Alumni
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Many of our Alumni still take the field with the Cardinals, a team that fields sides of 35 plus, 45 plus, 50 plus, and 55 plus players. Typically, they travel to the Fort Lauderdale Ruggerfest, the Savannah St. Patricks Day Tournament, the Can Am at Saranac Lake, and the Aspen Ruggerfest.
From Jim Rollins, VRFC President 1967-68:
The team shot is at Nameless Field in March '68. Standing (l to r) are George McCallum, Malcolm Smith, Jim Rollins, Gene Lyons, John Ashton, Tom LaVoy and Jay Dalgliesh; kneeling are Julian Rainey, our hooker (whose name I regretfully do not remember), one of our wingers (whose name has regretfully also slipped my mind), Munny Yates, Alistair Duckworth, Butch Dietler [we often had a problem keeping Dietler facing in the right direction] and Courtney Hoopes [in a typically Hoopesian pose]; reclining in front are Tovi Kratovil and Dietler's dog. There weren't very many young kids in this bunch: McCallum, Smith, Rollins, Ashton, LaVoy, Yates and Kratovil were in law school; Rainey was in med school; Lyons was in grad school getting his PhD in English and Duckworth was an English professor; and, if I recall correctly, Dalgliesh and Hoopes were in what might be called an "extended" undergraduate career. Since Tovi (who was the team captain and had been our fullback) seems to have been refereeing rather than playing when this picture was taken [the result of his having had his leg busted to smithereens in a match in Nassau during our infamous spring break trip to the Bahamas in 1967 - I'm sure there will be many stories about that trip, the Flxible Flyer, Ace and more at the reunion], we don't seem to have had a playing fullback in the picture, although I assume we had one on the field. Can't remember who it might have been in those days - Mike Richwine, maybe?
The lineout picture was probably taken the same day as the team shot: (front to back) our hooker, Ashton, LaVoy, McCallum, Rollins, Smith, Lyons and Dalgliesh. A similar lineout picture actually made it into Sports Illustrated about that time, along with a short article on the Commonwealth Cup (read the article here). The SI writer was most impressed with our goal posts, which Kratovil, fresh back from a year or so in the Marines in Viet Nam, had fashioned out of 25' bamboo trees, complete with bushy tops, with cross bars lashed on with rope (this was before the era of duct tape).
The other picture, also at Nameless Field, is from October '67. Our bunch never did win the Commonwealth Cup [although we did come close twice - get someone to tell about the finals in '69 when Butch Dietler knocked the ball loose from one of the Old Blue backs and was headed in for what would have been the winning try, only to have the referee stop play because the Old Blue guy was out cold on the ground], but we did win the Colonel's Cup, which in those days was given by Colonel Van Ormond to the winner of the VRFC - Washington RFC match each year. This is the Colonel himself presenting the Cup to the VRFC president, with Tovi Kratovil and a couple of the Washington players looking on [no one seems to have complained about our having the team captain referee the game, but I'm sure we won fair and square anyway].
From Michael Jones:
Here's the B side from 1977. As best as I can recall they are as follows:
Front row. Mike Jones, Carlo Scheffel, Matt Murray, Mike Puopolo, unknown, unknown, Fred Harper.
Second Row: Dave Honeyman, unknown, Eric Sandlund, Dave ___, Graham Chapman, unknown, George Moorhead, Joe Seals.
From David Hughes:
Team photo from 1981-82.
David enjoying a Bud after a match.
From Denny Revak:
The black & white is a Cavalier Daily photo from the 1968 Commonwealth Cup. This was the first round game against Brown. We beat Brown, Toronto Old Boys, and lost in the finals to Old Blue. Sports Illustrated also covered the Cup that year. The Virginia players are (counterclockwise) Carroll Ladt, myself (Denny Revak), Tom Lavoy, Jim Rollins and John Ashton.
The color photo was part of a collage on the cover of the 1968-69 UVa telephone directory. The game was against North Carolina. Not sure of the ball carrier, I’m (Denny Revak) in the middle, and Mike Roche is looking over my shoulder.
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