Frank Tressie came from the Carolinas to play semi-pro football for the Orlando Broncos. Divorced with no children and the demise of the Broncos inevitable, he found work and settled here.

A mountain of a man with dark black hair and penetrating eyes, Mike Hanson came across Frank in a local eatery at lunch time when there were no available seats except at a table diminished by Tressie’s size. During lunch, Hanson naturally launched into a sales pitch for his rugby team and Tressie was recruited.

For years, Tressie was the symbol of the ORFC. Opposing scrums didn’t prepare for the Orlando side as much as they prepared for Frank. Potential sponsors accustomed to Hanson’s “spin” welcomed Tressie’s candor. Frank Tressie was not only the heart and muscle of the new club’s scrum, but the club’s first President and as such the first member who looked to the future and set an agenda for the ORFC to develop. Through it all, he was a good man. Hanson called him, “Probably the most kind person I ever met.” As the first President and the man who secured the club’s future in Orlando, we gratefully hang Frank Tressie’s portrait in the Hall of Fame.