1979 Mizzou Rugby

The fall began badly, and the club was made to pay for it. Missouri had lost to Rockhurst in 105-degree heat, and by the following Tuesday’s practice the reckoning was under way. As his teammates repeated a hill-sprinting drill for the sixth time, center George Duggan walked to the sideline and explained himself to a Columbia Missourian reporter. “The reason for all this insanity is that we lost to Rockhurst last week,” he said. “It was 105 degrees and we were dropping like flies. Our famed English coach believes in fitness, so he’s making sure that it’s not going to happen again.”

The famed English coach was Jim Tweedie, and the wind sprints had been preceded by fifty minutes of calisthenics. “Sprint! You’re walking!” he screamed from the top of the hill. Tweedie believed in discipline as firmly as he believed in fitness: roll was called at every practice, and anyone who failed to follow an exercise with the team was invited to the top of the hill to do it twice while everyone else watched. Despite it all the reporter found team spirit very high, with a supportive banter running through the squad. “I think we have a viable club this year; their potential is very good,” Tweedie offered.

“And this is the largest squad we’ve ever had come out,” fullback Kevin Keegan interjected, “although it may dwindle down toward the end of the year.” Thirty-five players had turned out that Tuesday — enough men for an “A” and a “B” squad, and a player shortage nowhere in sight.

Money, unusually for a club sport at Mizzou, was not the problem. Coors beer paid for all tournament and referee’s fees as well as printed material and balls; jerseys and travel costs came out of the players’ own pockets. Varsity status was a different question. Unlike the Missouri soccer team, the ruggers had little hope of it. “There will never be varsity rugby in the Midwest,” Keegan explained. “The insurance would be too high because of injuries.” Faurot Field was the more modest ambition, and one the club had already chased once. “Our games would make good primers for the football games,” scrum-half Matt Fridley commented. “We tried to get a game at the stadium once, but I don’t know what happened. It fell through.”

That Saturday brought a 10 a.m. kickoff against the St. Louis Blacksheep at Reactor Field. The men behind the scrum were Tweedie himself at fly-half, George Duggan at first center, George Pliakos at second center, Steve Hale and Tim O’Brien at wing, and Keegan at fullback.

The same morning carried a second match. Missouri’s women’s side, coached by Don Corwin, opened its season against Wichita State immediately after the men had finished. “People think of women rugby players as a bunch of wild Amazons, but look, they’re all just normal girls,” Corwin said. “All you have to do is get them to play once and they’re hooked — they love it.” He rated their practice habits above the men’s, arguing that it was the women’s teams who used their acquired skills better as a season went on.