USA Rugby Future

I can't help but be excited about the future of USA Rugby after watching the Las Vegas 7s this past weekend on NBC! Man, when you think of the talented athletes our country has, it's hard to not wonder what our Eagles would be like with some of the current pro sports athletes trying out for a spot to represent America in worldwide competition! Nice to dream isn't it?? Fingers crossed for the advancement of this great sport in our country! Things are looking up I think.............Come on all you multi-millionaires, step up and support our team!!!!

The Dogs Head to Edinburgh!

The 2nd GO Festival attended by The Olde Barking Dogs was 2008 in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was to be my first overseas Festival, and the first time I had been out of the States (not including Mexico for a day in 2005) since I was in Germany in 1978 and 1979 while in the service. The first item I needed to take care of was a passport! Once that was taken care of flights to and from needed to be booked. I find it interesting now that my round trip to Sydney this year was actually cheaper than my tickets to Scotland in 2008! Crazy.

Myself and three fellow Dogs met up in Mason City, then drove to Minneapolis, MN to catch our first flight.

Our second leg was from New Jersey to Edinburgh. Our flight was delayed for an hour and a half, so, we just sat and watched the world go by.

We arrived in Scotland on the Friday before the festival began to give us a couple of extra days to sight see and get familiar with our surroundings. Our Hotel, The Clarendon was right on the main drag in downtown Edinburgh, so close to many pubs and restaurants. Our accommodations were a little less "posh" than the Star City in Sydney to say the least, but we made the best of it.



Several more of our team mates arrived in the next day or so, and we met up on Sunday night to have a few beers and watch the Annual fireworks at Edinburgh Castle. They said almost 300,000 people were there to watch the festivities that night. I can actually believe that number. The city was packed!

The opening ceremony at the Castle was a great way to kick the week off. We marched through Old Town to an area park for three hours of food, drink, and music. Our week started off great!

The following day, Monday was our first match day. the Dogs recorded one injury. Jeff Lubbert, a former River City player who now lived in Colorado with his wife Diane, pulled his Achilles tendon in the 3rd half, and was relegated to crutches for the rest of the week. I was able to accomplish one thing in our sport that had always eluded me in my active playing days, I scored my first try!

The party tent at the Festival grounds was a great way to mingle, trade, eat, and drink after our matches all week. My best friend Bill and his daughter Megan are shown in this pic with me after one of our matches.

On Thursday, we were taken to Mussleburg racetrack for our mid-week picnic. I think I added about 30 new pins to my collection that afternoon. When we returned, the Dogs met up for our scheduled pub crawl. It was rumored that there were 32 pubs on Rose Street that needed to be stopped at to make it an "official" pub crawl. Well, strong ales, and old age only allowed us to visit perhaps 12-15, but we gave it the old USA try!

Friday was our last match day, and also the evening of our team dinner. The Dogs gathered at La Piazza, a Italian eatery a short distance from our Hotel. Excellent wine and food was shared by all during the two hour time period we were there. Afterwards, we gathered at our Hotel for our team "Kangaroo Court" to hand out awards for the week, and to share memories of our time in Edinburgh.

*** For some reason I can't download any photos. Sooooo, since I promised to get this posted, let's call this Part #1 for Edinburgh. I will complete this post when I can figure out the photo loading issues!***

END PART #1 For Edinburgh 2008

Apologies!

It's been awhile since I have posted, and do apologize to everyone. The holidays, overtime at work hauling the white stuff, and just life in general has kept me away from this project. A resolution for the New year about my habit of procrastination will hopefully remedy my posting hiatus! I almost have the Edinburgh post ready to put up, and hopefully it will be done in the next week or so.

I am planning on attending Ruggerfest in Aspen for the 2nd time in September. My first trip west in 2009 was amazing, so I am hoping the trip I'm planning for this year will be just as much fun.

If anyone is looking for a smaller Old Boys function, my home town team, River City Rugby will be having our annual "Old Boys Clash" on Memorial Day Weekend again this year. This will be the 5th Clash, and we are very encouraged about it's growth in popularity in the last couple of years. Last year we had over 50 players attend, and the rumor mill looks like close to 100 for this year! Drop me an email if you have any questions.

Thanks once again for stopping by to read my ramblings. I sincerely appreciate all the hits on this lowly Iowa Rugger's blog! More soon.......I promise!!

A Little "Rugger" Humor

My friends say I have a rather "odd" sense of humor, but I look on that as a compliment! When I find a good joke or story I like to share them. Found this online a few days ago and did some slight "adjusting" to make it fit my Club Team, River City Rugby. Enjoy!

I have been working on our Edinburgh Festival wrap up with photos. Will try and have it posted soon! Merry Christmas and happy New Years to everyone!!!!

A River City Rugby player is drinking in a New York bar when, he gets a call on his cellphone. He hangs up, grinning from ear to ear, and orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar announcing his wife has produced a typical River City Rugby baby boy weighing 25 pounds.

Nobody can believe that any new baby can weigh in at 25 pounds, but the Dad just shrugs, "That's about average back home, folks, like I said, my boy's a typical River City Rugby baby boy.

Congratulations showered him from all around, amid many exclamations of "WOW!". One woman actually fainted due to sympathy pains.

Two weeks later, he returns to the bar. The bartender says, "Say, you're the father of that typical River City Rugby baby that weighed 25 pounds at birth. Everybody's been making bets about how big he'd be in two weeks. So how much does he weigh now?"

The proud father answers, "Seventeen pounds." The bartender is puzzled, concerned, and a little suspicious. "What happened? He already weighed 25 pounds the day he was born!"

The rugger takes a slow swig from his Leinkugel's beer, wipes his lips on his shirt sleeve, leans into the bartender and proudly says, "Had him circumcised."

Slabbs Was Here!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since Marty "Slabbs" Rodgers made his way to our little city, but the memories will last quite awhile! Marty and Isaac Luten ( a Sydney OBD) arrived at our Clubhouse a little behind schedule, but it wasn't a huge deal. We proceeded to give Marty the tour of our team's Clubhouse, then spent a couple of hours looking back on our tour and consuming a few adult beverages.

As the afternoon/evening progressed we went to a bar/restaurant in town for an evening meal and more beverages, then to our last stop of the night, a bar that was having Karaoke (singing along to music). Needless to say, it got VERY interesting at that point! There was countless songs sung, dances danced, and a few too many beverages consumed by a few of our party.

One tradition of this particular bar is that if you sing three times you must kiss the stuffed moose head on the wall. We had Roger & Isaac perform this honorable task out of our group.

All in all it was a great night with our friend from Down Under. Slabbs said he had an amazing time, as we did, and can't wait until we meet up again. I'm sure if and when he makes it this way again, or we venture south to Australia again, the end result will be the same...good times with great friends. It's all part of our Golden Oldies Rugby world.

San Diego 2005, The Dogs first GO Festival

In the Spring of 2004 two senior members of River City Rugby, Ron Tjaden and Craig Skott sent out an email to our Club's current and former players to see if there was enough interest in forming a 35 years of age and older team to attend the 2005 World Golden Oldies Rugby Festival that was to be held in San Diego in the Spring of 2005. Once enough interest was shown, the actual planning started. A team name needed to be chosen first. After several suggestions were nixed, The Olde Barking Dogs was decided upon. A moniker was needed as well, so, "No Bite, Just Lick" was chosen. Team colors, t-shirt designs, pins, and other items were discussed and created over the Winter. Our team of 20 Dogs and several social members were kitted up and headed to San Diego for our first Festival!

The first Dog's roster was made up of  11 former River City Rugby players, and 9 additional players from teams we had played against at some point, or friends of ours. Once we had gathered in San Diego the week's festivities began with the Opening Ceremony. It was a very eye opening time for someone like myself who had never been on a tour of this type. That night is when my pin/badge trading addiction began.

I have compiled photo albums for all the trips The Dogs have taken, so here is the link for San Diego 2005 so you won't have to hunt on our Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivercityrugby/sets/72157600228108057/

The opening ceremony for San Diego was fun, and when we marched to Petco Field for the party/food/fun segment, it even got better. here's a shot of some of us Dogs from that evening:

The following day was first match day. We were picked up from our hotels and taken to the San Diego Polo Club grounds where countless pitches had been set up. Our draw was a team from the Cook Islands. A great group of people who some of us stay in contact with to this day. They utilized their colored shorts very well, but as we all know, then end score is always the same, and it was a fun match for everyone. We gathered afterwards for the first photo of The Olde Barking Dogs with an opposing team.

Since it was five years ago, the details and schedule of the week kind of escape me. Not sure if it was Tuesday or Wednesday, but our Mid-week day out was to Mexico. We were taken by bus across the border for a traditional Mexican feast with entertainment to dine to. Several of us wandered down the beach to check out some of the beach clubs and have some refreshments before we had to load up and head back.

Our two remaining matches of the week were also fun for everyone. After the last match the majority of us were trading the last of our t-shirts and even our jumpers/jerseys. This group of Dogs all managed to trade for polos from the Cook Island team.

All five of these Dogs made the recent tour to Sydney for the Dogs third Festival.

San Diego 2005 was the beginning of my Golden Oldies Rugby addiction. Since then I started the Old Boys Clash back in Iowa for my home club and anyone over the age of 35 who wanted to learn what this style of Rugby is all about. In future postings I'll explain more about the four Clashes held so far, and the Dogs tour to Edinburgh for the 2008 GO Festival. Once again, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are enjoying my postings about Golden Oldies Rugby and The Olde Barking Dogs!

River City Rugby Football Club

I see it only fitting that I go back to 1972 and tell my readers here about how the sport of Rugby came to be in Mason City, Iowa, and how that occurrence had a direct affect on my life since I became part of the team in 1992. In a nutshell, here is the beginning of the story:

It all began with an itinerant Irishman by the name of Henry Bird. It seems that Henry had been hiding out in the rugged mountains of Missoula, Montana when a fierce Chinook wind swept him up in the Fall of 1972 and deposited him on the steps of the Globe-Gazette newspaper in Mason City, Iowa.


Henry had picked up the tools of the advertising trade while in Missoula, and he quickly asserted himself within the Globe. Ah, but recreation was a problem for the roving Irishman, and following a few short weeks of boredom, he launched a search for a more physical sport than girl chasing.

The immigre Irishman called on his European background and assembled a collection of brawny but idle ex-athletes from the dimly lit confines of local pubs. With only the minimum of practice and know-how, the novice ruggers attacked a simple four game schedule. The result? An 0-4 record.

From those first 17 players the history of River City Rugby began. The years have past. Over 275 players have donned the team's colors and represented our Club on the pitch. Through it all one expression has held true: "Since 1972 The Tradition Continues".

My introduction to the sport of Rugby, and River City Rugby occurred on a Fall day in 1991 when my best friend gave me a call to see what I was doing. It so happened that my schedule was open (I was recently divorced and living at the local YMCA. Yeah, I was free), so I rode with him to Iowa Falls, Iowa to watch him play in a Rugby match with River City. My first reaction on viewing the action on the pitch that day was "those guys are crazy"! Yet, just five short months later I would find myself in shorts and an old pair of football cleats attending my first practice in the Spring of 1992. Yes, an overused expression, but, as they say, the rest is history.

My first couple of years with the Club were as a seldom used reserve (which I didn't complain about), and as head grill master for the 3rd halves. Since my grilling of burgers and brats for the after match festivities were unparallelled, I was given the moniker "Burger Bill".

In 1994 I started to see the pitch a little more often. My team mates at that time were some of the best to ever step on the field of play wearing our team's colors. We battled with some of the best teams in Iowa and the Midwest, and for the most part, had very good win-loss records. At first I played flanker, then moved to hooker in 1995 or 96 when the player who played #2 retired. I played actively until the end of the 1998 season, then decided my 38 year old body couldn't take the punishment of competitive play any longer. There were younger, stronger, and much fitter players to step in, and they did just that. Here is a pic from my playing days getting ready to hook in a scrum. Our team is wearing the red/blue jerseys.

During my Active Side playing days I held the position of Club President for three years. I admit, and others will as well, I was better on the organizational side of the team than I was as a player! During my active side playing days I never recorded a try, but think I may have assisted on a few! One of my fondest memories of those years was traveling to Chicago for the Junior Cup Playoffs in 1993. Man, we had a great side that year, and only lost to the Cup Champions Nashville that weekend. Great weekend!

In my next post I'll look back on my first tour with The Olde Barking Dogs, and what the years following have been like. Thanks for stopping by!