The Country Music singer songwriter and Hollywood actor Kris Kristofferson has sadly passed away at the ripe old age of 88 and despite a long career in music, he is probably best known as the fading star playing opposite Barbara Streisand in the 1976 blockbuster film, ‘A Star is Born!’

1976 Poster for ‘A Star is Born’ Source: Creative Commons
However, what is perhaps less well known is his love of sport and in particular his involvement in Rugby Union, where in 1958 as a student at ‘Pomona College in California, he achieved his first taste of ‘national exposure’, when he was featured in the March edition of ‘Sports Illustrated’

A young Kris at Pomona College as featured in Sports Illustrated in 1959.
Kris Kristofferson was born in Brownsville Texas in 1936, the son of a US Army Air core Officer and at high school he distinguished himself as a distance runner and an American football player at San Mateo in California.
Alongside a photograph of the young Kristofferson, Sports Illustrated( first published in 1954) described him as:
‘This dashing young man who plays stand-off on the team at Pomona College, has an amazing record, as he is also on the Varsity football team, a ‘Golden-Gloves’ boxer( a competition that began in 1926 to promote amateur boxing; former champions include Sugar Ray Robinson and Mohammed Ali ), sports editor of the college newspaper and an outstanding cadet in the ROTC Battalion’
Kristofferson and his classmates had gained notoriety for reviving the college rugby club, which was first formed at the turn of the century and benefited from the coaching of their Scottish born Geology Professor, John Christie.
Pomona College RFC went on to win the Southern California Championships in 1958 and tied in 1959 and subsequently played at The Coliseum as a prelude to a match involving The New Zealand All Blacks who were on tour in the USA.
After graduating with a BA degree in 1958, Kristofferson was awarded a ‘Rhodes Scholarship’ to Oxford University, a ‘fully funded full time post graduate award enabling young people from around the world to study at Oxford’ and it was at Oxford where he began performing and recording( using the name Kris Carson) his own songs, eventually being signed by ‘Top Rank Records’ with producer Tony Hatch.
At Oxford he continued his love of rugby union and played regularly for Merton College, where rugby union had been played since 1869, fifteen months before the Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871; the college produced several internationals the most well known of which was the wales and British Lions wing, D.K Jones, who was at Merton , just after Kristofferson had completed his course.

Merton College Oxford
As well has his rugby commitments, Kristofferson also continued his love of boxing and represented the university as a light middleweight in 1959 against Cambridge, gaining a ‘ Full Blue’
‘Boxing at Oxford was one of the best things of my life’
reflected Kristofferson in a 2012 interview.

Boxing at Oxford circa 1959
The Blue is the highest honour that can be awarded to an individual sportsman at Oxford and is a highly sought-after achievement and has been awarded since 1904, as one of the first items on the agenda of the newly formed ‘Sports Union’, with retrospective awards made back as early as 1870.
He also trained at the former ‘Thomas a Becket’ pub in London, where he got to watch Henry Cooper (former British and European champion) who regularly trained there. Cooper later recalled:
’He was a charming guy and he loved his boxing’

Former British and European Champion- Henry Cooper
After gaining his ‘Masters’ at Oxford, Kristofferson returned to the US, married his childhood sweetheart, joined the Army and learned to fly helicopters, but left in 1965 to pursue his musical career in Nashville, finally releasing his first album in 1970.
Music had become the most important thing in his life and from then on, sport very much took a back seat.

Kristofferson in 1978
Source Agency: Magna Artists, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
He emerged as a figure whose fame went beyond country music when Janis Joplin (American singer –songwriter) recorded his song, ‘Me and Bobby Mcgee’, which gave her a posthumous US number one hit in 1971.
In the 1970’s, alongside his music (his album ‘Kristofferson’ included the iconic tracks ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’, ‘For The Good Times’ and ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’) he focused on his acting and appeared in over a dozen films, winning the ‘The Golden Globe Best Actor Award’ for ‘A Star is Born’ in 1976 and also appeared with his boxing idol Mohammed Ali in ‘Freedom Road’ in 1979; he was reputedly cast in the film at Ali’s request.

1979 Poster for ‘Freedom Road’
In 1985, Kristofferson teamed up with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to form the ‘Supergroup’ The Highwaymen; the single off their first album, ‘The Highwayman’ was awarded the American Country Music’s ‘Single of the Year’ in 1985; they would continue to perform together until 1996.

With The Highwaymen in 1985
https://www.facebook.com/WillieNelson
At a benefit concert in Nashville in 2010, the up and coming singer-songwriter Taylor Swift referred to Kristofferson as her ‘role model’ and when he launched his ‘instagram’ account, the first post he shared was a picture of himself with Swift

With Taylor Swift launching his instagram account https://www.instagram.com/kristofferson
He returned to Oxford in 2013 and delighted the college at a Rhodes Alumni dinner with a spontaneous performance of his classic songs and a year later he received his fourth ‘Grammy Award’, followed by the release of his final album in 2016, before being diagnosed with Lyme’s Disease in 2021.
Asked how he would like to be remembered Kristofferson quoted a line from one of his songs:
‘The goin’ up was worth the comin’ down
Article copyright of Bill Williams
Kristoffer Kristofferson (1936-2024)