Portal:1977 Spring Men

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1977 Spring Men Portal

Early in the year, Squadron Leader Alderton presented the shield of RAF Cranwell to the Commandant, BG Beck, which marked the beginning of the rugby club as an integral part of the USAFA, We had just received permission from the Commandant for the cadets to wear the Eddie the Eagle badge (designed by Roger Smith) on their A Jackets. There was no way that the Establishment were going to allow Fat Fred to be worn. As expected, the new patch caused a good deal of friction in the club. Half the first fifteen thought we had “betrayed” the club’s tradition of an extra mural existence. The second XV and others in the club liked the idea of wearing rugger patch which continued to be worn for some time.

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Team Record

A Side Record

Date	Opponent	Score	Notes
March	Cranwell	9-6	Spring break, Try by Bulmer and C by Dollahite
March	Durham University	6-58	Spring break/Great party!
<date>	Barbos	10-3
6 April	BYU	19-7	Tries by Baier, Hefferly and Eyre, with 2 conversions and a PK by Winiger
8 April	Denver Harlequins	17-10	2 tries by Schow, 1 by Hefferly and a conversion and PK by Winiger
15 April	Boulder	?-?
23 April	CC	6-0	first match in the Inter University Tournament
23 April	Wyoming	3-0	second match in the Tournament; kick by Dollahite
24 April	Western State	20-0	Semi finals of the Inter University Tournament
24 April	UNC	6-9	Championship Match of the Inter University Tournament; Schow try, Wininger conversion
Season Record	xx-yy

B Side Record

Date	Opponent	Score	Notes
March	Royal Roads	14-17
8 April	Denver Harlequin B	10-6	tries by Catlin and Smith with a conversion by Schoon
23 April	Wyoming	29-0	B side first match of Colorado Inter University Tournament
23 April	Denver Univ	6-7	C side in Inter University tournament
23 April	DU	24-3	second B side match in the tournament
24 April	vs C side	12-0	Semi finals of the Junior Division of the Inter University Tournament
24 April	CSU B	37-0	Finals of the Junior Division; 3 Tries by Harrison; team captain Hefferly
8 April	Harlequin C	11-12	C side match - tries by Shillington and conversion by Greenwood
<date>	DU	6-7	C side match in Inter University Tournament
Season Record	xx-yy

Roster

Last Name	First Name	Class
Schoon	Neil	1979
Hefferly	Mark	1978
Harrison	Oly	1978
Ballinger	Barney	1977
Wilkinson	Keith	1978
Hagedorn	Doug	1978
Baier	Ken	1978
Eyre	Tru	1979
Winiger	Dave	1978
Schow	K C	1978
Catlin	Mike	1978
Smith	Art	1980
Shillington	Pat	<class>
Greenwood	Chuck	1978
Boyd	William	1979
Smith	Roger	1977
Sikes	Roy	1977
Jarka	Dan	1977
Bulmer	Joe	1977
Bonanni	Pete	1977
Dollahite	Tom	1977
Kennedy	Greg	1978
Carwile	Joey	1977
Wales	Jet	1977
Curran	Chuck	1977
Churchill	Winston	1978
Haslett	Winston	1977

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Post Season Experience/Records

Post Season Selections

All Colorado State XV

Barney Ballinger '77

Keith Wilkinson '78

Post Graduation Involvement

As a Player

Joe Bulmer - Phoenix RFC

John Herd - Davis Monthan RFC, Old Pueblo Rugby Club

Jet Wales - Davis Monthan RFC, Wright Patterson RFC, Old Pueblo RFC

Roger Smith - Mississippi State RFC

Mac (Roy) Sikes) - Mississippi State RFC, Old Pueblo Rugby Club, Miami Trident's RFC

John Haslett - Miami Trident's RFC

Selected to Representative Teams

Jet Wales - Combined Services (81)

Starting Other Teams:

Dan Jarka, Minot AFB

As a Referee

As a Coach

Barney Ballenger - AF Academy, Combined Services U-23 87

As a Team

After the England trip and 77 spring season, a group of the 77 players (Eddie, Murph, Pete Bonanni, Jack Ivy, Jet Wales, Joey Bulmer, and Mac (Roy Sikes)) formed a non-academy 7s team named the "Ambassadors" (just a little tongue-in-cheek) to play in the Western Regional Tournament in Denver. We made it to the Semi-finals, not bad for only having one practice and no coach.

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Leadership

Staff

Head Coach - Sqdrn Ldr G. L. D. Alderson

Assistant Coach - Alan Osur

OIC - Sqdrn Ldr G. L. D. Alderson

CIC -

Captains

First part of season:

C1C Eddie Thomas

C1C Bob Murphy

After Spring Break:

C1C Tom Dollahite (backs)

C1C Barney Ballenger

B Team Captain - Dave Winiger

C Team Captain -

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Media

First XV fs Cranwell on Spring Break Back Row: Coach Alderson, Murphy, Bulmer, Wilkinson, Ballenger, Lowe, Jarka, Dollahite, Dockendorf , Kennedy,?Libby, Curran. Front Row: Sikes, Bruggermeyer, Ivy, Alexander, Thomas, Wales, R. Smith, Haslett

More pictures on the 1977 Spring page

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Memorable Events

Roger Smith ran a kickoff back for a try, without blocking!

Pete Bonanni scored in virtually every game.

Spring Break vs Durham County:

Durham: “You Blokes sure tackled hard...”

Us: “Yeah, but we never tackled the guy with the ball.”

And more memories by Tom Dollahite: The Conversion in the Cranwell Game was a highlight of my Rugby career that I’ll always remember...as were the Batmen who cleaned our shoes after the game and the Pub Cranwell had in their dorm! Making that conversion to win that game for a team that played one of our best games ever to beat Cranwell was an unforgettable experience! And....

I distinctly remember making a PK on 23 Apr vs Wyoming to break the 0-0 tie and win that game...after a close, hard fought match by both sides. It was a kick from near a sideline, with a strong wind blowing goal to goal...I just kicked the ball up and the wind curved it through the goalpost...Absolutely the Luckiest kick I ever made...