Alongside him were other famous Blues names from another era - Eroni Clarke, Ofisa Tonu'u, Waisake Sotutu, Kevin Nepia, Andrew Blowers and Leo Lafaiali'i.
Tonu'u said racially-charged criticism had compelled the group of friends to lend their support. "It's all selective - it wasn't an issue when world championships were won, but now it all comes up," Tonu'u said. "That's just cowardly stuff."
Lam's story was the same as those of many of the "boys" at the club - parents coming to New Zealand and making sacrifices to give opportunities to their children. Lam, under pressure after a one-win/five-loss record, twice broke down in tears during a press conference on Wednesday when asked about the effect the criticism was having on his family.
Lam said the vitriol aimed at him on talkback radio, social media sites and websites hurt his Samoan-born parents and revived memories of the racism they had suffered.
Commenters on Twitter pointed to the Blues website and radio shows as the source of the racism, but talkback representatives distanced themselves from the accusations, saying they had checks to filter out such callers and an eight-second delay if they failed.
The Radio Network's general manager of talk radio, Dallas Gurney, said: "If we were made aware of specific instances then clearly we would investigate them as per our usual complaints process."
He said he had not encountered racial comments.
A Blues spokesperson said comments of a racial nature had been removed from its website, though she said it was a policy to keep the site honest and uncensored.
Some of the most strident criticism of Lam and the team can still be found on the Blues' official website. Users are able to leave comments under stories on the site and the criticism from the first defeat of the season to the Crusaders has been sometimes harsh.
A comment from someone calling themselves "blues fan" left on March 26 said: "pat lam your time is up, please resign ASAP. blues need a kiwi coach".
More recent comments refer to Lam picking only Samoan players.
New Zealand rugby boss Steve Tew fired a shot back at those not prepared to put their names to overly personal or offensive comments. "As a national body, we have a zero tolerance for any racial abuse or activity, that goes without saying.
"As a New Zealander, because I don't think this is only a rugby issue, I'm appalled. I find the whole ability by people to hide behind social media and be faceless and to criticise people personally and to bring race and religion or anything else into it, is just a very disappointing part of our country."
