Team History
History of the Mankato State University Rugby Club
MSU Rugby 1982 "Dream Team"
First MSU Women's Rugby Team - 1984
As told by: Dr. James "Big Pete" Petersen
The MSURFC has a long and storied past, and anyone who sets out to tell the story will get it wrong. There are many individual stories that go into the history and no one person knows them all or will remember them the same as other equally qualified storytellers. So, here's how I remember the parts I know.
I wasn't here when the team started, but I believe the first games were played in 1975-1976.Some of the original members included: John Billingsly, John Kractovil, Jan "Little JD" Kolack, Randy Grimm, and Geoff Olmscheid. I'm old and have lost my memory, so help me by letting me know which of these are wrong and who else belongs on the list.
In the early years, MSU played teams including the Albert Lea Aardvarks, Le Seuer, St. John's University, and the Uof M. Faribault had a team as well.
I joined the team, having played in the Air Force previously, in the Spring of 1977. We struggled having enough players for every game for many of those early years but we were generally around a 500 team, not winning all of them, but not getting blown out either. Occassionaly an experienced player would pass through the University and give us a little coaching, but the captains ran the team and practices.
In 1978 we got our first notice from the MSU Reporter, a relationship which has served us well at times and just about killed us at others. In the May 18th 1978 issue, an article ran entitled Rugby: A Unique Sort of Athlete. The article loosly described the game and some of the traditions. They mentioned we drank afterwards.
It was a couple of years later when The Faribault Rugby Club invited us to participate in Monster Vigil Days. This was a unique experience in which the home team pushed the snow off a frozen lake, making the field sidelines. Monster Vigil lasted three or four years and was always a good, if cold hypothermic, time.
In 1981 MSU hosted the All Minnesota tournament, our only time. We made up t-shirts, sold a few hot dogs and made a little money off the deal. We also sponsored two rafts in the Minnesota River raft races. Those remaining on their rafts at the end included Steve Larson, Dave Harms, Mad Brad Palmer, and Gail. Way to go! The University had issues with us rolling the sod back on the practice football fields during the tournament.
The team traveled to St. Louis, in 1981, for their first apperance in the annual Easter Ruggerfest. The team rented two motorhomes for the journey, with running taps available on both vechiles. The team split their matches for a 2-2 record. Some highlights of the trip, as recalled by scrumhalf Steve Schwaeger, was traveling down the interstate, at a high rate of speed, and having to pull Big JD back into the moterhome by his belt because JD mistook the door to exit the motorhome as the door to the bathroom.
By 1982 the self proclaimed "Dream Team" was in place. The team had a good number of players in the next three or four years and remained fairly consistent. That very special group of MSU Rugby Players can be found in the team photo below. We won our own "Frozen Dip Tournament", that year (as well as in '83 and '84) and took home the "Monster Vigil Days" trophy, washers welded together if I remember correctly. In 1984, the club hosted the second annual Frozen Dip Rugby Tournament on campus using the pitch where the new dorms are located today, and the open space next to the Student Union. To gain publicity for this event, team President, Tim Schoenecker, and team captain, Jay Ziesmer, appeared on local television station KEYC, during the stations "Good Morning Mankato" segment the Friday before the tournament. A tape of this still exists, and will be posted on YouTube very soon.
Members of the 1982 Dream Team for Mankato State Rugby
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During the Spring of 1984, the MSU Reporter did this feature on the MSU Men's Rugby Club. At the time the club was "self funded" for the most part and this article was a tool to help spread the word about the team and bring in new members, as several of the senior members of the team were due to graduate.
After graduating in 1978, I returned to MSU in 1982 and began to play and coach. By about 1984 I was just coaching and playing a very rare game, but still participating in practice. I should note that in 1984 the Frozen Dip party was held at the Morson Ario with live music provided by the band Frozen Chicken Parts. I think that's the year that I dropped "Slash", a forward from the UW Stout RFC, down the staircase of a local friends house for him to sleep it off after they kicked him out of the hospital.We took him there because he was passed out and unresponsive. How times have changed.
During the summer of 1983 the club, with donations from Big Pete and Geolff Olmshied, purchased the MSU Rugby Trailer. This was a "fixer-up" 8x6 RV trailer. Modifications were soon underway, lead by Big Pete and Dave Harms, to make this trailer customized for the use for the rugby club. The inside was gutted and bench seating along two sides, with a lounge bed were installed made the inside a wonderful place to entertain our guests. A washtub with a drain, CO2 tank, keg hoses, and a mounted tap on the outside of the trailer were installed to help with social events. The club then went to work with a fresh paint job. The entire trailer was adorned in the bottle green and gold stripes of our jerseys, with beautiful larger than life paintings of the now famous "beer mug" rugby patch on each side for the trailer. The trailer made several apperances in the MSU Homecoming Parade, All-Minnesota Rugby Tournaments, and at all MSU Rugby after match socials. When the Men's club changed club colors, to black and grey in 1987, the rugby trailer was given a new coat of paint, in the new club colors, and the new "skull logo". The trialer survived for a couple more years but about 1990 disapeared without any clue of it's whereabouts. Sadly another lost piece of MSU Rugby history. Here are two photos of the rugby trailer. As it was last seen, in the Black and Grey, and in the trailers early days with the traditional Green and Gold.
MSU Front Row Members showing a more casual pose
The MSU Rugby Trailer in it's original colors
The MSU Rugby Trailer done up in the "new" MSU Rugby colors
This is the famous photo of the MSU Rugby Lineout, that was taken by local photographer, Neil Patterson
One of the most common sites on campus, during the 1970's and 1980's, was the Green and Gold MSU Rugby Jacket. This was required wear for all Rugby Players. It was just as common at local bars and parties during that period of time. This is MSU Rugby legend Courtney Vohl from 1982.
Fundraising, in the early years of the club, was our only source for income. One of our first fundrasiers, and most successful, was held in 1981 at the Tradder and Trapper bar in downtown Mankato. This is now the site of the Alltel Arena. As hard as it is to imagine, the bar allowed us to charge $2 at the door and the drink special was 7 for 1, all night. This might have been one of the reasons that the T&T closed it's doors a short time later. After this even we started a, long and happy, fundraising relationship with the Oleander Saloon. A much more sensible 4 for 1 beer special was instituted with the club still getting $2 at the door. It was standing room only for all of those fundraisers. Most nights, there was a band, with the rugby players all wearing their MSU Rugby jerseys, singing rugby songs during band breaks. For several years "the house band" of the MSU Rugby Club was Claxton Walsh, with MSU Rugby player Ron Kaderlik on drums. During the mid-80's City Mouse and The Good Olde Boys provided the music for our parties. One highlight from the 1983 fundrasier at the Oleander was when newly elected club President, Courtney Voehl, was carried into the Ole, on a chair with two 2x4's underneath, like Ceaser, with "Hail to the Chief" being sung to him by the team. But sadly, Courtney had to leave his newley elected office two weeks later as he was forced to leave the state and take up residence in Florida, where he as been ever since.
In June of 1984 a dozen or so players traveled to Chicago to watch the U.S. vs. Canada game. I like to say we were prominently featured in RUGBY Magazine, and in fact if you look closely in the 10th anniversary issue, there we are, front row left. Not many people attended the game so they made us all move to one side of the field so the bleachers looked full for the photos. We had great times staying overnight at our teammate, Tim Schoenecker's house in Milwaukee. The less I say about that, the better.
Several players joined the Faribault RFC temporarily to play in the SNAFU Tournament in Winnipeg. The less I say about that, the better. Many of us did that for several summers. I had a good time in the hospital that year. The less I say about that, the better. It was the El Camino summer.
We also played our first Octoberfest that Fall, in La Crosse. We hooked up with Dickie Brewer and Roger Riley and they showed us a heck of a good time. Ziesmer had to get a building permit for his dance partner. For those rugby players who have never been to the Octoberfest celabration let me give you a brief overview of how this party went. You take three thousand locals and seventy-five rugby players, put them in a park down by the river, charge $1.50 for a cup of Old Style beer, a polka band on stage, and let the good times roll. For the first two years that MSU Rugby attended the Octoberfest Tournament and party, it was tradition to buy a cup of beer to drink and one to toss into the crowd.
In November (still 1984) the club was put on probation for the first time. The Reporter says that President Preska was right behind the rugby club in the homecoming parade and that she was offended. We got off probation (yes the famous double secret variety) after one week when no one came forward with proof. The less I say about that the better. I still have my T-shirt.
The 1985 team Fall season ended with an 11-3 record, with MSU beating the UofM, the last game that season.The UofM was very powerful at the time, so it was a big win for us. The three previous seasons MSU had placed second to the UofM in both the All-Minnesota tournaments and in the Rugby Magazines college rankings. The 1985 victory started many years of MSU Rugby's domination of Minnesota college rugby. Tim Schoenecker, Opie, and Jane Stanley all ran for Homecoming Royality. Fat Chance. In January, Skanks (the undergroud bar in North Mankato) closed down. Great scrum half bowling and occured there. The less said about that, the better.
1985 saw MSU at the Midwest Regional Universities Cup Championships at Northwestern University. I have no idea how we did. I remember something about a shopping cart, but that's all. We were also well represented at the Faribault Fundraiser that winter; I see Prescious Paul Fasching, Gary Rowe, Mad Brad Palmer, Kasino, Spaz, Jay Gustafson, and myself with a soccer ball hat on, in the photos.
On April 21, 1986, THE FREE PRESS actually featured photos of a rugby game on the front page. It was a game against Faribault.
For the 25th Anniversary of MSU Rugby, Gov. Carlson, arranged to have Oct. 14th, 1995, proclaimed as MANKATO STATE UNIVERSITY RUGBY 25TH ANNIVERSARY DAY in the State of Minnesota. Some of the items in this proclamation are:
- MSU Rugby as been a leader in the state of MN for 25 years
- MSU Rugby has maintained the spirit of the Father of the game of rugby, William Webb Ellis.
- Over 1000 MSU students have proudly worn the colors of MSU Rugby over the last 25 years.
- The club's anniversary will serve as a remembrance to their teammate and friend, Paul Fasching, who served as a great example for the team and it's members.
This was the work of one person, MSU Rugby "Dream Team" member, Duane Aherns.
A classic
During the Winter of 2004, when the two above mentioned alumni, Ziesmer and Voehl, were putting together the details for the 35th Reunion for the rugby club, which was to be held in 2005, made the decision that the Alumni needed their own logo. Courtney, who designed the orginal logo (see above) went right to work and can up with another classic. This logo displayed the the colors of the team (bottle green and gold) from the early years of the club, and the current colors (Black and Grey) for todays team. The logo also embodied the true spirt of MSU Rugby, with the slogan, "Tradition and Attitude".
The club was notified in 2006 that new dorms would be built where the rugby pitch has long been located, behind the student union. The team was moved to the inside of the old running track behind the tennis courts and practice football fields. MSU has never had a full sized rugby pitch, until the the Fall of 2010. After twenty years of submitting requests, being tossed out of budget meetings, and being placed on some of the worst plots of campus land, the University has completed the new area were MSU Rugby will call home for a very long time. Please go to the pitch update section of the website for all the details. The first matches will be played on the new rugby pitch during the Fall of 2010.
Past Presidents of the MSU Men's Rugby Club
We have started to compile a history of all of those unsung members of our club who, if they wanted the position or not, took the responsibility of leading our rugby club as President.
Please help fill-in the open years by sending me (jayziesmer@gmail.com) the names of the missing MSU Rugby Club Presidents.
John Kractavil - 1976
Jim Baldwin- 1977
Dan Gage - 1978 & 1979
Ken Reed - 1980
Bruce "Preacher" Hjerpie - 1981
"Mad" Brad Palmer - 1982
Courtney Voehl - 1983
"Fearless" Dave Harms - 1984
Tim Schoennecker - 1985
Mick Marshall - 1986
Scott "Opie" Ertl- 1987
Spencer Plobanz - 1988
Dale "Flounder" Homoka - 1989
George "Huey" Rendel- 1990
Jon "Shorty" U-ren - 1991
Bob "Kleetz" Eiechens- 1992
Lam Nguyen - 1993
Craig "Stump" Borey -1994
Mike "Digger" Lieder -1995
Karl Klett - 1996
Kevin "Wolfman" Graves - 1997 &1998
Matt Geiger - 1999
Chad "Special K" Recker - 2000
John Speckel - 2001
Nate Olson - 2002
Karl Ainsley - 2003
Chris "Delicious" Johnson - 2004
Matt Killam - 2005
Graham Johnson -2006
Beau Larson - 2008
Tony Miller - 2009
"Bubba" Awoyinka - 2010 &2011
Drew Hester - 2012
Jimmy Wolfe - 2013
Cody Simpson - 2014
Jerry Thompson - 2015
Nick Price - 2016
Jon Elias - 2017 & 2018
Seth Dreyer - 2019
Jared Johnson - 2020
Alex Wehrman - 2021
Blake Martin - 2022 & 2023
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The History of Pitch Locations, ON CAMPUS - Minnesota State - Mankato
*Please note that on map, PROPOSED FUTURE SITE is the current home of the MSU Rugby Pitch
MSU Rugby Pitch locations over the years
Depending on the generation of MSU Rugby player that you talk to, you will get various answers to the question, "where was your home pitch located when you played." The rugby clubs at MSU have never enjoyed "favorite son" status with the administration over the years. So, depending on the mood of who was overseeing the campus, they have moved the rugby clubs home pitch to several areas around campus. Of course this has been a blessing and a curse in many cases. We love being on campus where wide-eyed new comers to the game might be passing by and get their first exposure to the game of rugby. Especially when we would showoff that that famous MSU Rugby hard hitting style we brought to the game. That same exposure has the club on the recieving end of several letters and meeting with the powers that be, and even got the club put on "Double Secret Probation" that the administration tried to make last a whole year. None the less, it's who we played with that is important, those special relationships we formed playing together as teammates of MSU Rugby.
Below is an overview of some of the locations, not all, that MSU Rugby has called home.
1978 - 1982
The earliest records from the alumni and from the MSU Reproter have the club playing on the practice football fields as far back as 1978. They may have been playing in this location earlier but we don't have any record. These fields also held the ALL-MINNESOTA RUGBY TOURNAMENT in 1981, as MSURFC hosted this annual tournament. During the Fall Season of 1982, during the a very wet and water logged match vs. UW-Stout, the decision was made to go ahead and play this match on the practice football fields. Of course this was not the best judgement on the clubs part. It continued to rain for the entire match. The pitch was taking a real beating. Sometime during the second half of this match, when any of the scrums came together, one scrum would end up pushing the other. Once the other scrum would lockout, the only thing to give was the turf. Which started coming up in 6'x12' sheets. In fine rugby fashion, we kept on playing. Of course only a month earlier MSU laided down brand new sod for the Minnesota Vikings to practice on. No surprise this was our last match on these fields.
1983 - 1984
The next year and a half the club was moved to what are now the intermurial fields behind Gage Hall, and what was the main track and field area. This pitch was functional and out of the way from most of the campus security. The up keep of this pitch was not the greatest but the University kept telling the club that this was not a long term location for the team. This site was also the first pitch for the MSU Women's Rugby Club during their first year of play. For a very special select few, this was the home pitch for the Mankato Killer Bee's RFC, which occupied this pitch for "That One Summer". As Big Pete would say, "The less said, the better".
1984 - 2006
Most of the rugby alumni will remember their home pitch, as across from the MSU Student Union. Both clubs made this site home for twenty-two years. In early 1984, coach and faculity advisor, Jim Petersen, worked his ways with the administration to allow the rugby clubs to put our pitch on this very seldom used site on campus. The university came out and removed several large rocks from various parts of the pitch, and I know it's hard to believe, they evened out some of the more un-even sections of this new site. We then placed wooden 4x4's in the ground as goal posts. Big Pete and current members of the clubs then added the wooden cross bars and goal extentions. We added some white paint to our goalposts, showed someone from the MSU ground crew how to line the pitch correctly, and almost regulation!
As the years passed there was always a trick to playing on this pitch. The rolling and dipping nature of the far side of the pitch always seemed to play an advantage to MSU. To see a first time rugger, on a breakaway, not expect that little dip in the landscape somewhere between the 22 and mid-field was always fun to watch. Another unique part of the this pitch was how close our fans were able to get to the action. Restraining ropes were never thought of. Many a time a fan who was not paying close attention to the action on the pitch became part of the action near the very crowded section by the evergreen trees.
During these years the rugby club even used the open space (which is now a parking lot) across the street as a second pitch for the first few Frozen Dip Rugby Tournements. As this tournament grew in the number of teams, we moved the whole tournement down to Sibley Park's, Land of Memories.
Sadly all good things come to an end. Big Pete and the club could no longer fight off the University. The pitch so many of us loved and called home was gone. A new dorm was built on it's site. Today, when driving by the new dorm, if you look at the parking signs across the street it still reads, "GOLD PERMIT - RUGBY". There have been several rugby alumni suggest that we have a plaque placed in front of the dorm that signifies that this was the site of the MSU Rugby Pitch. This is just one of the items that the Rugby Alumni are working on for our 40th Anniversary.
2007 - 2011
With the new dorms being constructed on the site that was, for so many years, the MSU Rugby Pitch, the University had to put the team(s) somewhere on campus. The decision was made to place the pitch, on a temporary basis, inside what was the old MSU track and field practice area. Of course there were several issues with this location. Most of all the removal of several track and field areas (shot put, long jump tracks, ect...) that were taking up part of a regulation rugby pitch. There was also a large manhole cover just to the south of mid-pitch. All of these problem areas were removed, but only the minimum removal acts were done. You can still see where the pitch sinks in at least three different areas where the old track and field spots were.
2012
As stated above, it seems that the clubs pitch is on the move again. The goal posts are in, and the pitch is staked out with all of the pitch markings. The playing surface is about a good as we have seen in since the early years of the pitch across from the Student Union. The only concern will be keeping the flag football and dorm losers off the pitch. The other concern is that the pitch seems to be somewhat close to regulation, so any balls kicked into touch on the far side might end up in the trees and down the hill.
