Portal:1961 Men/Intro

We have some anecdotal stories about rugby in these early years:

During the winter/spring of 61/62, rugby was introduced at the Academy as an intramural sport....I (Charles M. (Mike) Butler, MajGen, USAF(ret) ’62) was selected to be the coach of 5th Squadron's team...we spent the first 3 sessions in the day room learning the rules....long story short, we won the first Wing Championship primarily because we knew the rules....later that spring, a select team played Cranwell during an exchange visit...as I recall, they beat us by 1 point...

The picture was in the winter61/spring62 time frame (I'm an original Red Tag-62)

From another grad: "Nothing new to add, but the photo brings back memories. I was in 5th Sqdn all four years so I recognize most of the guys. The photo must have been taken in late '61 or early '62 because there are no '66ers in it, but there are '63, '64, and '65 guys"

And another: Since I played in that game, I can confirm the rugby game against the Cranwell "Crannies"as we called them during 1961. I can also confirm that they won, but I think it was more by one point. We played it more like football. But while they beat us on the field, we beat them in drinking beer at the Golden Bee at the Broadmore later that night. They were great guys and a good time on and off the field was held by all.

Sadly, I only have fond memories of the game (including the bruises and grass burns) and no pictures. I believe that Phil Lane, Wyman Harris, and David Small (now decesased) all from 7th Squadron played in the game. If only we knew back then that what we were doing was going to be the start of something big.

Howie Kraye, '63 (7th Sqdrn)