What is Michigan Rugby?

Trust, Friendship and Rugby

By Mary “Madame Moo” Cowmeadow

I read once that marriages last longer when everything goes wrong on the honey moon because, when you go through a lot together, you learn trust. Friendships are also based on trust. In the rugby community, particularly in Michigan, you go through a lot together. Sometimes you take your friends to the hospital after an injury, or your friends take you. Sometimes you laugh at the antics of friends. You tell stories of how a person earned their nicknames, or other amazing stories such as how a player tried to walk over a log in the bonfire and fell in -but was pulled out instantly. You see each other not as dandies but in your least beautiful state, covered in dirt and mud with ripped shirts and those horrid teeth guards and sometimes dripping blood. You tease each other mercilessly. The most teased seem to be the most loved. Without realizing it, you come to trust each other.

We have had wonderful parties at our place, and without fail and without asking, rugby players would arrive the next morning to clean up. My daughter once said she too figured out who the good people were when she was in college: they were the ones who stayed late and helped with cleanup.

So let me toast the Olde Boys, wonderful friends, and the kind you know will never let you down!