Within the spring of 1974, I used to be new to each MIT and rugby soccer. As a Course 2 graduate pupil, I shared a basement workplace with a number of different college students, together with two gamers on the Tech rugby membership who inspired me to affix them. Being each an Anglophile and a beer drinker, I used to be fairly simply talked into taking part on this sport, with its British roots and after-match events.
I performed primarily on the squad’s B aspect that season however was amongst these requested to affix the A aspect gamers within the annual match of the New England Rugby Soccer Union (NERFU), held at UMass Amherst. We wanted additional males for the exhausting match schedule, by which gamers from each the A and B sides can be mixed in numerous methods for various matches. Right now NERFU has many extra groups and several other divisions of competitors. However in 1974 it had only one division and held a single annual match.
Institute data present rugby being performed as early as 1882, making the Tech membership the oldest in NERFU and one of many oldest within the nation. In 1974, it fielded two 15-man sides that practiced twice per week and performed each Saturday in the course of the spring and fall seasons. (There was no girls’s aspect then.) Our faculty-supplied uniforms had been classics of a bygone period—striped long-sleeve jerseys with collars and rubber buttons.
Rugby matches are grueling affairs involving steady operating and tackling and (for forwards like me, who make up half the group) pushing in organized scrums and advert hoc rucks. (In each scrums and rucks, gamers seize teammates’ shirts, binding collectively to push in opposition to the opposing group whereas making an attempt to realize possession of a ball on the bottom with their ft.) In 1974, substitution was allowed solely in instances of harm. Normally, one match per week was all a participant would play. Making it to the match’s championship match would require enjoying 4 or 5 in two days, so some gamers would want to sit down out a few of the matches.
Not like now, within the Nineteen Seventies there have been few (if any) US highschool or under-19 rugby groups, so American faculty groups had been typically inexperienced. Nonetheless, the 1974 MIT membership had a number of worldwide gamers who had been enjoying since grade college in England, Scotland, New Zealand, France, Argentina, or Japan. It additionally included grad college students and an assistant professor (Ron Prinn, ScD ’71), which raised the typical age of the group. MIT was thus not a typical faculty group, though we’d have been mistaken for one. Undoubtedly some membership groups within the 1974 match rested their finest gamers when scheduled to play us.
Our coach was Serge Gallant, a savvy, bearded Frenchman and former scrum half compelled by concussions to retire from enjoying. Shin Yoshida ’76, our fly half, was our star participant. Shin would kick high-arching punts downfield, precisely positioned to permit our group to right away deal with opponents receiving them, or sometimes to get better the ball ourselves. Very like a fast-break offense from a basketball group with smaller gamers, this helped neutralize the peak and energy of larger groups.
The 1974 NERFU match, held on Could 11 and 12, pitted 24 groups in opposition to one another in 5 rounds of single-elimination matches. The MIT membership had some function within the seeding, so we managed to get a first-round bye and the prospect of a simple opponent within the second spherical. Nonetheless, the remaining matches promised to be very troublesome.
Our first match on Saturday was within the second spherical in opposition to Springfield, whom we beat handily, 13–0. Our final match of the day was in opposition to Charles River, a membership that had overwhelmed us the week earlier than. We eked out a 16–12 victory in double time beyond regulation.
Since we’d superior to the semifinal spherical to be held on Sunday, preparations had been made for our group to pile into just a few rooms of an Amherst motel for the night time. However first most of us went out to a neighborhood restaurant. Regardless of our camaraderie and shared pleasure over having received our first two matches, our celebration was subdued, with not one of the regular libations and rugby songs. We had been pleasantly stunned when a former MIT rugby participant turned businessman choose up our meal tab.
On the restaurant we exchanged pleasant banter with a widely known ahead on the Windfall metropolis membership, our subsequent opponent. Through the meal he playfully growled at us whereas chomping on a handful of spring onions. Nonetheless, he didn’t play in opposition to us within the semifinals on Sunday. He was rested for the finals match he by no means bought to play.
Through the Windfall match, their sideline folks saved yelling “Get the foot,” which means to focus on Yoshida and take him out of the sport. However our “enforcers” took care of theirs, and he was not damage. We went on to win, 6–3.
I had performed within the third- and fourth-round matches and was exhausted. So when our coach requested me to play within the finals, I begged off. My spot was taken by Mark Sneeringer ’76, PhD ’82, an amiable sophomore from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. As a result of I wasn’t enjoying, I used to be picked to function a line choose.
For the championship match Tech confronted off in opposition to the Beacon Hill membership, which had received the yr earlier than. This was one other tight and grueling recreation that went into double time beyond regulation. Within the first time beyond regulation, our forwards had been gasping for breath. Roger Simmonds, PhD ’78 (an Englishman and our most skilled participant), lifted spirits and power ranges with an impromptu pep speak noting how properly the forwards had been enjoying and the way worn out the Beacon Hill squad was.
Within the second time beyond regulation, group captain Paul Dwyer, SM ’73, lastly scored the game-winning strive. As a result of I used to be a line choose, my leaping for pleasure with a fabric in my hand brought about non permanent confusion. That was quickly resolved after I defined that my motion was not an officiating sign. We’d bested Beacon Hill, 7–3.
Our reward for successful the championship was a silver platter. In these days, beer was all the time available after rugby matches, so whereas nonetheless on the pitch, we awkwardly drank beer from the platter as if it had been a trophy cup.
Having pulled off a serious upset within the NERFU match, MIT was now not a darkish horse within the 1974 fall season, and different groups made certain to present us their finest efforts. The lack of Yoshida, Dwyer, and different key gamers from the spring season weakened our fall A aspect, to which I used to be promoted. We started the autumn season with two wins and two losses after which misplaced the remainder of our matches, together with one by which the Boston membership completely overpowered and crushed us.
Nonetheless, Tech reigned because the NERFU champion till the following match. NERFU would ultimately add a university division to its annual competitors, so to this present day, MIT’s rugby membership stays the one faculty aspect ever to seize the top-tier NERFU title.
After retiring from an extended profession in mechanical and nuclear engineering, Dan Guzy, MechE ’75, has written 4 books and lots of articles on native historical past.
