1973 Mizzou Rugby

The fall of 1973 was the club's first without coach Dr. Sterling Hayden, who retired after completing his doctorate, and it swung between brilliance and frustration on the way to a 5–5 record. The season opened with a 14–12 loss to the Kansas City Rugby Club decided by a disputed late penalty-kick call, followed by a 14–6 win over the St. Louis Ramblers. At the 32-team Heart of America Tournament in Kansas City's Swope Park — played before crowds of more than 2,000, with Scottish bagpipers on the sidelines — Missouri crushed Oklahoma State 23–0 before falling 3–0 to Minnesota on a late penalty kick. The high point came November 3, when the Tigers hammered arch-rival Rolla 30–4 at Reactor Field. Club president Rick Wetzel's verdict on the fall: “We just lacked consistency.”

The spring of 1974 was another story. After opening with a 24–0 shutout of Kansas City's River Quay club behind a John Loesing hat trick, Missouri hosted the Big Eight rugby tournament at Reactor Field on March 2–3 — an event the club had put together itself, with club president Rick Wetzel and Pat Costigan serving as co-chairmen and Costigan securing Stag Beer as its sponsor. The Tigers blanked Kansas State 34–0, beat Nebraska 16–4, and then held off Iowa State 19–18 in a championship match played before a roaring home crowd — a final that featured Rick Wetzel landing a rarely-seen drop goal and Ed Sweeney scoring twice. Iowa State had come through the other half of the draw by beating the Mizzou second team 17–0 and Kansas 12–0, so the club that turned out enough players for two sides finished by beating the team that had knocked its own second XV out. Former coach Hayden, refereeing the tournament, called it the best rugby he had ever seen a Missouri side play.

The Tigers went on to take third at the 16-team Rolla invitational, win at Arkansas 16–4, and — after being controversially left out of the St. Louis Easter tournament bracket — beat two St. Louis clubs in exhibition play to prove the point. A 9–4 spring gave the club its most successful season yet, with the Big Eight trophy as its centerpiece. Somewhere in the same year came the win teammates still talk about: Missouri beat the Kansas City Blues 35–28 at Reactor Field, with fly half Rick Wetzel scoring twice and making two more — a student side outscoring the men’s club that had shut them out 13–0 the previous November.

What the trophy does not show is how much of the tournament the players ran themselves. Wetzel and Costigan were students carrying full course loads, playing every weekend and administering the club, and between them they organized the first Big Eight rugby championship from nothing — the invitations, the draw, the grounds, and a beer sponsor. Costigan then hooked in the front row through the whole competition and captained the side that won it. He had come into the club in 1971, played four seasons at hooker, and finished by helping build the thing he went out and won.