John Moore (right) with fellow Michigan Rugby alum Paul LeBlanc at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware in October, 2012
This month’s honoree is John Moore. John’s time with the club was brief but left a significant impression on him. His teammates and their friendship playing the biggest role. Although now in New Hampshire and Portland, John frequents Ann Arbor and supports the club in a variety of ways. Rugby has stayed with John and continues to influence his path wherever he travels. Read on about the solid Michigan loose forward.
When did you play?
I first joined the club as a graduate student in the late summer of 1986 and played into the fall of 1987. I mostly played at eight with some time at flanker in those days.
Since that time, I have played in numerous Old Boys matches and have toured with the Old Boys over the years, including Washington, DC, Reno, NV, the Missoula MaggotFest, Portland, OR, New York City.
What is your favorite memory or memories as a member of the club?
My greatest memories are the friendships and relationships developed during my time at Michigan. I have played on many clubs and was very active as a rugby player for over 16 years. I will cherish my friendships with my Michigan club forever.
Fortunately, my business travel routinely allows me to visit Ann Arbor and I also make a point of getting together with my Michigan friends in other places outside of Michigan. Many of these memories have mixed with those from my time there as a player.
Other great memories of that time were just the strength and the commitment of the club in those years. We had a great mix of young and more experienced players and enjoyed a great run. We caught a lot of teams by surprise and had solid victories over Louisville Rugby Club, Milwaukee Rugby Club and a number of others. At the university level, we nearly pulled off a win in the Big Ten Championship game, falling just short against the University of Illinois.
I probably have as many memories from Old Boy tours, the annual Old Boys weekend and informal gatherings with past and current club members as I do from my years playing at Michigan.
One of my greatest match memories was our defeat of Louisville Rugby Club in October, 1986. This was a great home victory as Louisville was considered to be one of the best clubs in the Midwest in those years, with several Eagles and select side players. The celebration lasted long into the evening.
Did you have any special honors during your time with the club?
Unfortunately, my time at Michigan was cut short by the completion of my studies and the need to gain solid employment. I had hoped to play a larger role on the club, but my time came to a rather abrupt end and I didn’t get that chance.
John Wooley, Paul Lund and I did enjoy a memorable trip to New Orleans to play with the Midwest Junior Selects team. I cannot recall much about the teams we played on that tour, but, the trip in Wooley’s broken down Chevette was probably most memorable. Wooley started the car with a pair of needle-nosed pliers rather than a key; we burned more oil than gasoline and fortunately the ‘Broken – Please Do Not Tow’ sign on the front window kept us from losing our wheels altogether.
What are you doing now?
I have an educational software company with several other partners. Our company, Rubicon International, is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
I split my time between Portland, Oregon, and a home in Durham, New Hampshire, with plenty of other travel thrown in. My responsibilities for our work in Asia and the Middle East provide me with the chance to see some great places and occasionally catch up with Michigan players in interesting places. I have a daughter in high school, a son in middle school and one in elementary school, so I try not stay away from home too long.
Fortunately, our business has been very strong in Michigan, which provides me the opportunity to get back to the Ann Arbor area and Southeastern Michigan often.
Good friends from my days at Michigan have been particularly helpful with our business. Jeff Hagan provided some very timely business assistance when we were getting established in the area and Tony Menyhart referred me to a great colleague, who currently leads my company work in the region.
Any other interesting stories or info that you can provide?
The stories are endless. I particularly recall a tour to the Cherry Blossom Tournament in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1987. I had played rugby at Georgetown University as an undergrad and had grown up in the Washington area, so this was like a homecoming. I had the chance to show the team around to my favorite places and my uncle even hosted a party for us one night. The night ended with Jeff Hagan, Dave Perpich and a few other team members touring Georgetown in my uncle’s classic Dodge Dart convertible.
On the first day of the tournament, we were in a tight game with Washington Irish or another one of the local clubs.
We had a very experienced set of backs with John Hartman, Dale Tuttle, Jeff Hagan and Paul Leblanc and others all on the field that day. Towards the end of the game, our ‘experienced’ backs lost track of the score, thinking we were up by several points, when in fact we were losing.
The backs proceeded to stall most of the game away, while those of us in the forward pack tried to figure what was going on. We thought that they had some great plan for a counter attack. Finally, Kevin Ruff, Dave Perpich, myself and a few other forwards realized the backs had lost track of the score. Unfortunately, we had no time to recover, losing a match we could easily have won.
During my travels, I frequently have the chance to re-connect with Michigan Old Boys. I had a chance meeting with one Michigan Old Boy in Southeast Asia. My wife and I were traveling in Vietnam in December, 1993 and I met up with a few college rugby friends who happened to also be in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City at the same time. They were joined by a Malaysian friend. We went to dinner as a group for several nights before I realized the Malaysian guy across from me had played fly half for us at Michigan during the same years I was there. Too many years to recall the guy’s name.
As an Old Boy, in 2002, we hosted an Old Boy tour to Portland, Oregon, where we played a match against the Portland Old Boars, my old club at the time. The tour included a great climb to the caldera of Mt. St. Helens, with Dan Mascellino getting ‘short-roped’ up the final leg to the summit by one of the Portland Old Boars. There was also Kevin Zimmer and Dan McBryde’s swim in shark invested waters off the Oregon coast while the rest of us enjoyed the restaurant up the beach.
