The four brothers returned to the Peter Johnstone Park clubrooms at the weekend to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Taieri Rugby Football Club and meet their old mates.
Terry (53) and Graeme (57) travelled from Auckland, Bevin (60) from Nelson and Stan (62) drove up the road.
They were brought to the club at a young age by their parents, Felix and Alma, who were stalwarts of the club.
"They were right behind us," Terry said.
"Mum used to clean my boots for Saturday morning games."
What they remember most about the early years were the big schoolboy seven-a-side tournaments on Queen's Birthday Weekend when teams would come from around Otago.
When the Brook brothers played, the Taieri club headquarters was the "Old Reck" with its cold showers.
The lavish clubrooms and superb grounds at Peter Johnstone Park came later.
"One of the hardest games each year was against trainee priests at Holy Cross College," Stan said. Graeme recalled being taught to ruck by having another player jump all over him.
"I recall the day when some idiot turned on the fire hydrant when we were in the shower," he said. Graeme fell down a quarry at Mosgiel when he was aged 10 and kept having nose bleeds after this.
It eventually forced him to give up the game and become a referee.
Bevin played for the Taieri premier team as a loose forward from 1968 to 1974, and premier rugby in Nelson until the age of 33.
"I enjoyed the comradeship and friendship at the club," he said. Terry was the statistician and recorded the rugby deeds of the family in a small notebook.
The notebook showed that Bevin scored 72 points for the club in 1967.
The Brook brothers were tigers for punishment and played on Sunday as well for the Mosgiel Hotel (now Crofters) in "friendly" games.
The four brothers all played premier rugby for Taieri.
Stan was a hooker, Bevin (known as Chook Brook) and Graeme were loose forwards and Terry played anywhere in the backs.
Bevin, played one game for Otago in 1971.
He then played six years of first-class rugby for Nelson Bays.
Terry, who followed his brother to Nelson, played for the Nelson Bays colts, one game for the Wellington senior team and three years for Counties B.
The oldest former players at the anniversary were Len Blackie (88) and George Johnstone (86).
Johnstone is the older brother of former All Black captain Peter Johnstone.
They cut the anniversary cake at the dinner on Saturday night.
There was a rush of later registrations and 550 attended the dinner on Saturday night when Otago coach Steve Martin was the guest speaker.
The guest speakers at the get-together on Friday night were All Black assistant coach Steve Hansen and 1974 Commonwealth Games 10,000m gold medallist Dick Tayler.
Former club player, Otago representative, and now Sydney opera singer Jud Arthur sang at the opening.
The annual schoolboy sevens tournament will be held at Peter Johnstone Park today.
