Team Colorado Old Boys: 11/19/17
This letter is to all (old & new) CSOB players, fellow Ruggers and supporters over the years. As you all know we have come upon some hard times getting fellow Ruggers to see what a great group of “Older Ruggers” the CSOB’s really are. As I have stated since the very beginning WE DO NOT STEAL PLAYERS FROM EXISTING TEAMS. What we offer as a team is for the more mature players to play Mates that are close to their own age and physical condition, in addition to their current teams matches. Let’s face it a 45 or 50 year old playing a 21 year old can be very physical and sometimes dangerous.
The CSOB’s have a traveling side which goes to the World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival every other year. The Team is going to Christchurch, New Zealand in April of 2018. This will be the CSOB’s 14th World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival we have attended. Some of the countries we have been to are: Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Wales, Argentina and Canada. As you can see we have seen a lot of the World. The CSOB’s have made many Rugby Friends through the years. Many of the Teams we have met on a Golden Oldies Festival tour have come to Colorado for a match with us as they travel to several locations for their next USA Team match. When we have a team come to Colorado (foreign or domestic) we always give them a place to stay with their new found Rugby mates and have a great BBQ for the Team after the Match. I am the current USA International Representative for Golden Oldies Rugby, one of seven in the World. The Reps are as follows: Europe, Japan, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, USA and South America.
We always start the Season with our “Season ending, Season beginning” Party at one of our fellow Rugby Team Mates (Kevin Geraghty) at his Pub called Rory’s on Broadway January 27th, 2018. At this function we hand out our Awards for the fellow Ruggers who have gone out of their way to assist and help the CSOB RFC during the last year. We also have a traveling Trophy called “Mr. Ol’ Poke” which goes to one individual each year for his continued interest and help with the Club. We also have individual trophies for “Best Scrummie”, Best Back and other awards as required.
As is well known we play about one game a month starting in April with our “Purple & Gold” Family outing & BBQ. We divide the CSOB players up in to two sides, one Purple & one Gold. This is where we invite all of our member’s families to attend our season opener. The Players families are a very important part of our Clubs History and still are today. We have even had a Father / Son / Daughter match. My youngest son played hooker between his God Father and his Dad. His God Father passed him the ball 5 meters out and he scored his first try at the age of 10. He still talks about that today.
May we have, in the past, traveled to a state that has an Ole Boys Team similar to our’s. We have a choice of several places to travel to: Vancouver, BC, New Orleans, Phoenix, and possibly Kansas City. I would like your “in put” on where you would like to go this next year. I have not heard anything from a couple of these venues yet but I’m still working on them.
June is our match at the Colorado High School “Rocky Mountain Challenge” in Aurora where we usually play Ft Collins and all of the Coaches that have teams in the Challenge. The young Ruggers love to see their Coaches play the Match and the Coaches show off their Rugby Talents. Also in June we go help out the Castle Rock Bike race out by helping the Bike Race by being the “CLEAN UP CREW”. This is our biggest Fund Raiser for the team. The work is not hard and the beer is always cold.
July is our match with the Colorado Grizzles from Colorado Springs, at the Elizabeth Gaelic Festival on the third weekend. This match is in the honor of Randy Licht (prop), one of our mates that have gone to the big Rugby Pitch in the sky. We have had always a good turnout in his honor. The first Elizabeth Festival was over 15 years ago when we honored one of our own, Rick Carlson (hooker) who played for Mines and the Barbo’s and is also with Randy upstairs. We have also honored Greg Carver (back) from Iowa, Chris Shipley (Scrum) Boulder, and Sandy Platter (prop) Barbo’s & Boulder. After the Match we always go visit the Festival booths and see all of the really neat items for sale.
August is our annual match with the Vail RFC. This has always been a fun weekend for the Team. We can play in one or two matches depending on the numbers of players in the age group. Vail RFC is the Team we have had the most Matches, over 20 years. After the match we go to “Bart & Yetis’s restaurant for a team dinner.
September is always Aspen Ruggerfest. Aspen now has several “senior divisions: 45’s, 50’s, 60’s and most times the have a 65 bracket when there enough players interested. We have made a great showing in Aspen through the years: Winning the 50’s division, the 60’s division and the 65’s division. We have come in second in several of the finals through the time in our 28 year history.
I have contacted some of the Clubs that we have played through the years for a “trip out of State”. We have made trips to Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, California, and Vancouver, Canada. My contacts are discussing this option with their Team Mates and will get back to me soon.
There have been many fellow Ruggers that have gone the extra mile to help this Club during or Team struggles loosing several future Players who did not feel that this was the Club and tradition for them the last few years. A Big Team THANKS to: Cliff Kimble, Jeff & Deb Calhoun, Earnie Alexander, Tim Stephens, Ted Erhman, Pete McKewean and Steve Freeman. These are older Players but still “Players” that have been with the CSOB’s for years, now we need to have a younger group of Players that want to continue the Rugby Traditions that have been started by stepping up and start helping running this long tradition Club. By getting new blood and spirit from new and younger Players we have no place to go but up. If you have Mates that still want to play the game we all love then have them come to our Season beginning, Season Ending Party January 27th 2018.
I really believe in my younger (older) Ruggers and believe that they will want to become part of the Rugby Family not only with their current club but with the CSOB’s. I have dedicated my senior years in RUGBY to keeping this Club up and running with the help of those Players already mentioned and I WILL NOT QUIT WITHOUT A LONG HAD FIGHT. Please consider giving this Colorado Club a try.
Yours in Rugby,
Fred Alexander
Colorado Select Old Boys RFC
Team CO-Founder
USA International Rep
Golden Oldies Rugby
