bruce "brutus" mcpherson

YEARS PLAYED: 1964-65

POSITION[S]: Left Winger

Influential UMRFC players: Coach Fada Winiada (Phonetic Spelling), Maori Indian from New Zealand. I was lucky to start on the Michigan team as a Frosh, as many of my teammates grad students. I wish I could remember their names, but too many years have passed.

Other clubs and select teams played for: None

MEMORABLE GAMES, PLAYS, TOURS, OFF FIELD EVENT: Played principally college and town teams in Southwest Ontario, as few Big Ten teams had clubs. Notable exceptions were MSU (in which I had a concussion but stupidly played the entire second half in a fog) and Indiana. Also played a Notre Dame team in Chicago in early summer. Most memorable were the after-game parties in the pubs with the opponents, and with the air filled with funny and often lewd Australian drinking songs. We played our home games on Saturday afternoon when the football team was in town, so that many of the fans leaving the game would pass by us on their way home.

CURRENT LOCATION: Prescott, AZ. 1699 Constable St, 86301.

OCCUPATION: Retired health care executive

family:  Wife Joan and 3 grown children: Kevin, Sean and Wendy

comment:  I was born and raised in nearby Howell, MI but attended a private boys prep school for high school in NH. In my senior year a new history teacher from Dartmouth put together a rugby team in which I started. It was a perfect game for me as I was perceived to be too small for football but I was quick, a shifty runner and a determined tackler. Unfortunately, late in the Spring of my Freshman year I broke my two shin bones making an open-field tackle. Following about 8 months in a full-length cast, I was pronounced fit to return. In my first practice back I caught a kick over my head, was tackled to my knees, and felt the same breaks. With screws inserted in my shin bone, my rugby days were over (while I flunked the physical for the Draft!).