Big Eight Champions
The men who brought the first Big Eight rugby title home to Columbia, March 1974.
Mizzou Rugby Season Archive
Fall 1973: 5–5 · Spring 1974: 9–4 · Big Eight Champions
An up-and-down fall, then a spring that brought the first Big Eight rugby championship home to Columbia.
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. 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. 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.
The men who brought the first Big Eight rugby title home to Columbia, March 1974.
The championship squad, as listed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
| Name |
|---|
| Jon Brandt |
| Ben Calloway |
| Red Campbell |
| Pat Costigan |
| Denny De Jong |
| John Dundore |
| Wally Fuetz |
| John Loesing |
| Mike Myrick |
| Tom Siebolt |
| Scott Snyder |
| Ed Sweeney |
| John Tarpoff |
| Rick Wetzel (President) |
| Bill Winkler |
So many players turned out that Missouri entered two teams in its own tournament — these are only the names the Post-Dispatch printed. Missing a teammate? Use the form below.
“Our backs and scrum were just too fast for Iowa State today.” — club president Rick Wetzel after the 19–18 Big Eight championship win.
Columbia Missourian, March 5, 1974
“The best organized tournament we've had the pleasure to participate in.”
Letter from the Kansas State Rugby Football Club to tournament organizer Rick Wetzel, March 5, 1974
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Columbia Missourian clippings from the 1973–74 season, preserved in the University of Missouri digital newspaper archive.
Clippings from the Columbia Missourian Newspaper Collection, digitized by University of Missouri Library Systems and the State Historical Society of Missouri. Links open the original pages in the digital archive.
Roster info, season records, photos, stories — every detail helps.