Old Christians Club
Encyclopedia
Old Christians Club, or simply Old Christians, is a rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 and field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 club from the Solymar neighbourhood of Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

..
Old Christians are famous around the world for the 1972 Andes flight disaster
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known as the Andes flight disaster, and in South America as Miracle in the Andes was a chartered flight carrying 45 people, including a rugby team, their friends, family and associates that crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972...

 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.

History

Old Christians Club was founded in 1962 by alumni
Alumnus
An alumnus , according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate of a school, college, or university." An alumnus can also be a former member, employee, contributor or inmate as well as a former student. In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college,...

 of Stella Maris College
Stella Maris College (Montevideo)
The Stella Maris College of Montevideo, commonly referred as Christian Brothers College – Stella Maris or just Christian, is a private, co-educational, not-for-profit Catholic school run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland...

, one of Montevideo's best high schools.

Old Christians started as a rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 club and, like most rugby clubs in Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, also developed a field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 section for girls; thus becoming a multi-sports club.

Flight 571

On October 13, 1972, a plane carrying 40 members and players of Old Christians' rugby team en route to Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, 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
Nando Parrado
Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay is one of the sixteen Uruguayan survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. After spending two months trapped in the mountains with the other crash survivors, he, along with Roberto Canessa, climbed...

 and Roberto Canessa
Roberto Canessa
Roberto Jorge Canessa Urta is one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972, and a Uruguayan political figure...

, after a 10-day trek across the Andes, found a Chilean huaso
Huaso
A huaso is a Chilean countryman and skilled horseman, similar to the Argentinian, Rio Grande do Sul's or Uruguayan gaucho, the American cowboy, the Australian stockman, and Mexican vaquero and charro. A female huaso is called a huasa, although the term china is far more commonly used for his wife...

, 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
Carrasco Polo Club
Carrasco Polo Club is a multisport Uruguayan club, from the Carrasco neighbourhood of Montevideo, best known for their rugby team.Their name references directly their polo team and the fact that Carrasco has one of Uruguay's leading equestrian centres. Its rugby union section is one of the best...

 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
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