Borough School is the oldest primary school in Ashburton at 150 years old, with a roll of just over 300.
But somehow, seemingly like magic, seven of New Zealand's boys in black got their start at the small rural school.
Alan Robilliard, Jack Kelly, Ross Smith, Bruce McPhail, Denis Cameron, Jock Ross and Adam Thomson attended the school in different years, but nonetheless shared the same classrooms.
Ross organised the incredible findings, picking up where fellow All Black McPhail left off in documenting Borough's rich rugby history.
"He asked me if I could finish it off for him. Not long after that, he died. So I'd said yes, I'd said yes to the man so I thought I'd better get this done," Ross said.
He toured France and Romania in 1981 and couldn't believe how many rugby legends had gone through the same walls as him.
"We're not talking a secondary school or an intermediate school, I'm talking about a primary school in a little rural town like Ashburton. Seven, from one school? This is phenomenal."
The discovery is even more remarkable when considering just how hard it was to get selected for the team when living in a small town.
"They did it the hard way," said Malcolm Hopwood, a former Television One journalist and Borough School alumni. "They knew the All Blacks selectors would only come to Ashburton once a year for a combined game or international game."
Some speculate the harsh conditions and bad-tempered bus drivers are to thank for producing the rugby legends.
"During the winter it was freezing and in the summer, it was so dusty with the roads," says Denis Cameron, who travelled with the All Blacks to Australia and South Africa in 1960.
Hopwood believes, as most of the alumni were country kids that became wingers, they would be "strolling along to catch the bus, the bus driver would take off and demand they sprinted the last 100 or 200 metres to catch the bus."
To find out more about the boys in black's thoughts, click on the video above.
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