BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSITIES FIRST CLUB (By Andrew Cudbertson) Sunday morning, March 12th 1967. The start of the story but to the outside world, just an ordinary amateur rugby league friendly in Leeds.

I guess I didn't realise the true significance myself as we unloaded our borrowed jerseys into the small changing room of our parks pitch. We didn't win ... and we shouldn't really have called ourselves Leeds University ... but at least we had played a competitive game of rugby league football and we were all bone fide students. And that was the birth of what was initially University RL and later an all-embracing Student game.

By then a third year student, I was in contact with several other rugby league addicts and one or two of us were keen to try and play the game we loved to watch. The idea of an internal match between departments was first a wild idea that myself and Bill Scott, a student from Penrith (Lake District version) devised in the train on the way back from watching a match at Fartown. A desperate hunt for players failed to find two teams but at least we had enough names to make one side. But who to play? A spell of refereeing in the Leeds amateur league a year or two earlier gave me the answer. I would contact that grand old man of Leeds ARL, Aubrey Casewell. The reply came back immediately. We have started a round of Sunday friendlies for new teams like yours. So get on with it!

Thus we were matched with equally improbable opponents in General Accident for that first game. The 15-30 defeat made us all the more determined to continue and so two more friendlies were arranged and at last we won a match! The enthusiasm was unstoppable. We wanted official Students Union (SU) status with funds and all the other benefits. The SU Sports Secretary was a student judo star called Graham Holling. His instant reaction when he saw our letter applying for recognition was unprintable in this very respectable journal. After a long pause, he said "Right you've got my support but don't underestimate what will be thrown at us!" Remember this was over thirty years ago and in the UK, universities and rugby league had never been mentioned in the same breath.

Graham was true to his word. He fought long and hard for fair play. He eventually calmed the paranoia of the University Union Club (who really were big enough boys in top class Yorkshire Union to look after themselves!). Minutes of the meeting granting approval read "Rugby League: Recommended (after much discussion) that provided there were no bad repercussions on the Rugby Union Club, the formation of a Rugby League Club be allowed". The repercussions clause was never ever mentioned again and we were now legitimate. Our grant for kit and travel and all incidental expenses for two teams - one in the famous Leeds & District Saturday League (Division Two) and the other in a new Sunday League - totalled just £42 for the year! With no other student opposition available - apart from a team at Portsmouth Polytechnic formed earlier than us by Peter Tate - we had to rely on amateur RL opposition. It was even pre-BARLA. We were taking on streetwise old heads from the rugby league heartland of Leeds, Wakefield, Castleford etc. But we had one trump card that continually baffled our opponents.

This was the phenomenon of Cec Thompson. Our Cumbrian players (Bill Scott, Jack Abernethy) spotted Cec studying away in the Brotherton library. It was definitely Cec, a one-time international and Workington star. They remembered him when he cleaned windows at Cockermouth Grammar School. So we approached him very nervously and in awe of this great rugby league legend (amazingly Cec later says that he was in awe of us young school leavers, but that's a different story...) Now Cec was the world's most conscientious student bar none and he had every right to turn down our plea for him to coach us. But typically he said "yes" and now we had on the touchline the most amazing source of inspiration. His way with words (as all who know him will testify) is as legendary as his rugby and he made us feel world beaters when we faced the Ossett Trinity's and Middleton's and all the rest. Never short of courting disaster - like the time when Cec and our trainer Ernie Schofield drove into each other as their cars headed for the changing rooms - there was never a dull moment when Cec was around. His autobiography "Born on the Wrong Side" is a powerful human story worthy of a much wider audience than the usual League publication. Cec never gives in to adversity. His example is an inspiration.

I learned the "never give up easily" lesson very early with Cec. He and I used an annual rugby union meeting between Leeds and Liverpool Chemistry Departments to encourage the formation of a Liverpool University Club once we found they had some ex-league schoolboys in their ranks. The subsequent first ever rugby league match between universities resulted from our lobbying in the bar! But it nearly didn't happen. Two days before the match, Liverpool phoned me to say that they had only ten players and they would have to cry off. I told Cec. He exploded "Get back on the phone. Tell them it's not off. We'll bring some spare players". Actually, we didn't have spare players but Cec was proved right. The game was back on and Liverpool turned up with 17! The game made national headlines. "Never give up easily"!

Soon afterwards and without any prompting, clubs sprang up at Bradford, Manchester, Salford and Sheffield Universities. Our Students Union approval even with its silly "no bad repercussions" clause was proving an inspiration to students elsewhere who wanted to start their own teams. Nowhere was turned down to my knowledge. Having left Leeds, I badly wanted to get a University League going and in 1969 the first student competition started. It fulfilled a personal ambition dating from that friendly with General Accident.

Despite moving to East Anglia in the early 1970's, then Oxford (for another pioneering bash with Mark Newbrook, Harry Edgar and others) and now North Wales, I have kept in touch with the game. Nowadays - by a strange quirk of history - both Niel Wood and David Oxley always greet me with the same question "How's your Dad?" Why? Both, in their schooldays, played for the soccer teams run by my father, a Hull schoolteacher. Though not in the same era, Niel keeps reminding me!

I am happy to admit I am just as besotted by the game as I was as a ten year old. Yes - it's easy to get depressed by the politics and fragmented decision making of today's RL. It's particularly sad to see cynicism and loss of interest creeping into life long enthusiasts of my generation. But look at the big sporting world outside and our predicament is not unique. Forty years ago sport was scared stiff that television would wipe its live audience away. Now it's a mad panic not to be left behind. Everyone wants to be in Manchester United-land, giving us a culture where there is no room in sport for those below fifth! But it's easy to switch back into positive gear. Take the medicine and watch a match. Amateur, student, NFP, Bradford v Leeds, State of Origin, internationals. It's always the action not the comment that cheers you up. Old time matches on the hundreds of video tapes I collect or today's high speed variety. I'm happy with either. If you need a double dose of medicine then sit down and read the "When Push Comes to Shove" collections. Then you will know exactly why you love rugby league!

I must confess that in 1967 a handful of student teams playing in a dedicated league was the limit of my vision. I don't think I even dreamed of transglobe internationals, 70 student teams, World Cups, entry into the Challenge Cup, teams of highly trained athletes, dedicated training camps! True, I was there at the very beginning but obviously if it had not been me, it would have been someone else - the time was just right. The student game would never have reached today's heights without devotion to the cause by so many down the years probably giving much more of their time than I ever had to in those first two seasons of University League.

I can think of no better way of celebrating all those enthusiasts, the players, games, clubs, great moments than seeing published a definitive illustrated history of Student Rugby League. The idea has been floating around for a while and your editor and I are seriously interested. Such a project needs contributions. Just to gauge interest, we'd like to hear from anyone who has photographs, memories, anecdotes. No need to send anything in yet - it's too early to do that - but simply to know how many people could contribute would be a valuable first step.

EDITOR: Thank you very much, Andrew, for this superb contribution to the 'Rugby League Writes' section. On reading this, one must reflect on how much Student Rugby League and indeed the game in general owes to the vision and sterling work of the likes of Andrew and Cec. Andrew's modesty shines through the piece. His contribution to Student Rugby League has been immensely significant, and that contribution continues to this day as a member of the SRL Executive. To conclude, I'd also like to reiterate Andrew's plea for interest in the subject of a history of Student Rugby League. This would be a fantastic venture, but obviously requires much hard work and also the assistance of all those identified by Andrew. If you can help in any way, please let me know by contacting me at the Alumni office.