Remembering the ruggers we have lost.
Every name here belongs to someone who pulled on the Black and Gold, or who stood on the touchline and made the club what it is. They are listed in the order we lost them. Where a date is approximate, it is because the record we have is a message from a teammate rather than a notice.
If we have missed someone, or if you can add to what is written here, please get in touch. We would rather be corrected than leave anyone out.
A well respected teammate from the early nineties, on the roster in 1991–92 and 1992–93. He was 36 — far too early.
One of the two men who founded the Missouri University Rugby Club in the fall of 1966, an Air Force veteran from Creve Coeur who had played with the Ramblers in St. Louis before bringing the game to Columbia. John Leet, who was at the first practice, remembered him as inspirational.
Treasurer of the early club. Marking the club’s 45th anniversary in October 2011, Dan McGuire noted that he and Chip Maxwell had both “checked out early.”
Alistair Young asked for a glass to be raised in his honor at the 2012 Old Boys match — “a much loved Old Boy who is no longer with us. A great forward and a wonderful friend.”
One of the original team members and the club’s first Vice-President. “A very tough ruger and an accomplished doctor,” wrote Jim Clark, who had known him since their youth in Kansas City. He practiced as an OB/GYN.
Played through the late seventies, including Don Corwin’s first season in 1979, and went on to the Columbia Outlaws and the St. Louis Falcons. He did not drink, which made him the club’s designated driver on road trips — “a sober chauffeur with a lead foot.” His daughter Megan later captained the Mizzou women’s club.
Born in St. Louis in 1947 and a William Jewell graduate, he joined the club during graduate school. He collected nicknames — “Lightning Larry Peevey,” allegedly after being struck by lightning leaving practice at the old Reactor Field. He moved to Alaska in the late seventies, played and toured with the Oosiks in New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Argentina, and refereed to USA RFU “B” level.
Played for Mizzou for several years. “Played to his abilities and was an all around proper club man,” Fred Cole wrote of him.
Played in the late eighties and went on to the St. Louis Ramblers. A former Navy SEAL working as a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he was killed in the suicide bombing at Manbij, Syria.
On the roster for four seasons, from 1971–72 through 1974–75, alongside John Tarpoff, Charlie Stecher, Mike Myrick and Gus Hoelscher — who, decades later, still put “Tubby” near the top of his list of the names from those days. Born in New Jersey on April 4, 1951, he was an altar boy and an Eagle Scout before he found rugby at Mizzou.
He made his home in Chandler, Arizona, where he spent forty years with State Farm Insurance and was a member of the Chandler Lions Club, a big brother, a Steelers fan, Santa for the holidays, a loving husband and father and — by his family’s own account — “a so-so hunter.” He died three days after his 68th birthday. His family asked that his celebration of life be attended in Hawaiian shirts and bright attire, and that gifts in his memory go to Lions Camp Tatiyee, a camp for children with special needs.
A member of the original 1966 side and one of the club’s most faithful correspondents in later years, turning up in the Old Boys group to wish the current team well before almost every match. He is survived by his wife Annie and daughters Kim and Michele.
Ian Hermann was more than a coach; he was an icon of Mizzou Rugby. He moved to the United States from South Africa in late 1981, took over the club for the spring of 1982, and guided it for twenty-one seasons — from 1981–82 through 2001–02 — leaving an influence that extended far beyond wins and losses. Don Corwin played for Ian during his first two seasons in charge and, decades later, returned to coach the club himself—a fitting measure of how Ian’s leadership continued through the generations of players he shaped.
Ask those players what they remember, and many will begin with the hill at Reactor Field. Ian ran them up and down it until some were sick, but those who returned discovered they were becoming more than teammates—they were becoming a rugby family. When Clint Cockrill arrived at his first practice in 1995, a veteran offered three pieces of advice: “Call Ian ‘Sir.’ He is always right. Don’t argue, and do as you are told.” Ian demanded discipline, toughness, and commitment, and he was known to correct a lazy ruck with the persuasive assistance of a well-placed stick. His methods could be uncompromising, but behind them was a coach who believed his players were capable of more than they yet believed themselves to be.
Yet beneath the hard practices, sharp corrections, and legendary humor was a mentor whose confidence could change the course of a young man’s life. Fred Cole thought so much of Ian that he named his son after him. “You showed confidence in me; you put forth the mantle of leadership upon me,” Fred wrote. “You mentored me, you blessed me and my family… Coach, you’re one of the most positive influences of my life.” Warren Stemme remembered how deeply proud Ian was simply to have the opportunity to coach at Mizzou. “You can see that in his eyes in all the photos,” he recalled. Ian did not merely teach men how to play rugby; he taught them about leadership, perseverance, loyalty, and the responsibility they carried toward one another.
When Ian died, his former players returned to Columbia wearing the old black and gold. They came from different teams, different years, and different chapters of his life, but they stood together as one club and one brotherhood. “I can only imagine the half-cocked smile Coach would share if he saw us all in such solidarity,” Tyler Lasley wrote that week—“a man surrounded by all the men he helped shape.”
That is Ian Hermann’s legacy: not simply the years he coached, the matches he won, or the demanding practices his players never forgot, but the generations of Mizzou ruggers who became stronger men because he believed in them. His name lives on through the MRAA scholarship, but his true memorial can be found in the friendships, traditions, stories, and lives he helped build. Ian will forever remain part of the heart and soul of Mizzou Rugby.
Man of the Match at the 1969 Cherry Blossom tournament in Washington, D.C. He was also captain of Mizzou wrestling and a College Wrestling Hall of Famer, a Navy pilot, an engineer and a dentist. “Brother, Mate and Friend,” wrote Michael Fulk.
Remembered for the trips to Lawrence and a house in Millstadt where teammates crashed. The Old Boys raised a fund in his memory for his daughter, Sophia.
A hooker in the club’s very first sides. After University City High School he took undergraduate and graduate degrees at Missouri, and it was in veterinary school that he met his wife, Nancy.
He owned two animal clinics — his primary practice in Clayton and an expansion clinic in Bridgeton — and for many years volunteered several days a week at the APA, spaying and neutering homeless pets, often watched by his sons Michael and Andrew, who were thrilled by their frequent invitations to “watch surgery” in their father’s well-worn scrubs.
An avid sports fan who enjoyed everything from tennis to rugby, he took up photography later in life both behind the lens and as a collector, and earned a fine arts degree to “jump start his learning” before retirement. His family remembered him as “a lover of learning, an experimenter, a supporter where support was needed and a bolster when independence was called for… a man whose good nature is unequalled and whose kindness remains unmatched.”
Captained the club for a year and went on to a long career with the St. Louis Ramblers, recruiting several of his fraternity brothers to the game along the way. “One hell of a prop and a guy you wanted on your side,” wrote Don Corwin. “No mistaking his voice on or off the pitch.”
Played in the club’s second and third seasons. He served in the Marine Corps, graduated from the Mizzou law school in 1975 and practiced law in Columbia until 2021.
Compiled from notices posted by teammates in the Mizzou Rugby Old Boys group.