Clash of the Giants: John D/Mucurapo Class of '78 reunion

"It was tension from the starting whistle to the final whistle," recalls Brent Cumberbatch who was in the John D back four that afternoon.

"You didn't want to make a mistake. Mucurapo was such a force to be reckoned with...It was one of the most difficult games to play...Clauzel was a guy who would take a ball out of the air and wrap it around you. He was that dangerous."

Clayton Morris, the future T&T football, "Strike Squad" captain-still a year away from wearing John D colours himself back then-was a captivated member of the crowd.

"It really was an incentive for me," he says. "The crowd, the level of skill, the level of commitment, the camaraderie between the teams, the whole atmosphere..."

Nearly 27 years later, Morris and Cumberbatch want to bring the good times back. To John D.

On February 3 from 3 p.m. on the training ground adjacent to the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain, the surviving members of the two teams will be at the centre of a football and fun afternoon. They call it: "Clash of the Giants".

It is a "bring yuh cooler, bring yuh gears" lime; an outing for the John D and Compre football families, and they hope and expect, for the wider public too. It's an all inclusive affair, without a fee.

The cause is quite noble.

"We'd like to celebrate the positive effects of that era," explains Cumberbatch.

"It was an era where it was more love, more friendship, more camaraderie...What we got out of that game was long-lasting

friendships...

"We also want to use this event as a launching pad to be an annual event, for it to also in the future be a revenue-generating event where we hope to create a fund to assist (needy) members of the initial circle." And...

"We also want to use the fund to be a forum where we can lobby to the Colleges League for the inclusion of the Technical Institutes back into the fold."

Ian Greene, now president of the Mucurapo Past Pupils Association, was on the Mucurapo substitutes bench in that famous game.

He's all for a revival of the old spirit and brotherhood.

"Even though we lost after scoring first," he remembers, "it really had that family, that camaraderie, that love and we still have it today...

"Even though Fatima were next door, as far as we were concerned at that time, our neighbours were John D. These were the people we embraced as the rivals, different to any other team. John D was up where we were getting."

Culturally the "ghetto boys" of the age, the two sets of players were often colleagues on national youth football and even minor league duty. And together, they helped to initiate the shift of power that took place in the 1970s, away from the traditional teams, playing in a style that was fresh and appealing. As a result, that '78 clash also drew out new fans, namely the urban grassroots publics of Belmont, Cocorite and environs.

But while Mucurapo are still among the elite of schools football, the John D golden era turned to brass as long ago as 1986 when the post-secondary, Technical Institutes were voted out of the schools league, because it was claimed, they held an unfair advantage.

For Cumberbatch and company, it's an injustice that has persisted for too long.

"We have been bombarded over the years by a lot of the players and friends of the teams to do something like this," Cumberbatch says.

"It has always been a sore point with many of us, with the Technical Institutes being excluded from the Colleges League and we believe that minimised the pool that the national team could have used to select players.

"You talking about the Alan Andersons, Clayton Morrises, Russell Latapys, Leonson Lewis; players like these have used that stage-the Technical Institutes-to really advance and look what they have contributed to the nation!"

Greene shares the John D view.

"We recognise the long-term effect of not having the younger players reach their full potential," he says. "We think stopping somebody playing football at 17 years from the era of the Colleges football is wasted talent. We think that something like this could bring to the realisation of the powers that be in the Colleges football fraternity and even the national fraternity to let the younger ones stay the extra year or two to develop themselves so that you could see them a bit more and look at their potential."

Cumberbatch contends that, "players who play soccer only actually fully mature between the age of 17 and 19. So Technical institutes are a necessity as far as I am concerned in the development of soccer in the country."

Few feel more passionately about the subject than Morris.

A qualified John D graduate and one of his country's most respected players ever, Morris is living testimony to Cumberbatch's argument.

Emphatically Morris says, two years can make a big difference in the progress of a young player. Especially when it comes to bridging the gap between junior and senior football.

"If you look at our present national team, we solely depending on the foreign-based players and that shouldn't be. We should be able to have players here falling into the national team and maintaining that level."

He uses self-reference to strengthen his case.

'If you look at the national team, you can't identify somebody to play a sweeper up to now. I retire since '92 and up to now, you can't say that player is a sweeper, or this man is a general controlling the midfield. So there is a gap."

The John D men do not feel the Pro League youth league adequately fills the void.

But the shortcomings, these men argue also, are not just technical.

That is why they feel a revival of the old spirit-for the benefit of the present generation-is so vital. That is why, amid the fun next Thursday, the group will also be honouring several of their mentors, men like coaches Noel Gonsalves and the late Victor "Sharky" Henry.

"He was a father, teacher, partner," Cumberbatch says of Gonsalves.

"We were actually playing for one another and we were all playing for the coach (in the '78 final)."

Next week, Cumberbatch, Morris and company will be playing for John D's future.

The men in the '78 "Clash of the Giants":

Mucurapo:

Glenon Foncette (goalkeeper), Novell Gittens (skipper), Kendall Reyes, Kenneth Vincent, Emmerson Dubisson, Philip Thomas (deceased), Randy Glasgow, Ian Clauzel, Eric White, Wendell "Tractor" Belgrave.

John D: John Nichols (goalkeeper) , Brent Cumberbatch, Ramos Carmona, Robert Elliot, Steve David, Carlis ":Pointy" Miguel, Alan Anderson (skipper), Joseph Bacchus, Lyle Skinner, Dale Hinds, Harmon Lucas.