Some players might wince at the thought of playing competitive sports like rugby and football barefoot, but this is what kids did before 1969. Peter Chan shares on Good Morning Yesterday memories of his days as a rugby player, playing barefoot in the People’s Association sports field in Kallang.

Prior to 1969 under -16 year players wore no boots when they represented their schools at competitive rugby and football. This seems strange when we see kids today as young as 7 wearing branded sports attires. What was it like to run bare-footed? Was it painful for the big toe when you kicked the ball without boots? Somehow we conquered all pains.

One rugby tournament that I recall playing without boots was the Junior 7-A-Side which was held at the People’s Association Sports Field in Kallang. The sports field had one major characteristic; plenty of weeds and “Touch me not” (Mimosir). It was certainly not fun running bare-footed over “Touch me not”.

The preliminary matches were played in the morning, starting at 8 am. However the S-finals and Finals were played at the unearthly hour starting at 3 pm. That day, we missed our afternoon school session. The schedule was selected because there were no flood lights and there was a need to accommodate the senior (17 years and above) and junior (below 16 years) competitions. As a result the Finals ended in semi-darkness. The crowd size was small because the afternoon school session students were not allowed to leave school. Only those faithful to the game turned up.

How did the rugby match play out? Peter remembers his team mates, adversaries and the final result in his post here.