Monday, March 8, 2021
“Coach” changed the course of my life. He recruited me from intramural rugby in 1968 and trained me to play scrum half for the spring season of the first varsity team. (We beat Cranwell that season!)
His love of the game was infectious and propelled me to live my life around the sport for the next 15 years, to include playing fly half with the Boston RFC, the American University RFC and the Colorado Springs RFC, winning the Montreal 15’s tournament and the Boston 7’s tournament, touring with an All-New England side in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and France, and finishing out my career as captain of the Denver Barbarians and winning the Western National Championship.
None of this would ever had happened but for Coach’s decision to pluck me from a squadron intramural field during my junior year. Coach taught me that teamwork and mutual respect for each other would always triumph, even in numerical defeat. When we stepped onto the field, Coach taught us, by his personal example of natural compassion for everyone he met, to leave ALL of our differences behind, if we were to have any chance of winning - either the game of rugby, or the game of life.
My outlook on life and my approach to solving problems among and with humans of every background and origin was truly shaped by his demanding, even-handed and always loving example.
Thank you, Coach - and I look forward to our meeting again the next time around.
Merit (fka “Milt”) Bennett (Santa Fe, NM)
