IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS BUTCH…

A long time ago a young fellow named William J. “Butch” Cunningham strolled into Schroeder Hall looking for one Allen McNeil, an instructor in the ISU Geography Dept. Upon locating Mr. McNeil’s office his first words were, “Hey, I hear you’re from Australia”. I was just a few feet away at the time.  That is how it all began in January of 1971.

Within a few minutes I was being summoned to that same office, “Augie”, said McNeil, “how would you like to play rugby?” “Rugby?! What in the hell is rugby?”, says I.

As the story unfolded I learned that Butch was a transfer student from Miami University in Oxford, OH.  Having played rugby there for two years, he was eager to start a club at ISU. Being a business major he discussed his idea with one of his professors, Jim Wright, who suggested he seek out a geography instructor who he thought was from down under. 

Allen McNeil was indeed an Aussie hailing from Sydney, NSW, where he happened to be a professional rugby player. While he explained that rugby league was not the same as rugby union, he was enthused by the prospect of coaching a team of neophyte American footballers. McNeil’s long journey to Normal, IL began reasonably enough in his native Sydney. After graduating from college he emigrated to Great Britain where he taught school in Scotland. Seeing America as a land of greater opportunity he was soon on our shores as a graduate student. Upon receiving his masters degree he returned to teaching, but now at the university level. After several years as a geography instructor and tennis coach at Superior State University he came to ISU as an instructor in the Department of Geography-Geology. 

It was at ISU that I first encountered the well-traveled Australian, when I became a geography instructor in that same department in the fall of 1968. Teaching at ISU was my real job, having graduated from Chicago Teachers College in 1966 and from the University of Illinois (M.A.) in 1968 at the ripe old age of 23. Since my office was adjacent to McNeil’s we became fast friends. And so circumstances being what they were, I was the first person recruited to play rugby for Illinois State University. 

During the spring semester of 1971 several organizational meetings were held with the purpose of recruiting (coercing) and training students to be rugby players. Among the early recruits that first season were Tom Hannah Steve “Benny” Kenyon, Dan “Wahoo” Walther, Paul Smietanka, and Dewey Worsley among others. All of whom became legends in their own time (minds?). After a month of physical training, a match was scheduled for Saturday, March 13, 1971. While knowing the theory and the laws of the game, we really did not have a clue as to the actual procedure of a match. Our opponent that faithful day was the University of Illinois ‘C’ team (mercifully). The U of I Rugby Club was formed in 1965 and was already a force in Midwest rugby. Sending the ‘C’ team to Normal that day was the traditional way to introduce the game to a new club. 

In those early days we actually changed in the locker room of Horton Fieldhouse, as did the visiting teams. While we were changing for that first game the Illinois players started arriving. What a sight! A gang of long haired, bearded HIPPIES! And they were twice our size! Shit! What have we gotten ourselves into? If we were not nervous enough before seeing them, we were scared shitless now. 

The game was played on the football practice field north of Horton just above the outdoor track. The field of course, was American gridiron size with no room for expansion. We did not know any better anyway. Naturally, it was raining and the temperature barely reached 40°. Oddly enough, at kickoff time we actually had two players on the field who had played the game before. One, of course, was Butch Cunningham, the other was Bud Koehler, a transfer from Iowa. There was no turning back, we now had to go through with it. I don’t remember which side kicked off, but only one word could describe the resulting scene. CHAOS! For the next thirty minutes it was kamikaze rugby. With Butch yelling at us from the field and McNeil yelling instructions from the sidelines, a semblance of order was reached. Late in the first half Butch booted a penalty kick through the uprights from 30 yards out and gave us a 3-0 lead. Luckily the muddy field kept the U of I attack in check as we eventually pulled out a 3-0 win the first rugby game ever played at ISU! 

By August R. Demma (edited by RPK)