Old Boys Marist turns 100 and a big bash is planned

Part of the team organising OBM's centennial celebration from left, Stu Graham, Paul Leyland, Roger Easterbrook, Doug Smith and Eddie Dunn. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A centenary has passed but the hand-written minutes of the inaugural Old Boys Rugby Football Club's meeting and a photo of the team are available for posterity.

That's testament to what the proud Whangārei rugby club means for those associated with it — past and present — as they gather next weekend to celebrate the highs and lows of its 100 years of existence.

Club stalwart and former player Doug Smith has the honour of compiling a book for the occasion and his job is no doubt as challenging as winning a game of rugby.

Then known as the Whangārei High School Old Boys Rugby Club, the minutes show it held its first meeting at the school on March 1, 1922, and was incorporated 30 years later.

The club's original ground was Rugby Park by the Whangārei Boys' High School, then Riverside Drive where the Distinction Hotel now sits, and later moved to Port Rd.

It's now beside the Northland Rugby Union building on Riverside Drive where the centenary celebration would be held on the Matariki long weekend.

A golden oldies' match is on the cards on Friday and the venue will host the Tyrepower club game between OBM and Kamo on Saturday before the centennial dinner.

A photo of the team when OBM was formed in 1922. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A committee member asked Smith to put together a centennial book and he has the onerous responsibility of collating information from 1997 onwards as the history before that year has been well canvassed in various publications.

A former OBM rep, the 76-year-old was introduced to the club at the age of 13 while working on a sheep farm in Maungatapere during school holidays and first played for the OBM juniors at 16.

OBM president Paul Leyland said it was pretty awesome to be involved with a club that has been around that long.

"We've got a good depth of juniors now so our goal is to keep improving, we've got good parents involved in the juniors, good coaches so will try to get our reconnection with boys' high, there are some good boys in that 15s comp that's coming through that we're trying to entice back to our club."

OBM was proud of brothers Dan and Kara Pryor who played for OBM and Kaliopasi Uluilakepa who featured for the Fijian Drua in this year's Super Rugby Pacific, he said.

Club historian Roger Easterbrook perhaps knows more about OBM than others around.

The 80-year-old farmer from Whareora started with the club's U21 side when he was just 16 and played and coached its seniors over the decades.

Among his countless memories was winning the competition final in 1971 against Mid Western, coached by former Whangārei mayor Stan Semenoff.

Another was at Rugby Park in the mid-60s when Sell Maxwell kicked a penalty for Mid Western and relegated OBM.

"He kicked the penalty from near halfway out of the mud and put us down for next year's season. We had to play with the B teams. Every time I go there, I see that.

OBM produced three All Blacks, Des Webb, Ian Irvine and Eddie Dunn.

Dunn isn't sure how many games he played for the club but will surely be at the centennial celebration.

A photo of the team when OBM was formed in 1922. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Of a small, stocky build, the Te Kopuru born and raised Dunn emerged in the North Auckland side in 1973 while still attending Dargaville High School and met his heroes Sig Going and Joe Morgan.

He was introduced to OBM by a couple he knows as Mike and Mary while teaching at Raurimu Avenue School in 1974 and the rest is history.

"You need to have good people to run the club and people who are passionate. People of the past were giving good ideas to people of the future.

"Their love for Old Boys was paramount and from there on, that's the only club I ever wanted to be a part of, it was all white the jerseys, it would always get dirty but it was just a privilege to put it on every time," he reminisced.

Professionalism, he lamented, changed the dynamics of OBM and other clubs up and down the country.

"It differentiated people from people. I know changes have to be made but it breaks the spontaneity of people working together as a team, and when money came in someone was earning more than others. It changed people's individuality of who they wanted to be."

Hand-written minutes of the inaugural Old Boys Rugby Football Club's meeting held on March 1, 1922. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Dunn was a player with natural skills and had a potent kicking boot.

Among the historical events at OBM was the opening of its first clubrooms on leased land in Riverside Rd in 1951, which was opened by president of New Zealand Rugby.

The following year, tragedy struck when its senior coach William Irvine died while watching his team play, but the club was honoured when his son Ian became its first All Black the same year.

Apart from rugby, the club not only set up a softball team in the 1950s to keep players together in summer, it won the Whangārei Softball Championship.

OBM also entered a cricket side and formed a boys' club and acquired a ring from the defunct Whangārei Wrestling Association for promoting sportsmanship and "manliness" in boys.