Steve – thanks for putting this site together. I was shocked to hear about Dale – Al couldn’t have said it better, that man knew how to live.
Memories of 1983 summer sevens came flooding back to me – Kook and Jensen as props and me playing hooker. Who could ever forget the infamous Articfest tourney win? How about the road trip that Grant hosted our drunken tour of the Pepsi plant, and ended with us leaving our ride dead on the highway with the Wisconsin State Patrol searching for our hungover car stripping gang.
I’m ready for another reunion… it’s been about 15 years I think.
I’m living in Glen Allen, VA. It’s hard to believe my son will be graduating from high school next June and my daughter is a HS sophmore. All is well with me and my family.
The photo’s that folks have posted are great – I’m going to do some digging and see if I can come up with any from my archives.
I’m the outgoing president at UWL (Rats RFC) and I’ve just come upon your website through
youtube.com I’ve attached some photos from the past year, including a team
photo with our new jerseys. I didn’t figure out how to post/add pics to the
site yet, hence I’m E-mailing you.
But I would just like to extend my thanks
to all the alumni who continue to support the team, we used donations from the
last Alumni game to purchase them. Thank you guys again.
Phil Paulsen
menrugby@uwlax.edu
paulsen.phil@students.uwlax.edu
Below: Back Row Left to Right: James Herro, Tom Jahnke, Tom Debacco, Ed Bremberger, Andrew Hagen, Dave Marek, Troy Syrjanen, Kyle Carrabine, Scott Staehler, Ben Mueller, Steve Russel, Mat Leitzke, Phil Paulsen, Brandon Shifflett, Judd Eastman
(Click Photos to Enlarge)
Front Row Left to Right: JR Welch, Scott Debacco, Alex Koivisto, Dan Liska, Kenshi Setoguchi, John Awowale, Geoffrey Puls, Jimmy Taylor
Mary Jo sent these in yesterday… Left to right, Jeff Asmus, Jane Ehr, Dale Jensen, Jon Buth, Karen Tranketa, and Craig ? [MJ Ehr on laps.]
Arctic Fest, Spring ‘83
Where the heck is Booth anyway. Somebody email that x-ray tech.
Hey there everyone…I got ‘the call’ from Roger Groll on 10/3 that Dale passed. All my love and prayers to you, Kathy and your sons. As most of you Old Boys probably remember I was with Jeff, Dale and Kathy alot from ’82 to ’84, when I graduated. I’ve never had such a huge, supportive, tight-knit or wild-ass group of friends since those awesome three years. There is nothing like rugby!… I’ll love you all till the day I die.
Briefly, I moved home to the Twin Cities May ‘84. My husband, Mike Hajicek and I met in 11/99 and were married 2/01.Â
I actually still have photos, and 100’s more game negatives, from UW-L Raquet days, (and possibly more than a little blackmail material!) but no way to post them currently. I will have to talk with Larvick. (I specifically remember some ‘interesting’ shots of Jon Buth and others at an Arctic Fest, but I digress…)
Mike and I will try to make it to LaCrosse for the next Old Boys. I’m so glad Steve’s made a place for us to post, THANKS Steve!!!
If you want to let everyone know where you are these days just post it in a comment.
Click on the comments link below.
Just be carefull how much personal information you want to stick in here because anyone can see it. Personally I’m leary about putting in more than city, state and email addresses online, but I leave it to your best judgement.
If you want me to post a current photo just email it to me and I’ll put it in below.
Steve,
Roger Groll emailed me and let me in on the bad news.
I was shocked to hear that Dale passed so young in life.
I am currently in Lexington VA and working in the NROTC unit here at
VMI.
If you could please include me in the email distro list for the "Rats."
I've kind of been away for a while but would like to get back involved
with Alumni parties, etc.
I am also an Asst. coach for the VMI Rugby club which is great fun.
Take care,
Mark Martin
Commander Mark Martin
Executive Officer
Naval ROTC Unit
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, VA 24450
Steve,
My pleasure on sending the pictures...and please feel free to
post the original e-mail I sent to Gravel IRT hearing of Dale's
passing...
Subject: RE: Dale Jensen
Gravel,
I just received your e-mail this morning, and the phone messages from
both you and Roger Riley...as I was TAD out of the office and up to the
Pentagon for the past week...I must say that I was truly shocked to hear of
Dale's death...as I have never known someone more full of life than Dale...If
there was one person I thought would live forever, it would have been that
crazy SOB! You know, even thinking about him now, at a sad time like this,
still brings a smile to my face...
When I get the chance, I will have to scan in some pictures I have of
Dale and us from the Old Rugby Days, including some at my folk's house in Sauk
City back in 1984/85 or so taken on our way down to play UW-Madison...
In fact, I was just back in Wisconsin this past August, and my folks
asked about Dale, as they remember us sitting around the kitchen table
drinking beer until five in the morning, eating Korean kimchi and dried fish
that Dale had stuffed into the back of that old two door blue Ford or Mercury
he had back in the day...and the whole time my Dad and Dale are ganging up on
me, and calling me a "Puss" because I had joined the Marine Corps, and not the
Army Special Forces...God I was sick that next day...but we still
played...terribly, but we played...and good enough to win if I remember
correctly...
I have never had more fun in my life than I did with Dale...of course,
there is a reason for that...because most of what we did with Dale would be
considered "Politically Incorrect" nowadays at best, and may actually be
illegal to some degree...Hahahaha!!!!!
As Jeff Asmus said in his e-mail to you all...he had never danced on a
table naked before until he met Dale....well, I had never sang "Singing in the
Rain" semi-naked before while standing in a crowded bar either, nor handed a
toll booth guy a beer instead of money to get us through the Illinois Toll
System near Chicago on our way to play Northwestern while wearing a piece of
white tape on my forehead saying "Jensen" either...but I did them both...and
too many other semi-illegal things, which just seemed natural when Dale was
around...and most of which I think I still have pictures of...
I was really looking forward to seeing him again come this Spring after
we retire, and move back to our home in Wisconsin...The last time I saw him
was when I took our son Matthew to the EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh, and we stopped
by their house to see Dale, Kathy and the boys, maybe back in 1996/1997 or
so...He hadn't changed much, that is for sure...still crazy as ever...
The world is a much less exciting place now that Dale has gone...
I would appreciate if you could get me his address and a phone number in
so that I can call Kathy at some point down the road to offer our
condolences...
Thanks again for letting me know...
Semper Fi,
Scott
Lieutenant Colonel S.B. Frosch, USMC
United States Marine Corps Representative
505th TRS
Air Combat Command
Hurlburt Field, Florida
You did a really good thing by starting the UW-L Rugby Rats website…it
was too long in coming, and I am damned glad someone did so…
I am still on Active Duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, and will be until I
retire next Spring (Official Retirement Date is set for 6 June 2008)…after
twenty three plus years of Active Duty in the Marine Corps, including seven
major combat operations, the last of which was spent as a Battalion Commander
in the Al Anbar Province or Iraq… we are beyond tired, and ready to slow down
a bit…plus, I am actually looking forward to maybe growing out a pony tail
and a goatee…well, maybe not the pony tail, but just letting my hair down in
general, and finally relaxing a bit…
The reason I am sending you this e-mail directly is that the military
network/firewalls do not always allow me to post e-mails or pictures to Non-
DOD websites…as such, if you do not mind, I am going to send you a couple of
e-mails and some scanned in pictures of Dale and us from “Back in Day”…
You have my permission to post all below, and any/all to follow…
We are looking forward to seeing you (all) again starting next Spring
after we retire back to Wisconsin…
