Thursday, January 10, 2013

Trailer Trad: The Rugby Years

I'm a rugby player. While it's true that I haven't actually played in many years (I do want to be able to walk into work on Monday mornings, after all) once a rugger, always a rugger. The importance of camaraderie, fitness and teamwork that were instilled those days on the pitch you don't shake very easily. Nor should you.
That's me in the official Mothers Rugby kit during the club's second or third season. We had solid navy jerseys first then we made the big move to 'reverse quarters' jerseys. Later that season, I designed the shield design that still is worn today by both men's and women's teams. -Looking back, it was probably my biggest contribution to the club.

I was never that good really. But, somehow, I managed to play and contribute in my fashion. The players and Dave the coach were good to me and I gradually improved enough to where I think that I was almost an average player on a very good team.
How did I get involved with rugby? How do guys get involved in the French Foreign Legion? Girl trouble. Being pissed. I was in such a mood one day walking through campus when I happened to see a bunch of rag tag guys playing what looked like 'smear the guy with the ball' (or something to that effect). Turns out that was one of the rugby club's first practices. Pob Rike was an equipment dealer who always had a bag of mismatched leftover jerseys in his trunk. Most guys didn't have any proper ones so we all bought those. They were thick cotton oldschool Maxmore jerseys made in South Africa. Greens, yellows, stripes, solids, hoop patterns on the sleeve. Some were torn to bits. Most were filthy. Yet, even though we had no uniform during those first practices, I knew that we were already a team.
About half way through that first practice, 'fun time' was over. We were then introduced to what rugby practice was all about; fitness. I was not very fit or very strong. I really never was because I was a tennis player and even though I was on the college varsity tennis team, fitness was never emphasized back then. Rugby was different and we were introduced to that during those first few practices. Line up for wind sprints. Line up for passing drills. We ended up the practice with having to carry a fellow player in our arms in relay races. I was left with a barrel of a guy who become our hooker. He was a big hooker and weighed like he was made of concrete. As a lay on the ground praying to vomit, I knew that I would quit the tennis team immediately.

24 comments:

Bucky Buford said...

HAM HO HAP HO!

OTTR said...

I was looking for Trailer Trad and seemed to have stumbled across M Magazine c. 1986 -- what's going on?!

Anonymous said...

I appeal to your humanity....

Earl "Bo" Buford said...

Has Bucky been drinking his homemade bourbon for breakfast again?

Phineas Rex said...

I think that Trailer Trad IS the modern incarnation of 80's-era M Magazine.

Number 8 said...

Didn't that guy go onto play for the New Zealand All Blacks?

Anonymous said...

Big hooker? Man, this blog gets more interesting all the time.

Trailer Trad said...

Mr.Buford,

HAMHOHAPHO! You've just named that painting.

OTTR,

You are a gentleman and a scholar. A very high compliment!

Anon. 7:48,

That's "humanitarian" to you buddy.

Mr. Buford,

We prefer the term "small batch" to "home made."

Mr. Rex,

I could make it like the modern GQ or Esquire but I'd have to come up with a 'Great Men of 2012' list and I don't think that I could come up with any. I think Mitt qualifies and look where that got him.

Number 8,

I actually played for Peter Jackson's New Zealand Hobbits. - I was FINALLY able to be a line-out jumper!

Anon 11:20,

Most hookers are small, wirey and very mean. -They love cleating your ankles. But not OUR guys, of course.

Anonymous said...

What is "HAM HO HAP HO" -- some kind of tribal war chant?

Mildred said...

I'm sure that I'm not the first to notice this, but you really resemble them handsome Kennedy boys from Boston.

U.S. Secret Service Agent aka Customer No. 16 said...

Hookers, did someone say hookers?

The Ghost of Felix Rohatyn said...

Is HAM HO HAP HO a Dr. Seuss book, or another one of those Virginia inside jokes?

Seamus McDandy said...

Mildred? Is that you. I believe my cousin, Jim, has been looking for you. And you know why.

And everyone knows that HAM HO HAP HO stands for Hamelet House Happy Hour, you bunch of feckin' tossers.

The Ghost of Felix Rohatyn said...

"Green Eggs and Ham Ho" is the Dr. Seuss book. I believe "Hap Ho" is the sequel, sort of a satire by Heidi Fleiss...and not really a children's book.

Pine Plains Weekender said...

Wow, there sure is a lot going on here.

Friend of Bill W. said...

I'm pretty sure that you mean "Hamlet" - without the extra "e" - unless that's how you ignorant Rathkeale wanderers spell it. And who are you to know the dark secrets of College Avenue, you've probably never been outside Limerick.

Mildred said...

Bucky, darlin', you need to come home soon. I think Jim Dandy may know where I'm at.

Russian Trader said...

How much for Hap Ho Ham Ho original painting?

Friend of Bill W. said...

Mildred, you make me laugh. You know it's over between you and Bucky - he told you so, and I seen it with my own two eyes. In fact, rumor has it that he's been seeing a fiery little gal he met while on an all-inclusive (except for booze and airfare) three-day jaunt to Hispaniola.

You should just call Jim and work things out. He's still in Brooklyn, hanging out with that odd Russian cat - the guy with the 1978 Buick LeSabre and the glass eye.

Pine Plains Weekender said...

Everyone knows that Felix Rohatyn is still alive and working at Lazard, right?

Lang Phipps II said...

This blog is MUCH better than M magazine. Ha, it's almost as good as mine.

Seamus McDandy said...

Forget the painting, how much for the commie's glass eye?

Trailer Trad said...

Anon 6:36,
Like the Beaver & Otter Society, some things are best left as mysteries.

Mildred,
You hang the moon & stars in my book. –But you’re still incorrigible.

Seamus,
HAMHOHAPHO = Hamelet House Happy Hour? – What kind of degenerate, made-up acronym is that?

Pine State,
Wow indeed.

Russian Trader,
I knew you’d like that painting. That house had some sketchy characters that lived there. And a pork chop.

Lang Phipps II,
That’s high praise (I think)!

Horace Mann Alumni said...

Have you not read Lang Phipps' Confessions of a Young WASP? Dear God, you need to think outside of the South.