It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Vuyisile Onesmus Radebe--Captain of DRFC class of ’95--on the 9th January, 2021. As many of you know, Vuyi battled with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) for several years. The DRFC sends its heartfelt condolences to Vuyisile’s wife Pamela and his children Hlangalethu and Zuluntu at this difficult time.
As long-time DRFC head coach, Wayne Young ’72, said, "Vuyi was one of the most memorable members of the DRFC.”
Below are the details to send tributes. Please visit: www.indigitalstream.co.za/vuyiradebe
From A Collection of Dartmouth Rugby Reflections as compiled by John Liesching with DRFC Dick Liesching Award recipients.
The DRFC Spirit
by Brent Clayton ’07
One thing that I have admired since graduating is how like-minded every DRFC player and alumni I’ve met is. I may not have ever met that middle-aged prop at the DRFC alumni reception in New York City, but I’m pretty sure I know what makes him tick. I think this is due to the DRFC values that live on class to class, generation to generation. I traveled to Lagos, Nigeria a few years back for work and started up conversation with a gentleman at the same conference. He was Zulu and had grown up under apartheid in South Africa. There was a certain ease to the conversation with this man, and we talked further. Through some scholarship program he managed to make it to a boarding school in the UK and then, by hook or by crook, made it to a certain small college in New Hampshire. At what seemed to be one of the farthest ends of the world to me, I had met Vuyisile Radebe, captain of the DRFC in 1995. 12 years apart in classes, it was like catching up with an old teammate. Round the girdled Earth we roamed, the DRFC spell remained, as we trundled onwards in life.