The 1968-69 state quarter final soccer match-up between St. Christopher’s and Woodberry was full of memorable moments: a missed St. Christopher’s penalty kick, a tie score that went into double-overtime, and an act of sportsmanship that would resonate with team captain Ferdie Baruch '69 for more than 55 years.
 

In that quarterfinal match, the rules dictated that if the score was tied at the end of double-overtime, the team with the most corner kicks was declared the winner. At the end of overtime, Woodberry had three corner kicks to St. Christopher’s two.
 

The Tigers would go on to face Norfolk Academy in the championships, and they walked away with the title. And yet, for all the drama of the match, it’s the moment after the game that Baruch carries with him to this day.

Baruch had been the one to miss the penalty kick, and when the last whistle blew and the game was called for Woodberry, he knew he’d need to regroup before heading into the locker room with his teammates.
 

“I just felt miserable,” Baruch recalls. “I started running around the track to get my head straight before facing the rest of the guys.”
 

Soon after Baruch began running, the Woodberry co-captain joined him, and without speaking, the two ran around the track, side-by-side.
 

“We had just played for more than an hour, and we were both on empty. But to have an opponent feel your pain like that–I can’t imagine a more sportsman like act,” Baruch said.
 

While Baruch had shared that story with many throughout his life, including his three sons Andy, Alex ’04 and Wyck ’06 , as he approached his 55th reunion at St. Christopher’s, he wondered if he might be able to connect with the player from Woodberry. A few emails later, Woodberry had identified Bo Randolph as the player who’d run with Baruch after the match, and last spring, Baruch and his wife Janet drove out to meet Randolph during Woodberry’s Reunion Weekend.
 

What was it like to reconnect 55 years later? “It had been a long time coming, and it meant a lot to be able to tell him how much his act of kindness has meant to me,” Baruch said. “We had a wonderful conversation.”