Harvard Business School Rugby Club

Friends and Family,

Please feel free to visit Tom’s online memorial page.

Too soon he is brought to earth
From silver passion in the sky
Where friend and foe once struggled
And no one sought to die

So fair, so fast, so free
He toyed with gathering cloud
And banked hard to give us show
As we marveled all aloud

Unleashèd passion for his country
Fueled by youth and daring mind
Bright ribbons pinned in glory
Could not stay his mortal climb

A deeper blue now beckons
Not to dust of gloomy earth
But to a thousand sunlit contrails
That celebrate his worth

We cherish his love of birthplace
Steadfast to family and to friend
Godspeed, O noble wingman
May you guide us to our end

In honor of our teammate, our friend, our brother…

Thomas M. McLaughlin

From his Band of Brothers
The Harvard Business School Rugby Football Club

December 10, 2010

-Michael Rush ’72

HBS Rugby finished the season strong with three solid wins, living up to all the preseason hype. HBS defeated Monadnock 56-5, Saratoga 19-17, and MIT 14-6.

HBS’s biggest victory came over one of the most dominate and physical Saratoga teams of recent years. The Saratoga team was undefeated going into the matchup and eager to close out their perfect season. However, it was not to be as the HBS forwards won the game by controlling the rucks in a way Saratoga had not seen all season. This was quite a feat considering the imposing size and skill of the Saratoga front line. In their team press release, the Saratoga gentlemen commented how “well-prepared” the HBS Rugby team had been for this conflict.

The team’s strong play has validated statements made by team captain Chris Cowan about the level of talent on this year’s squad being “probably the best in the league.” “It has just been a matter of fine tuning the machine and getting everyone to work together,” said the veteran captain. Beating rival MIT was even bigger than knocking off the NERFU league powerhouse Saratoga for many on the team. After the big win, club President Anson Fredericks had this to say, “After all the banter following the two teams’ prior meeting, we felt like we had to go out and enforce our will on their side of the Smoot bridge as well as ours. It just goes to show talk is cheap, but victory is sweet.”

What is really important for this team has been the contribution from first year players with four new ruggers, Cameron “Crazy” Johnson (NG), Regan “Raccoon” Turner (HKS), Garan “Taekwondo” Geist, and Matt “Devil” Devlin (HKS) scoring big tries over the last couple weeks. The team’s next stop is the University of Texas Fall Brawl where they will play eight games over two days in addition to terrorizing the famous 6th Street strip in Austin.

This fall saw the resurgence of Gordon Gekko and the Karate Kid, but no event could live up to the hype surrounding the return of the HBS Old Boys to the rugby pitch. Each fall the ageless Old Boys of HBS Rugby Football Club descend on the hallowed rugby pitch on Soldiers Field Park road to relive their glory days. It has become an annual tradition and a weekend that makes Harvard vs. Yale football look like child’s play. This year’s star studded cast included some of the best of the clubs 1,400 alumni from the last 47 years. The senior member of this hall of fame caliber squad was Jim “Energizer” Ashton (MBA ’72) at 68 years young.

The Old Boys always start the game off with the classic line read right from the same broken script: “take it easy on us we are old.” That fact was clearly evidenced by the diverse range of knee, ankle, and other bracing that made them look and sound more like group of German Panzer tanks than rugby players. But, when the Old Boys bore down with their hardnosed north-south rugby led by the strong rucking of “Smiling” Jim Pottow (HBS 91′) and unleashed the deceptive speed of legends such as Liam “Porsche” Patrick (HBS 08′) any notion of mercy quickly subsided. The aggression of the Old Boys front line led to a costly ankle injury that put the current side’s own human tank Warren Anderson (HKS) on the two week disabled list. Despite bringing such a strong team and scrapping for every inch, the speed and sharpness of the current squad proved too much as the Young Boys jumped out to an early lead on a score by Sayce “Rocky” Falk (HKS) and posted four more scores on the way to a 35-14 victory. The scores were punched in by Tanner “the Terror” Amdur-Clark (HLS), Derek “Power Pops” Poppinga (NF), Anson “I heart Victoria” Frericks (OB), and Bastien “the French Furry” Varoutsikos (H.PhD ). The Old Boy’s first try was scored by Marc “Brick Breaker” Wayshak (HC 04′). This marks the second straight year the Young Boys will be prominently exhibiting the coveted match trophy in its display case in Spangler hall.

The always hard-fought alumni game was just the climax to a great weekend of rugby revelry. The weekend began with an Old Boys’ meeting to plan activities for the clubs 50th anniversary and to lay the ground work for a fundraising campaign to build a permanent rugby grounds and club house. Guest of honor for the weekend’s activities was club founder Jim Johnstone (HBS 65′) who brought as much energy and infinitely more wisdom to the proceedings than all the Young Boys combined. The alumni meeting was followed by a generous event hosted by club sponsor Harpoon Brewery at their Boston headquarters. While letting a rugby team into a brewery may seem tantamount to inviting the Trojan Horse into the ancient city of Troy, the event was a resounding success. Following the club’s salute of the Harpoon staff with a rousing rendition of the HBS RFC Anthem, the team was off on a raucous pub crawl that terminated at the Cambridge castle of rugby culture Tommy Doyle’s. Friday’s social time was marked by intense trash-talking and possibly a few gentlemanly wagers that had to be settled on the field the following day. Saturday, after each team had expended every ounce of energy on the pitch both squads enjoyed a sizzling bratwurst cookout and beers provided by Gene “Mr. Tailgate” Skowronski (HC 65′) and the HBS rugby boosters. As dusk settled over the Cambridge sky, the festivities once again migrated to Tommy Doyle’s for a night of good hearted celebration as the Old Boys quickly washed away their bruises with a few cold beers and delivered an epic performance in the halls of Doyle’s Crimson Lounge. While many of the legendary questions of HBS rugby remained unanswered such as: who has better hair Brendan “Dancing with the Stars” Whitworth (HBS 08′) or Peter “Pretty Boy” Baldwin (HBS 10′), or what is bigger Sean “Meat Stick” Eldridge’s (HBS 09′) forearms or Jimmy “Boss” Joun’s (HBS 10′) calves, the Old Boys’ own Patrick “Pipe” Dickinson (HBS 09′) made one point resoundingly clear. In a statement heard round all of Tommy Doyle’s the rugger loudly proclaimed “Greed HBS Rugby is good!” So ended the sequel “Rugby Never Sleeps,” and the tradition continues…

HBS RFC would like to thank all the alumni who traveled from all over the world to play and celebrate the school’s winning tradition. A special thanks to the fearless leader of the Old Boys, Mike “Da Professor” Rush (AMP 88′), who spent countless hours to make the weekend possible. Most importantly, we would like to thank our sponsors: the intellectual people of Boston Consulting, the brave people of Global Rescue, the deliciously creative people of Harpoon Brewery, the master of yeast artists of Narragansett, the hospitable people of Tommy Doyle’s, and J. David Sullivan who make all our victories possible.

The HBS team returned to the pitch Tuesday, October 12th to host the visiting Western Australia University, but scores were not posted by press time. Come support the team for their next game against Rutland on October 23rd at 2PM on the HBS home pitch.

Lots of off season gym work paid dividends for HBS rugby as the squad came out bigger and faster than ever before in its season opening scrimmage against MIT. The old saying “if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the other side of the Smoot bridge” held true once again as HBS delivered more than a bark. No less than three MIT players were carried off the field on stretchers, courtesy of clean but hard hitting from the HBS front line (all were taken to local medical centers and released). This created over an hour of injury delays, and it resulted in the MIT team playing ‘hot potato’ with the rugby ball as HBS closed in for more bone crushing tackles. As one bystander commented, “they have a pretty badass team here including former Navy Seals, Special Forces, Marines, Army Rangers, Air Force Pilots, and Intelligence Officers. The HBS rugby team has everything you need to demolish a country… I would not want to get in their way.” Leading the charge was open-side flanker Warren Anderson who walked off the field during one game delay to report that he “kept hearing crunching sounds every time he tackled MIT players.” These sounds were confirmed by the large crowd that flocked out to see the team compete under the bright fall sun.

Team captain Chris Cowan was upbeat after the game, pointing out that the team had seen limited practice time together and had “nothing but upside.” Cowan said the team had the best talent on the pitch Saturday, and probably the best in the league.  When asked about his outlook for the season he said “our returning players are all solid and our new guys are a mix of experienced rugby players and great athletes. Once we gel as a team it is going to be a long 80 minutes each week for these other squads.” The B-side team also had a strong showing against Tuffs, jumping out to an early lead thanks to hard running and strong tackling but came up short on a dramatic last second score by the visiting team. The HBS team has its first regular season game this Saturday (9/18) at 2PM against Springfield on the HBS home pitch.

As summer turns to fall a wonderful thing happens, no not the crisp cool air or the leaves changing across the Harvard campus, something even better than that. A tradition unlike any other, the HBS Rugby team suits up in their sharp red-and-black uniforms and straps on their cleats as they return to the athletic battlefield to protect the school’s honor. The pride of HBS since 1963, the team is the nation’s oldest graduate rugby program and carries a long history of domination on and off the ‘pitch’ (rugby field).

Prior to the team’s founding, the school’s sporting culture was dominated by badminton, croquet, synchronized swimming, and ping-pong. Dissatisfied with these options, two Scottish MBA students, Jim Johnstone (class of 66) and Morris McInnes (class of 65), founded the HBS Rugby Club. Through black and white advertisements, coercion, and the promise of female spectators, the first contingent of forty interested men began to train at Soldiers Field. A glorious tradition was born…An ivy league favorite, rugby is the roughest, most testosterone charged sport known to mankind. The game combines the speed of track, endurance of soccer, and contact of football with really, really ridiculous good looks. Off the field, Rugby is a very social sport and the team is known as the strongest brotherhood at HBS with over 1,400 alumni including a long line of successful industry titans. The team is sponsored by Boston Consulting, Global Rescue, and Harpoon Brewery among others. When these gentlemen aren’t walking old ladies across the street, protecting your girlfriend from muggers, or otherwise making the world a better place you will find them at the fine establishment known as Tommy Doyle’s, also a team sponsor. Doyle’s is the Mecca of local Rugby culture and there you can often find this ruckus band of brothers drinking up after games and singing their rugby songs into the wee hours of the night.

This year’s roster returns 18 solid ruggers from last year’s championship team. These gladiators of the pitch have been training all summer long in gyms and local bars all over the world and will bring experience to this year’s squad. The team dominated the local New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) league last season, pounding opponents by an average of 21 points per game. The team then blitzed across Europe in an undefeated tour, stomping opponents in the rugby stronghold of Ireland and out drinking the German teams at Oktoberfest. The team followed that up by a strong finish at the MBA World Cup, dominating rivals such as Yale and Wharton, but plagued by injuries to key players including the human cannonball, Yemi Owolewa, the team dropped a game to the winning team from London Business School. The team bounced back quickly, taking the rugby 7′s championship at Dartmouth two weeks later on the hard running of Aussie heartthrob Matt Rooney.

The team invites you to be part of the storied tradition, holding open practices every Tuesday and Thursday. The club is counting on a strong year of recruiting to build the depth it needs to withstand the long, hard season. The team welcomes graduate students from throughout the Harvard community and no prior playing experience is necessary. The game allows for players of all shapes and sizes and new players can learn quickly from the team’s tan-and-toned all-pro coach, the English legend, David Gonzales. Every game day, the club fields two teams a Men’s “A” and a “B” side. The club is also planning annual tours to the University of Texas, Montreal, Oktoberfest, and the MBA Rugby World Cup at Duke University. HBS also has a women’s touch team that has grown in popularity over recent years. For more info visit: www.hbsrugby.org.

The team is going to play a hard fall schedule and invites the whole HBS community out to support the school’s greatest athletic tradition. Lastly, when you see a bruised rugger walking around campus on Monday eyes sparking behind a black eye or teeth shining behind a cut lip, give them a high five or pat on the back because they are playing for the pride of Harvard Business School.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or have never seen a rugby pitch, the Harvard Business School Rugby Team is looking for talented and interested players.

Highlights:
HBS Rugby is the most competitive business school team on and off the field. We have around 60 current members and 1,400 alumni across several schools, including the Harvard Kennedy, Law, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the Extension School, and the Medical School.

Fall Tours:
Oktoberfest & Montreal
Wharton Rugby Cup (Hogfest)

Spring Tours:
2009 – Brazil Spring Break, 2010 – Ireland Spring Break
Duke MBA World Rugby Championship

Sponsors:
BCG, Global Rescue, Harpoon, Tommy Doyle’s

If you’re interested in coming out please contact either Mr. Frericks or Mr. Gregg at the addresses below. Alternatively, simply come out to the first practice on Tuesday, September 7th @ 2:30pm on Cumnock IV.

Contacts:
Anson Frericks, Co-President: afrericks [*at*] mba2011.hbs.edu
Josh Gregg, Co-President: jgregg [*at*] mba2011.hbs.edu