Rugby ‘Lion’ re-awarded to Gogi Tillekeratne after 30 years!

By S. M. Jiffrey Abdeen, Kandy Sports Corr.

History was created at Trinity College when a rugby ‘Lion’ which was awarded and later withdrawn was re-awarded over thirty years later.

The man who was part of this history was none other than former Trinity College and Havelocks Sports Club ruggerite Gogi Tillekeratne who was awarded his rugby lion in the late sixties but subsequently it was withdrawn by the College authorities a few months later over an incident during the Principalship of Mr. Oorloff who was a strict disciplinarian.

But last week and over thirty years later, this rugby ‘Lion’ was re-awarded by the present Principal Rodderick Gilbert. This may be the first occasion a ‘lion’ had been re-awarded to a recipient who had won and lost it, or is it a rare occasion this had been done. There has been no instances of such a re-awarding of the ‘Lion’ in the recent past.