	Gary	84
Boepple	Jack	83
Byrd	Matt	85
Chapman	Charles	85
Davidson	Jerry	84
Dawes	Clinton	84
Gingras	Jeff	85
Hageman	Mark	83
Herron	Jim	85
Hobbs	Forrest	83
Ingham	Edward	84
Johnson	Eric	85
Johnson	Roger	83
Kelly	Mark	84
Kornmesser	Marc	85
Lawrence	Terry	84
Littrell	Larry	86
Metzger	Richard	86
Miller	Daniel J Jr	85
Miller	David	84
Moore	Jeff	83
Mounts	John	84
Myers	Chris	84
Nowicki	Craig	83
Pettyjohn	Jamie	85
Schurfeld	Richard	85
Scott	Kelly	83
Turner	Monte	85
Graham (not on season)	Mike	84

Post Season Experience/Records

Post Season Selections

All American Selection

Jim Koehn 83

Joe Wendlberger 83

Tom Miller 85

Post Graduation Involvement

As a Player

Selected to Representative Teams

Starting Other Teams:

As a Referee

As a Coach

Leadership

Staff

Head Coach - Sq Ldr Rob Horne, RAF ("Niggley")

Assistant Coach - Capt Gregg Burgess, B side

Assistant Coach - Capt Tom Pawlowski, B side

Assistant Coach - Maj Robert Young, C side

OIC - Capt Larry Oliver

CIC -

Captains

C1C Joe Barkate

C1C Luis Arauz

Media

Click here for more 1983 Spring Men pictures

Memorable Events

All American selections: Koehn, Wendlberger and Miller

Per Pete "Toes" Bartos.

"Beer, mud, Blood". Under the guidance of Coach Bob "Nigley" Horne [RAFSquadron Leader], the men's rugby team completed it's most successful season in memory during the 1982-1983 school year The team began it's legacy by winning the second Annual Michelob Husker Rugby Classic in Lincoln, Nebraska in the fall, outscoring their opponents 123-11. In the sping season, the team began preparing for the upcoming national championships by entering the "Tournament of Pain" in Sanata Fe Springs, California during Spring Break. They played a record five games in a single day, and encountered opponents of incredible size [and I seem to recall we forfeited our last game due to not having enough able-bodied players to field the minimum team size - we only brought about 20 players and barely lost the first game to the eventual tournament winners - it was a double elimination tournament]. Next, the team avenged itself by winning the state tournament [having lost the state finals the previous year to CSU when the ref lost track of the score and awarded one of our tries to the opponents ...and they weren't man enough to admit it - too bad they didn't have an honor code!], stomping Colorado School of Mines 22-0, Metro state 33-3, and Colorado State 10-3. Adding insult to injury, the B-side beat two Colorado State teams to capture the B-side state title as well. In the western regional tournament, the zoomies beat Southwest Missouri State [our toughest game], [a much improved] Nebraska and Oklahoma to advance to the national championships in Athens, Georgia. The administartion backed the rugby team [initially they were not going to allow us to go and wouldn't pay for the permissive TDY/transport./lodging] and sent 22 players, five coaches, and a trainer to participate in the national championships. The team beat Navy 6-3 in the semi-finals [we had lost to them in the fall], but dropped a 13-3 decision to defending champs Cal-Berkely in a nationally televised game [ESPN], and ended up second in the nation. Seniors Joe Wendlberger and Jimmy Koehn were named to the select All-American team along with rookie Tom Miller [in his seventh rugby game he'd ever played in. All three zoomie All-Americans were fleet-footed backs. I believe four more zoomie players were named as second team All-Americans]." [Championship game synopsis: Our standout kicker, right winger Bob Williamson, was injured [broken leg?] about 5 minutes into the game, and we had about four or five missed penalty kicks because we had no back up kicker - oops! Cal-Berkely, which had over 50% UK players, had a fabulous Irish? kicker who made several long range, wide-angle kicks and missed none that I recall. We had a try called back late in the game when I (left winger) grubbed a ball into the try zone (and Joe Wendlberger fell on it) but I got heinously leveled by some huge oaf immediately after the grub, and the ref was so outraged that he immediately stopped the play (forgetting all about the advantage rule) and called for a penalty kick, which we missed. Basically, we lost the kicking game. At least that's the way I remember it ;-) ]

Tom Miller remembers "I think the craziest trip we had was to Regionals. If my memory serves me correctly, we flew military air into Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, then drove to College Station, TX. As a sophomore I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison, guys dumping piss bottles out the side door of the van, beers flowing -- I didn't realize this was a normal. I think I shook my head the eight or so hours it took to drive the trip. Tom Miller