Newcastle Falcons vs Saracens - Programme

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
K i n g sley Hyl andcontinues his
historical journey through the club archives,
picking out some key moments
from this week throughout the years.
45 years ago – October 8-12, 1977
1977 was a momentous year for what was then Gosforth
Football Club. The culmination of the 1976-77
season had seen the club win the national knockout
cup for the second successive year, but even more
significantly the club celebrated its 100th birthday in
1977.
Discussions leading to the formation of the club had
begun in early 1877 at the home of one of the club’s
founders, which is now the site of the Ahad Indian
Restaurant off Gosforth High Street. The club’s first
match, against Northern, was played on November
3, 1877, and so the 1977-78 season was set aside for
the Centenary celebrations with two of the highlights
falling in October.
On Saturday October 8 the club hosted the USA
national side as part of their first ever UK tour.
The club had become regular visitors to the States,
having been invited to participate in a tournament
in 1973. With a high dependence on guest players
covering for players who could not get two weeks
off work, the team participated as the Gaffers, an
acronym for Gosforth and Footballing Friends. Such
was the success of that tour that they were invited
to return in 1976. They would travel to Boston again
in 1980 and 1987.
Rugby was very much a minority sport in the US,
existing in the shadows of American football,
basketball, baseball and (ice) hockey. Even
professional soccer was in its infancy.
As a mark of respect for their visitors the Gosforth
side contained all but two of the players who had
participated in the Twickenham cup final in April.
Gosforth emerged as 18-12 winners, with tries from
Dave Robinson, Terry Roberts and Stewart Archer
plus two penalty goals from Malcolm Young. The
wonderfully named Clarence Culpepper scored a late
consolation try for the visitors, which was converted
by full-back Dennis Jablonski.
Highlights of the match were shown later that
evening on BBC Two’s Rugby Special. The match
itself was followed by what is recorded in the club’s
fixture card as a ‘Special Dance’ in the clubhouse. A
week later the USA lost 11-37 to the full England team
at Twickenham.
Four days later on October 12 the club played host
to 450 guests for a Centenary Dinner at Newcastle
Civic Centre. The great and the good of English and
Northumberland rugby were invited along with
representatives of all of the senior clubs, and the
clubs that had featured on the Gosforth fixture list.
Guests feasted on a dinner of smoked mackerel,
cock-a-leekie soup, roast sirloin of Angus beef
with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and Brussel
sprouts, apple pie with Cornish dairy ice cream, fruit
and cheese.
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The special motif designed to mark the club’s
Centenary year
A toast to the club was proposed by the President
of the Rugby Football Union, Sir G.A.Wharton CBE,
TD, DL. The driving force behind the dinner, Douglas
Smith, who had been had been invited to become
club President for a second time to mark the
Centenary should have responded, but such was the
stress of the occasion that he had been hospitalised
a few days before, and his senior vice-president Ray
Wood stepped into the breach. Former club President
Barry de Swaan