[Hillbilly]

Back in the late 60's there was a movement towards fútbol. In 1970 I became directly involved and trained the team at the , then, UCMM. Since there was no university based league and the Dominican Football Federation was so poor, almost any team with 10 or eleven jerseys could play.

I set out to recruit players who knew the game, I had the good fortune to have a couple of cigar smoking Danes and a Dutchman who knew the game as well as a couple of Spaniards and a few Dominicans that had learned the game at the Salesian Fathers schools in Jarabacoa and Moca or the Augustinian Father's school in La Vega.

We trained under the lights at the softball field every Tuesday and Thursday and played every Sunday. There were teams from Moca, San Francisco de Macoris, Haina, San Cristobal, Santo Domingo, the UASD, and San Pedro de Macoris. Eventually, by 1971, We had 12 teams playing a league and Cup schedule.
UCMM, Moca, La Vega, Villa Tapia, Haina, UASD, España, Refor, San Pedro de Macoris, Unphu, La Aurora, and San Francisco de Macoris.

the universities enjoyed a marked advantage: They could offer scholarships to students in order to attract them to the team. There was no such thing as transfer charges, it was all amateur stuff. Intense, but amateur. I even got my university to build a real football field!

By 1972 the UCMM was a powerhouse. I had recruited from the Salesian Philosophy House, the Salesian school in Jarabacoa, Haiti, Spain, and the best Dominican players. Some I got jobs for, some had scholarships, some I paid their high school so they could eventually get to the university. some I even bought tools for so that they could enter our technical school and learn a trade! We rolled over most teams and won the league but finished second in the Cup. In fact i never did win a Cup!
1973 was the same. In 1974 we were undefeated in the league but again lost the cup. I was like 50-4-2 over theyears as a team manager. We went to Haiti and played, winning 1-0 and losing 0-1 against the same team but reinforced by members of the Haitian national team that went to Munich in 1974! And their refs!!!

Because of the pressure from the other non-university teams, the Federation President decreed that from then on no Universities could participate in the league or cup. this was mostly directed at the UCMM team (the NY Yankees of DR football), since he had been fired from his job at UCMM!

Before this thousands of students would attend the games, we filled the Olympic Stadium with kids to see Pelé and the New Yoirk Cosmos, we played in the CONCACAF playoffs, against Surinam. We played in Jamaica, and we played and won in Curacao and Puerto Rico.. We hosted a team from Uruguay-Deportivo Cerro, and filled the Quisqueya ballpark and the Estadio Cibao. I can remember taking 10 school buses, bursting at the seams, to Santo Domingo to play the UASD or UNPHU or España. We had huge headlines in all the press and Monday's papers carried all the scores. That is pretty much gone now.

Since then, and in spite of US$250,000 in FIFA money they have not been able to get a really good team together.

Seldom has anyone been able to point a finger at one event that destroys an entire sports movement. By the way, the guy is still around, he is now an alledgely corrupt judge according to reliable reports, and has been kicked upstairs to avoid having to put him in jail. He is also banned for life from any Olympic activity. What a loser!

As a result of the scholarships, I can proudly point to MDs, BAs in Business, Philosophy, Education, Agronomy, a major league ball player (Damaso García, our captain for a while). Some of the kids, now men, still come by to talk of the old days...We had names like the big teams: Garrincha, La Piedra, Conde, Leduco, Mariano, Damasito, Tavares, Cabrera, Rijo, Sousa, Chila, Belman, La Tabla, Juan Torrens, Bietman, Knut, Poul, El Caballo de Hierro, Manolo, Juan Manuel (He is now a tenured professor at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid!), Hector...

Those were great times...
HB