September Alumnus of the Month: Quent Lawson

Quent Lawson is our September Alumnus of the Month!

When did he play?

Quent played for Yale Rugby from 1965-1969 and for the University of Michigan from 1971-1979 while in law school.

What position did he play?

Quent played in the second row alongside Steve Cohen, where he was one of the strongest maulers Michigan Rugby has ever seen. He was able to steal the ball from any opponent in a maul thanks to his natural strength and speed.

What got him started?

If you asked any of his teammates, they would have just assumed that Quent had been playing rugby since he was born. Needless to say, he was experienced when he arrived at the University of Michigan for law school. After years playing rugby at Yale, Quent was naturally inclined to continue playing the sport he loved when he came to Michigan, and made an immediate impact on the field.

What honors/awards did he receive?

Although Quent did not receive any honors or awards at Michigan, he took his rugby prowess with him to Washington D.C. and became the president of the Sudamericano Rugby Football Club (SUD), which later merged with the George Washington Rugby Football Club(GWRFC) to form the Potomac Athletic Club (PAC), where he served as captain and ultimately the president in 1988. In 1993, just five years after the formation of PAC, Quent led his team to the Rugby Club National Championships where they finished third. In 1995, they returned and took home the trophy. Quent was also an important leader in the formation of the USA Rugby Super League, which was formed in 1996 to be the nationwide elite competition for American men’s rugby clubs. A perennial in the national club championship playoffs, PAC established itself as a top ranked premier club in the United States and one of the dominant teams in the North East. Although it no longer exists, the Super League was instrumental in growing the sport to what it is today.

What are his teammates favorite memories of him?

Although he was only at Michigan for a short period of time before ultimately moving to Washington D.C., Quent made a name for himself on the team and anyone he played with has countless stories to tell about his glory days.

From his days at Yale, one of his teammates recalls a time that they were launching water balloons out their dorm windows while Quent was off studying in the library. His roommates saw the campus police coming and fled, right around the time that Quent was returning from the library. Quent opened the door to his room, saw the water balloon slingshot apparatus, and with his backpack on and textbooks in one hand, the campus police came in and all he could say was “whatever happened, it wasn’t me!”

His wonderful dry sense of humor sometimes even snuck his way into the classroom, when once during an exam he was asked to calculate the luminosity of the sun if it were 30 million miles closer to the earth and he simply responded by saying “It would be so bright that everyone would have to wear shades.”

When at Michigan, he went waterskiing with some teammates at a cottage on Devil’s Lake, and he was too heavy for the small waterskies to support him, so he ended up being dragged through the mud and seaweed so that when he got back to the boat, he looked like a Swampman! But his teammates recall him saying it was the most painful fun experience he could imagine off the field.

When asked why it was taking him 5 years to complete his 3 year law degree, Quent simply responded “I think this work thing is just a fad. I want to wait and see if it will blow over.” His teammates knew that he just wanted to spend more time playing rugby with them of course.

He was always telling stories at any rugby reunion or social he was attending, and he always needed to finish the story with “It’s true! I swear it’s true!”

What did he do after Michigan Rugby?

Quent played rugby in D.C. with the PAC until he was in his early 40’s, and worked as an attorney for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for 35 years until he retired in 2013. Quent met the love of his life, Ellen, in 1998 and they got married two years later. Quent unfortunately passed away earlier this year, but his name and his stories will live on in the minds and hearts of all those he ever played with, and his teammates affirm that, although he was not a guy an opposition looked forward to playing, he was such a gentle soul that always made those around him laugh. One of his teammates from Yale even said: “It always struck me as out of character that someone with such an unfailingly gentle manner was so taken with rugby, but Quent loved it.” Thank you, Quent, for being such an outstanding member of the Michigan Rugby community, and for growing love of the game across the country wherever you played.

Congratulations to Quent as our Alumnus of the Month for September 2021!

A special thanks to Greg Rose, Steve Cohen, Ellen Quinn, Ed Carney, Harley Westfall, Rory O’Connor, James Hagerman, and all the other alumni who contributed their stories to make this article possible.