Cover Story

Mobile has a sports team that has taken home two national championships since it was founded in the ‘70s. Although it may not have the fan base of such sports as football, a group of dedicated players show up right on the edge of the city limits to participate in a game that dates further back than our favorite fall passtime.

Battleship Rugby Club of Mobile shows up every season to bring this intense sport to the bay area.

Rugby dates back to 1823 in England. According to the Web site Rugby Football History (www.rugbyfootballhistory.com), “Many believe that rugby was born in 1823… when William Web Ellis ‘with fine disregard for the rules of football [soccer] as played in his time at Rugby school, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game.’” Till this point, youth would play soccer, as we more or less know it today. Hence the name for the sport became known as rugby, or “Rugby rules football,” from the name of the school where it was played. Not only did this spur the development of rugby, but would eventually give birth to American Football.

The history of rugby in Mobile dates back to 1969 and Spring Hill College. According to Greg Roberts, a SHC alumni and founding member of Battleship Rugby Club, the club started on campus “with students from both SHC and the University of South Alabama.” Many of those who graduated came back to play the sport. The club became too large and in 1976 the Mobile Rugby Club was formed with the SHC club existing on its own.

The Mobile Rugby Club would have a tournament every year at Battleship Park and after several years, the team took on the name Battleship Rugby Club of Mobile. The club has maintained this relationship with the park, still having its annual tournament the second weekend of November every year and hosting out-of-town clubs there for home games during the fall and spring seasons.

The club mostly contains members from Mobile and Baldwin counties, although Battleship’s current coach, Rick Horner, hails from Pensacola. A member of the Coast Guard, Horner joined the club as both their coach and a player in 2004.

“I’ve always liked contact sports in general,” says Horner. “Growing up I played football and then in college started playing rugby. I went out for two practices and was hooked. It gets your adrenaline pumping. It may look like people aren’t thinking out there, but a good rugby player thinks a lot of what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. It combines the physicality of sport with the ability to think on your feet.”

Horner was drawn to rugby and now “likes it better then football because its not the constant stop/start, stop/ start all the time.” Unlike football, the game is constantly moving unless the ball goes out of bounds. There are other points to rugby that make it similar to its cousin football, yet keep both their own animals.

In order to score points in rugby, you must get a “try,” in which a player literally touches the ball down across the point line. This is where the idea of a touchdown comes from in football. Also, points are scored in both sports by kicking a goal.

One of the ways rugby has been described by many is “football without pads.” This vision usually leads anyone who has watched a decent amount of football games to believe rugby is a very dangerous contact sport. Most of the experienced rugby players argue against this mentality.

“What gets you hurt in football is the guy tackling you with his helmet and shoulder pads and he doesn’t get hurt,” says Lars Granade, an Assistant District Attorney in Mobile who is also a member of Battleship Rugby.

“They use the pads and helmets as weapons,” says Roberts. No one wears pads in rugby, so if a player hits another player hard, they are both going to feel it. Also, blocking is not allowed, so that cuts down on the injuries most people associate with football.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any injuries.

“Every two years I’m good for a couple of cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a blown out knee, or a broken arm,” says Kahley Malloy, a local rugby player who works as a private consultant and was president of the club from 2000-2004. “It’s par for the course.”

Malloy got involved in rugby while attending Spring Hill College. He was watching a rugby match on campus after playing soccer for the college. “I was standing on the sideline with my soccer shoes and got pulled into the game. Wrong play at the wrong time,” he recalled.

The on-field play of the sport aside, there is a huge social aspect to the game that occurs off the field. “There is a social dimension to it that transcends the competition aspect of it,” says Malloy. “It’s like a big fraternity. There is nowhere you can travel in the world… and not be friends with someone.”

Granade echoed those sentiments.

“It’s the camaraderie with people you would not normally comes across,” says Granade. “The vast majority of people on the team are from different walks of life. A lot of them didn’t start playing till college, so it is usually a well-educated cross section.”

Despite what may happen between two rugby teams on the field, after the game everyone stays friends.

“After the match you go out and with the other team and you go share a meal and a have drink together,” says Horner. “You’ve gone on the field and basically tried to run someone over and then you go have a social with them.” As is the tradition with rugby clubs of Battleship’s size, they will usually cook a meal for the visiting and team and buy them drinks no matter who win’s the day’s match.

“You win with class and lose with class and represent the [Battleship Rugby] team,” says Greg Roberts.

The local clubs also represent the Battleship by donating a portion of the money made off of its yearly tournament to charity. Part of the money from the Battleship Rugby Tournament held every November goes to The Friends of Exceptional Children, an organization that takes mentally handicapped children from the bay area to events across the city.

Contact Dan Anderson at dan@lagniappemobile.com.

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