September Alumnus of the Month: Evan “Elmo” Pratt

Elmo playing #8 at Palmer Field

When did you play?
I started as a freshman at MIT in the spring of 1984, and started at UMRFC in spring of 1990. As most people know, the lines between college and men’s sides were more loosely defined then. Although I have not taken classes at Michigan, I can now claim to be Michigan man through faculty status as I am teaching a course this fall.

Any special honors?
Men’s club captain in 95-96, the chair positions are a little fuzzy, but I remember a couple of quality post-games making a ton of Jambalaya and having crawdads flown up from Nawlins, so maybe Social Chair a couple of times.

Played in a few Michigan Cup finals in the 90s, of course the 95 men’s DII champs, 95 National sevens (5th), finals and champs of several 7s tournaments in the 90s, most memorably beating the Chicago Lions in the finals of their own tournament 2 or 3 years running between 94-98. Prior to coming to U of M, the MIT team I was on was short on athletes, but since student eligibility was “flexible”, our grad student expats allowed us to have a decent 7s team, where we competed well and occasionally made a final in the top tournaments on the East Coast, the New York Sevens (Thanksgiving weekend) and Rockaway 7s (on Rockaway Beach in NYC). The highlight of all that for me was twofold. First, learning more about the game by the need in 7s to be more involved in all aspects of play, and secondly, seeing a few years later that the college division Rockaway final we won vs Xavier HS Olde Boys was listed by longtime USA Rugby 7s coach Emil Signes as one of his Top Ten matches ever – I think because he had a tie to both teams, probably not due to quality of play! For quality of play, winning the Midwest 7s in ’95 was certainly more notable.

Favorite memories or teammates?
Nearly all of them! The main thing I enjoyed was the quality of instruction and quantity of team talent, allowing my level of play to increase rapidly the first 3-4 years here. In the early 90s, UMRFC was playing at the top level available in the US at the time, Division I, so although we did not travel well enough during league play to make Nationals, we were feared at home and when we decided to go all in for a major tournament. In those days USA Rugby put out a calendar, and it was cool to see Perps, Hagan, and Dave Horton in photos on the calendar with select sides, and to also see reporting and game photos of Michigan matches in the print version of Rugby Magazine.

Other notable memories include trips to the St. Patrick’s day 15s tournament in Savannah — especially the Superheroes Tour, Las Vegas tournaments, a couple of fun years when my college teammate (and a Xavier HS alum) Eugene Sweeney played for UMRFC (nickname Huge, at 6-4, 260), a couple of side trips to Bermuda with Jeff Stearns’ Manhattan Olde Boys (and Eugene), having a Good Olde Blue Boys Rugby Band. Nothing can top all the great players and friends I’ve met here – flankers, scrumhalves, wings with extra gears, gnarly centers, immovable props, years in the scrum with KZ – and learning so much from so many of the current players and Olde Boys still wanting to give their time back. Getting the “lock down” nod from Scott Crisler from 50 meters away always meant one of us would crush someone in the next 3-5 seconds. And many memories of various shenanigans.

And of course the various Olde Boys trips and tours in the US and especially the 2002 trip to Ireland. Most specifically, in Ireland, I can never forget all the smack we heard from all the locals about how we would get killed, knowing we were an aging group of Olde Boys with many great games behind us, facing active players who had grown up with rugby in the UK. The moment I realized we would be ok was standing in the loo trough at a pub with Hagan, with a belligerent senior citizen between us telling us how bad we would lose, and making eye contact with Hags–both of us realizing that we still had good rugby in us and just hadn’t seen the kind of guys who could hand us the beating we kept hearing about. The next day was one of the biggest margins of victory overseas for UMRFC.

What are you doing now?
I’m looking forward to seeing more great collegiate rugby, and hearing about more alumni getting engaged in helping the club stay in the top 25 nationally. There are so many successful MRFC alumni out there who can offer a modest donation to support coaching, or perhaps host a recruiting event for incoming freshmen from the LA area, tell us about HS rugby talent in their area, etc, etc.

I also still love going to home games whenever possible, with 3 kids, the road trips are tough, although it was fun to have the cowbell in Philly, and a highlight this year was get a little bit of playing time in the alumni match vs. Dartmouth, as my 30th year of playing rugby!

For a job, I am in the same world of engineering public infrastructure projects, only now as a county elected official in Washtenaw County, vs. 25 years as a consultant to government agencies in the area. The thing I really like about civil engineering is being able to drive past and even through projects I have been a part of. I am also teaching a new cross-disciplinary course at the U this fall, and hope to be part of a future dual degree program for engineers, planners, and SNRE students.

I am still playing in bands in the area, mainly with Hullabaloo (ska and worldbeat, at www.worldnotbeaten.com) and Salmagundi (horn driven classic rock and Memphis soul).

Any other interesting stories or info that you can provide?
With my old club, there were memorable tours of Paris, Japan, Scotland and others, with the social aspects normally the highlight, but I really learned to play here. At UMRFC, the memories of the 1995 team stand out, particularly due to specific contributions made by team members on and off the field that to me were linchpins to our success. Things like KZs big hit against the entire Wisconsin back row, BZ taking a second crack at Fixtures, Olde, Olde Boys Dave Weber, Masso, or Ian Chapman coming out of retirement to devise a specific drill to address an issue. I vividly remember strong backline leadership (and chirping) on the pitch and at practices by Sean Knight and Marc Nemec, and of course the raw speed of the healthy back 3 of Collis, Carter, and Crisler.

Staying at Ashby Kinch’s house in Austin for nationals, having a whole bunch of Egyptians come and go from the club, there is no way to mention all of the people that strike a chord, whether in town today, or far away for 20 years. I love to hear and tell stories about all of these things and a half dozen other contributions of guys doing more than was expected of them at that time. Even Jack Fisher driving all the way to Texas to videotape the whole thing and take his trademark black and white photos. If you ever see John Wooley and Masso in the same place, ask to hear the “Baddest Props at the Party” story. I have a ton of stories to tell in person, but just a couple to offer here.

At my first practice, in February 1990, at the Coliseum (5th and Hill) mostly just doing fitness, a little bit of unopposed, some basketball, and some other indoor adapted games. I knew I had arrived at a serious, hardcore rugby club when a fight broke out. The funny part was the fight broke out before we even started stretching, we were just jogging laps, and two guys had a punch up, resulting in a golf ball above one fella’s eye. They both stayed for the whole practice though.

My first road trip to Notre Dame, in Matt Tice’s pink Cutlass and getting pulled over (twice) for spraypainted words on the car. He still got the cops to sign the visor, along with all the other signatures from officers who had given him tickets. We thumped ND, and I recall Muskrat telling me not to get used to playing on the A-side! With the quality of play here, it is true that selections are an honor not a privilege.

In college I got mono and missed my first UK trip, the club offered it to another guy who was a stalwart with me in the back row for five years. When touring with that club after moving to Michigan, someone called me Evan, and this guy’s eyes got big, then he laughed for five minutes before being able to pull himself together to tell me that Elmo had been his best buddy on the club for years, but he always thought Evan Pratt was some wanker who bought a ticket, skipped a tour, and never played rugby again.

And finally, for one of my best friends in the whole world, I offer this short synopsis. In my years at UMRFC, I realized that there are three general groups of players. The guys who are here for undergrad, start playing, and hang around for as long as they hang around. Then there are the transient guys who are only going to be here for a little while, maybe at the B-school or Law School, but they can make an impact while here. Then guys like myself who are transient, have some rugby experience elsewhere, are unaffiliated with UM, and hang around for as long as they hang around. Each offers something to the club, and it is both good and bad to make new friends then see them go. I remember one quiet but stalwart B-side transient player who had been at a couple of other clubs, made all the practices, accepted his role on the B (or C side in the years we were rich in numbers). This fellow Jon uttered a universal truth to me once at a postgame that went like this “You know, I’ve played for a few different clubs and it seems like every team has a guy like Perpich. But none of them is like Perps.”

GO BLUE!