Portal:1983 Spring Men

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1983 Spring Men Portal

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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

test


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