Old Christians Club
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Old Christians Club
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| Full name | Old Christians Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Union | Unión de Rugby del Uruguay | ||
| Founded | 1962 | ||
| Location | Montevideo, Uruguay | ||
| Ground(s) | Solymar | ||
| President | Roberto Canessa | ||
| League(s) | Uruguayo | ||
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| Official website | |||
| www.oldchristians.org | |||
Old Christians Club, or simply Old Christians, is a rugby union and field hockey club from the Solymar neighbourhood of Montevideo, Uruguay.[1]. Old Christians are famous around the world for the 1972 Andes flight disaster that involved the club's rugby team.
The rugby section of the club still exists today and Old Christians are one of the best rugby clubs in the country, having won the Uruguayan title 16 times.
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Contents
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History
Old Christians Club was founded in 1962 by alumni of Stella Maris College, one of Montevideo's best high schools.
Old Christians started as a rugby union club and, like most rugby clubs in Uruguay and Argentina, also developed a field hockey section for girls; thus becoming a multi-sports club.
Flight 571
For more details on this topic, see Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.
On October 13, 1972, a plane carrying 40 members and players of Old Christians' rugby team en route to Chile, crashed in the Andes.
More than a quarter of the passengers died in the crash and several more quickly succumbed to cold and injury. Of the twenty-nine who were alive a few days after the accident, another eight were killed by an avalanche that swept over their shelter in the wreckage.
The survivors had little food and no source of heat in the harsh climate, at over 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) altitude. Faced with starvation and radio news reports that the search for them had been abandoned, the survivors fed on the dead passengers who had been preserved in the snow. Rescuers did not learn of the survivors until 72 days after the crash when passengers Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, after a 10-day trek across the Andes, found a Chilean huaso, who gave them food and then alerted authorities about the existence of the other survivors.
The story of the disaster has since been depicted in many movies, television shows and books.
Rugby
Despite being one of Montevideo's youngest clubs, Old Christians have achieved remarkable success on the national scene, winning their first national title only six years after the club's creation.
Since then the club has become a powerhouse of Uruguayan rugby, winning the Campeonato Uruguayo de Rugby 16 times, the most recent one in 2007.
Many Old Christians have also gone on to represent Uruguay at international level.
The club's main rivals are Carrasco Polo Club and Old Boys Club.
Honours
- Campeonato Uruguayo de Rugby
- Winners (16): 1968, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2007
External links
- Official website (Spanish)
References
- ^ "Club History" (in Spanish). 21 May 2010. http://www.oldchristians.org. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
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