Portal:1974 Spring Men/Memorable Events
(per Coach Byrd) - The turning point for the season was our convincing win over Cranwell, a team we beat with hard hitting football tactics, but this match we beat them with superior quickness, speed and passing.... in other words, at their own game, finesse. As a side note on the Cranwell game, the Brits may have lost the game but they definitely won the post game party. The Brit Brigadier (I've forgotten his official RAF rank) was last seen leg wrestling at the O' club o/a 0130 along with several involved bystanders!!
In the finals of the Coors Cup, Al Osur was playing for the Barbos, and had Bobby Arnold not gotten hurt early in the second half, the outcome might have been different. Bobby was team captain and it was certainly entertaining and inspirational to play alongside him.
Dick Webber remembers a great game against Berkeley in a driving rain storm with ankle deep mud. In their scrum, they had lots of off-season lineman from their football team and their backs were a mix of linebackers & very talented Samoans. For him "it was a great education on how to play the game at a high level!"
1971 Warren Priddy selected to ERRFU and Western Collegiate Selects
In spring '74, Steve Riewerts, Ken Bradley, Kevin Stepko and Rich Carlson were called up from the B side to make the spring break trip to Monterey and NorCal to join Jimmy Carter and Sal Reza, who were the only 76ers on the A side for the entire season.
(from the Barbos yearbook) "the final game against the Academy was a classic speed vs strength and skill. It was close until the zoomies made a critical mistake and made a blatantly late hit on our coach and fly half, Alan Osur. The intensity level went up immediately and we began to take it to the cadets. The AF had won the ball from the loose and tossed a poor pass to the little fly half who was bobbling the ball when Gay Guthrie got up a head of steam and literally ran through the unfortunate zoomie, who spent the next few minutes on the ground. We went on to win the game"
Jim Grandcolas (Crunchy) In the Spring of 1974 on our way back from a rugby match in Denver and on I-25, there were 5 or 6 of us in Bobby Arnold’s van resting comfortably on the floor in the back of his van, when all of a sudden there was a loud bang and our van swerved to the right and as Bobby slowed, a car sped by taking the next exit and leaving the paved surface half way down the exit. Bobby, suspecting the hit and run driver was going to escape, slowed almost to a stop, jumped out of his van and ran to the drivers side of the car to detain him. To our consternation, he ripped the driver out of his seat, pinned him to the ground and what looked like began to bite his face and pummel him. Fearing the worst, we were relieved to find out the driver had had an epileptic fit, swallowed his tongue and was suffocating. Bobby had cleared his air passage and was applying a form of rugby CPR. I believe both Louie Appelhans and, once again, Gary Read was in the van and can verify my memory. As they say ‘and the rest is history’. Bobby Arnold was awarded some kind of life saving medal on the parade grounds at the next big Wing Parade and he went on to become an MD.
