May Alumnus of the Month: Herb Hopkins

Our May Alumnus of the Month is Herb Hopkins.

Herb played at Michigan from 1974 to 1979, and spent time at #8, flanker, and prop. As his longtime friend Greg Rose says, Herb was “one of the most inspirational players we had back then.” Herb has Parkinson’s and is in hospice now, so he was unable to respond directly when we reached out to him. Instead, we’ve compiled stories of Herb from the people who knew him best.

From his wife Toni:

Ed Carney asked that I send a story about Herb. I actually have a good story that occurred on St. Patty’s Day, 1985. We were dating then and went to Washington, D.C. for an olde boys game. Herb had been told by his mom and various doctors to not play rugby anymore. He evidently had a few vertebrae in his neck that had been injured in past games.

We drove down with Rich King and his girlfriend, and I only noticed that Herb had brought his rugby gear when he started to get changed behind the car. Of course, he played and received a cheap shot about 20 minutes into play. As he was carried off the field, he said to me, “Don’t tell my mother!” We drove him straight to the hospital where he had x-rays taken. After waiting an hour, we all decided that it was getting late on St. Patty’s Day, and that we didn’t need to talk to the radiologist after all. Of course, Herb had listed his mom as the person to contact in case of an emergency.

The four of us found a bar with serious looking Irish diplomats all dressed in green. I remember Herb dancing the Irish jig. He was hurting so much that I had to support him all the way back to the hotel. The next day we went to another Irish bar for lunch and drove home. Herb had a stress test scheduled for the next day which he went to and passed.

Back to Saturday: The radiologist found that Herb had a punctured lung and bruised ribs. His lung capacity was severely diminished. Of course, they called his mom. She was extremely upset and wanted his brother Jimmy to go to D.C. and search for Herb. There were no cell phones, and she didn’t even know my number since I was just the girlfriend at the time. Jimmy decided that Herb could be anywhere in D.C. and said no. Herb heard about this olde boys game from his mom for a long time, and she said to me at the wedding, “Now you can worry about him.” She was right.

From his teammate Rory O’Connor:

Did you know that Herb was in the fraternity at Dartmouth that Animal House was based upon? One of his Frat Brothers wrote it; maybe John Belushi played Herb!

I remember when we went to play the Chicago Lions in Grant Park in Chicago. Herb took care of their dirty and ferocious Welsh prop, Gary Wilson, after he head-butted Al Markman in the mouth. And we won!!! Herb was a man among boys.

From his teammate Thomas Cooney:

Herb and I were classmates at Dartmouth in the class of 1974. Herb was the captain of the football team. Herb was indeed a legend before he got to AA. If you had looked up the definition of “big man on campus” back then, Herb’s picture would have been there.

Herb was a member of the Theta Delta fraternity and was its president his senior year. Most of the members of the fraternity were the linemen on the football team and the field guys on the track and field team–no small guys allowed. While I had met Herb in passing on a number of occasions, my first real personal encounter came in the basement of his fraternity during junior year I believe. I showed up for some reason, and Herb goaded me into an arm wrestling match with the captain of the freshman football team. When I won the match Herb was so incensed that he got in my face and threatened to tear my head off. He settled for challenging me to another contest. My two-fold goal was to not look like I just gave up, which would have infuriated him even more, but to avoid getting my arm broken. I managed to do that and Herb gave me a big hug and we were friends after that. You always wanted Herb as a friend on your side and not the other way around.

I think it was shortly thereafter, when the electricity had been cut off to the fraternity for failure to pay the bill, that they chopped up their piano and burned it in the fireplace for heat. After all, what real use was a piano otherwise. There was always something crazy when you were with Herb.

From his teammate Bill Haldane:

Herb was a slab-of-granite number-eight who was learning business by selling for Union Carbide (I think). He sold carborundum and liked to say, “illegitimi non carborundum.” For those without the privilege of Latin schooling, this has always been translated as, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” And for 25 years with Parkinson’s, Herb has certainly lived that motto.

From his teammate Ed Carney:

A few years ago I was sitting with Herb on the porch of a restaurant. Everything seemed fine and I asked Herb how he was doing. He told me that his doctors have told him that he has a lot of meds to go through before hits the wall. But he added, “someday the wall and I will meet.”

Again, congratulations to our May Alumnus of the Month, Herb Hopkins! Herb, thank you for everything you’ve done for Michigan Rugby.