They were there when it all kicked-off back in 1995 - and they are still going strong as the Heineken Cup gets ready to celebrate its landmark 15th season of top flight cross-border European club rugby.
Take a player - Malcolm O'Kelly - take a coach - Guy Noves - and take a referee - Alain Rolland - and you have a trio who have virtually seen it all and done it all since it began 14 years ago.
O'Kelly played in Leinster's opening tournament match, a 24-21 victory in Milan on 1 November, 1995, and ended his 69th tournament appearance at Murrayfield on 23 May, 2009, with a coveted Heineken Cup final winners' medal around his neck.
He has graced the tournament in 13 of its 14-year history, missing out in season 1997/98 when London Irish competed in the Challenge Cup, where he played in all six matches.
And one of O'Kelly's team-mates in Milan back at the start was fellow Irish international and scrum half Rolland, who made five Heineken Cup appearances for Leinster before crossing over and turning from poacher to gamekeeper.
Rolland has since refereed 48 Heineken Cup - including the 2004 final at Twickenham - and seven Challenge Cup matches.
As for Toulouse coach Noves it is a case of 101 and most certainly not out.
He took Toulouse to the Romanian Black Sea resort of Constanta to face Farul Constanta on 31 October, 1995, in the historic first Heineken Cup match and is still at the coaching helm of the only team to win three Heineken Cup crowns.
And there are others who have made fantastic contributions to European club rugby's elite tournaments over the past 14 seasons.
On the same day that O'Kelly and Rolland were making their European debuts with Leinster, Anthony Foley was doing the same thing for Munster against Swansea at Thomond Park.
His final tally of 86 Heineken Cup appearances - including captaining Munster to Heineken Cup final glory in 2006 - was a tournament record until former team-mate John Hayes went one better last season.
However, Foley is still having an impact on the tournament as a member of Munster's coaching staff and much the same can be said of Jonathan Humphreys.
The former Wales captain played for Cardiff in their Heineken Cup opener in 1995 against Begles-Bordeaux and, after 50 appearances in Europe for Cardiff and then Bath Rugby, he is now one of the Ospreys' coaches.
And then there is French prop Olivier Sourgens who packed down in the 1995 Begles-Bordeaux front row against Humphreys and is now in the Worcester Warriors squad after arriving at Sixways via Mont de Marsan, Pau and Bourgoin.
