Having won 15 Manning Cup titles between 1912 and 1959, St George’s College (STGC) had to wait another 24 years to taste success. But when it eventually came, for some it was priceless.

Thirty-four years later, Andrew Price remembers virtually every detail of the success as if it were just yesterday. But how could he forget, having kept a scrapbook with every story and picture intact?

“The last time we had won the Manning Cup was in 1959 before we won it in the 1983, and I believe it was a renaissance of some sort,” Price told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

But that motivation to do well by the ‘Light Blues of North Street’ was propelled by an unfortunate incident when they were kicked out of the Manning Cup in 1982 because of the alleged use of an ineligible player.

That year, STGC and Camperdown High were on course for a massive clash in the final. Both teams were in Jamaican vernacular “in dem ackee”.

Camperdown, with the likes of Peter “Jair” Cargill, Nyron Prawl, Richard “Duck” Green, Mark Salmon, Andrew “Bowa” Hines, Dale Palmer, Prince Topey, and Barrington “Cobra” Gaynor, dethroned Kingston College with a 2-0 win in the final to lift the Manning Cup. . That Camperdown outfit is considered one of the best of the 1980s.

The dream match-up never materialised. St George’s College regrouped and came back stronger in 1983 and brushed aside everyone in front of them, becoming unique triple crown champions. They won the Manning Cup, Walker Cup, and the Nutriment Shield played between the urban area Walker Cup Knockout champions and their counterparts in the rural area Ben Francis Cup.

They lost the Oliver Shield — a contest between Manning and daCosta Cup champions — to Cornwall College 0-2. But they took solace from inflicting a 3-0 beating on Cornwall in the Nutriment Shield.

“One of my regrets was not being able to play in that 1982 Manning Cup final against Camperdown,” said Price, who was a monster of a defender at the heart of the St George’s backline.

“What we did when we got disqualified in the previous year, we decided to channel our energies in re-grassing Winchester Park, and I think that was the real renaissance of our football era,’ Price pointed out.

“Because we had a new field that was grassed, and to this day it is one of the best fields in the country, I think that allowed us to play some attractive football and helped us to hone our skills and improve our technique,” said Price.

Led by one of the hardest schoolboy kickers of the ball, Richard “Buddyhead” Strachan, the talented bunch brought some attractiveness to the game. There were the wily Paul Littlejohn, the magician Gary Bolton, the Ziadie brothers (Chris and Nick), Garfield Pearcy, Dwain Brooks, and the hard-tackling, no-nonsense Price.

The ‘Light Blues’ played an exciting brand of football and is considered one of, if not, the best team in the 80s. They defeated Tivoli Gardens Comprehensive on penalties for the Manning Cup title in 1983.

The following year, the ‘Light Blues’ repeated as triple champions. They beat Rusea’s 2-0 on aggregate to add the Olivier Shield to the two Corporate Area titles. That was one of Price’s most precious moments of football as he scored a rare goal. It was one of only four goals Price netted in his schoolboy career.

The ‘Light Blues’ rose to the occasion once again in 1984 at which time they brushed aside Jamaica College.

“We were a real cohesive unit and I think that we were like a family. We did every thing together, train together, eat together, camp together, we did a lot of things together. We knew each other inside out,” Price noted in reference to the back-to-back Manning Cup success.

“The nucleus of the team was kept together from Pepsi [Under-13] days. We won Pepsi in first form, then we won Colt [Under-15] two years in a row in 1980 and 1981, and went on to win Manning Cup in 1983 and 1984,” said Price.

His sweetest moment was that 1984 Manning Cup final triumph against Tivoli Gardens. The Tivoli team was also playing attractive football.

“We were two of the unbeaten teams, and if my memory serves me right, the Prime Minister of Jamaica Edward Seaga, who is a big supporter of Tivoli Gardens community and the high school, was in the Sabina Park box watching the game. And the crowd was so amazing, and to lift the title after 24 years was really exhilarating,” he noted.

But that game was also a bittersweet one for Price as he missed his penalty kick during the shoot-out.

“I kicked that fourth penalty in that shoot-out win over Tivoli, but if I could turn back the hands of time I would want to score that penalty. But at the end we still won 4-2 on penalties,” he noted.

“But that’s my only regret, and if I look back at my schoolboy days I wouldn’t change a thing. I enjoyed a lot of success and I had good camaraderie, not only with my teammates, but opposing [players], and to this day we still have a very good relationship,” he explained.

Having played on two winning Manning Cup teams, Price believed the 1983 team had a bit more with the deadly frontline pair of Strachan and Littlejohn banging in 16 and 11 goals, respectively.

The former tough defender believes his 1983 team is one of the best of that era. He said that St George’s team is behind the KC 1964-65 teams on the list of best schoolboy teams ever.

“I remember doing an article for this newspaper about searching for the greatest schoolboy football team, and I went through the various eras. And, after doing my personal analysis, I came up with the 64-65 KC team being the best schoolboy team,” he confirmed.

“But I would definitely count our team as one of those that should be mentioned in the reckoning as one of the best schoolboy teams,” Price added.

The hard tackling defender mentioned the “wily” Edward “Charley” Miller of Excelsior and the “excellent” Barry Cummings of KC, along with Richard “Pot Cover” McDonald of Jamaica College as some of the most difficult strikers to contain.

Being one of the most successful defenders of his time, Price’s idol was from North Street, but further down the road at KC — one Douglas “Dougie” Bell.

“I remembered watching him in 1977 in the National Stadium, as a youngster, when KC beat Wolmer’s 2-0 in the Walker Cup final. I have always been impressed, and funny enough we have remained close friends even though he is much older than I am,” he revealed.

But it was not all sports for Price, who even won a bronze in the Class Two long jump at Champs in 1983 and represented his school in cricket.

He had no choice but to balance his school with sports, culminating with a degree in business administration from the Florida International University.

“It was very important. As a matter of fact, if I wasn’t doing well in school my mother would tell me that I wouldn’t be able to play football. So that alone was a motivation to balance both sports and schoolwork, because I wanted to play.

“So when I came home from training, I would sleep, get up in the middle of the night and do my school work, so I could be prepared for the next day,” he pointed out.

Price, coaches at Boys’ Town FC and is also the National Beach football head coach.

“The sport has been good to me, and because of that I feel obligated to give back, that’s why I continue doing it,” he told the Jamaica Observer.