Portal:1989 Spring Men/Memorable Events

(as told by Jim Russell) - Spring 1989 regular season I went down to the Academy to referee AFA A vs somebody local. Before the first half, as usual the cadets lined up in their huddle just behind the center of the halfway line, and then ran around in a circle; but instead of the usual “Go Zoomies” I heard them yell something like, “oh ending”. I thought it odd but had a game to do so I ignored it. But then they did it again just before the second half, at which they were to kick off. So when the kicker came up to the halfway line, I asked him what this “Oh ending” chant was. To which he replied, “No, it’s ‘No Vending’. You see, Sir, we are hosting Nationals this year, and if we win all our regular and initial playoff games, we on the A side don’t have to run the concessions and sell the food during Nationals. The B side will have to do it. We don’t want to have to do the selling, so we call out, ‘No vending’ to remind ourselves why we want to win.” True story.

(more from Jim Russell): The AFA did go on to host and win the National Collegiate Championship, and I was fortunate enough to referee the semi-final between AFA and Army. At the first scrum the AFA loosehead prop pushed his opposite number, the Army tighthead prop, up, so I had to blow the whistle and reset the scrum. Then the Army tighthead, not to be outdone, took the AFA loosehead to the ground, collapsing the scrum. So I blew the whistle, called just the 2 props over, congratulated each of them for being a manly man, and told them to concentrate from now on upon pushing forward, not up or down, or we’d have a problem and they would not like my solution; they behaved thereafter. As the notes in the Portal state, late in the game AFA was down 16-13, but I penalized Army for going over the ball at a tackle several yards from their goal line on the south end of the pitch. Everybody at the ground figured AFA would kick a penalty goal to tie it, but they, or maybe Coach Vern Francis, had a different idea. A couple of times earlier in the match AFA had run a play off a PK, where they tapped the ball and took it into a maul; at that maul they ran a couple of backs in a crisscross pattern off the back of the maul, passing the ball to one or the other of the on-rushing backs, forcing the defending Army backs to focus on and tackle both these attacking back. This time, instead of taking the penalty goal, AFA again did a tap and go, leading to a maul close to the Army goal line. Again the 2 AFA backs came rushing up in a crisscross pattern, again forcing the Army backs to mark them. Except that this time the AFA forwards did not pass the ball to the on-rushing backs, but faked the pass and drove forward again against the Army pack which was watching the AFA backs; AFA got the ball over the goal line and downed it for the try, to the great glee of the players and sidelines. The kick was missed, but by virtue of the 4 point try AFA led 17-16 with only a few minutes left. But that was not the end of it. A minute or two later, on the west touch line Army, playing to the north, kicked the ball up-field, and some foolish Zoomie hit him late. So I called a late hit/obstruction, and as required by the Laws offered Army the choice of a PK at the spot of the hit or where the ball landed. Of course and as usual, they chose to take the kick up-field, as it was closer to the Zoomie goal line and posts. And from there Army attempted to kick the 3 point goal which would have put them back in front. But the kick, which was still a long one, went wide left, and then the game was over. AFA of course went on to win the National Championship the next day, refereed by Don Morrison.

Addendum to the above story is that several of the players on the Army team were also on the Combined Services Junior squad coached by Vern Francis. Knowing this, at half time Vern told his boys that the usual call at the penalty would be made, but they would not do the usual, but fake it and drive over the goal. After the match the Army guys came up and with a smile to the coach said they had read the call correctly, but did not realize the play had been changed. Vern the coach...

Starting A-Side for the 1989 National Championship team:

1 Jim Snyder '89

2 Mike Junk '90

3 Kevin Oleen '89

4 Jay Owen '90

5 Dan Drummond '89

6 Art Wunder '89

7 Ted Schiller '89

8 Brent Vanderpol '89 (C)

9 Floyd Finley '89 (C)

10 Ron Buckley '89

12 Doug Nikolai '89 (replaced by Wood)

13 Tim Bohman '90

14 Skip Rodgers '90

Wings: Dave Metz '89, Bill Jacobus '90, Eric Fester '89

Tim Jozwiak '89 was an excellent flanker who played a lot, Donny Wood '90 played a lot at both inside and outside center, and Eric Fester '89 played a lot on the wing (may have started this game)