Maggoty News And Stories
Maggot Stories That continue to stand the test of time!
Write-up in the Missoulian during Maggotfest, 2001:
Note from the Maggots: this reporter took some liberties with the facts.
Rough & tumble : Written by DAMIAN INGLEBY of the Missoulian
Getting up in age some of the elder Maggots, called Flies, have changed their game but not their attitude.
Twenty-five years ago, a motley crew of 18 rebels began a rugby club called the Missoula Maggots. The group is still going, and 14 of those original players are still involved from time to time.
But only six of those original hearty souls – dubbed the “Old Boys” or “Flies” – are still playing, taking some hard knocks, just as they did in 1976, but also learning to play a different way as they push 50.
Russ Cherry is one of the Flies.
“I haven’t embarrassed myself yet,” he says. “I can still hold my own playing with anybody.”
But he also admits that “when you get over 40 years old, you have to work hard.”
Work hard they do. On Sunday, Cherry and the other members of the Missoula Maggots wind up their annual Maggotfest, a tournament that draws players and fans for serious play on and off the field.
What was once a small, regional festival of eight to 10 teams and a few hundred people has grown into an event that draws nearly 40 teams and thousands of people from all over the United States.
In fact, according to Cherry, the Maggotfest has become so popular that there could be as many as 80 to 100 teams if they said yes to everyone who wanted to come. The one year they had 48 teams was almost too much to handle, so they decided to scale it back. “It just wouldn’t be fair to this town for it to be that big,” Cherry says.
Cherry, in his late 40s, works for Burlington Northern Railroad during the week. But he keeps a ball with him wherever he goes, running technique drills and sprints in his spare time to keep in shape.
Another founding member of the Maggot team is Skip Hegman, who is 49 and now coaches another Missoula team, the Jesters, but still plays with the Maggots occasionally.
Hegman has a running list of injuries as old as the club itself – from a broken knee in 1976 that required a bolt to stabilize the injury, to a torn ACL in 1981, to a broken cheek bone in 1985 and a long-running shoulder injury that “the doc probably won’t operate on it until I quit playing.” That isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, Hegman says. “I have a few bones that haven’t been broken yet.”
“When you’re young you take the hit,” he says. “When you’re older you learn better and just pass the ball. Let the other guy get beat up.”
Cherry, too, has changed his strategy and play. After more than 600 to 700 games, he is reducing his playing time due to mounting injuries. After hurting his back and neck last year, he voluntarily scaled back to only five out of the 14 games the Maggots play.
Given the intense physical nature of rugby, such strategies are the only way to survive. A combination of soccer and football, with teams of 20 to 30 people, rugby is a madcap, full-contact sport that comes with bumps, bruises and broken bones.
So why do Cherry and Hegman keep playing?
Like other Old Boys, they speak of the camaraderie, brotherhood and freedom of rugby that is unlike any other sport. Maybe it’s the long hours on the road, maybe the need to trust your teammates, maybe just the amateur nature of the sport. No big-money to get in the way of just having fun.
Ask 10 players, and you’re likely to get 10 different answers.
But everyone agrees that a bond exists, and remains strong.
“I grew up with the Maggots,” Cherry says. “With them, well, they take care of you. You need a place to stay and we’ll put you up.”
“It’s a really social event. You play hard, shake hands when you’re done and then go out and have a good time.”
For such true-believers, rugby is a unique sport. The fast-paced games contain no time outs, no sending in of plays and pretty much no real-time coaching of any kind. The players themselves are responsible for any strategy, in what Hegman calls “full contact chess.”
“It’s just a big family,” Maggots’ coach Geoffrey Thombs says in a thick Australian accent. “At this level there’s no politics, no money. It keeps things on par.”
Thombs, who has been playing since the age of 4, says that anywhere in the world where there’s rugby you’re guaranteed to have a place to stay. One time in Venezuela, Thombs says, he ran into a lady whose former boyfriend was a rugby player. She linked him up with the local team and Thombs had a place to stay for the rest of his trip. “Now I have an extra 30 friends … in Venezuela,” he said. “That’s just the way it is.”
The Maggots have a well-deserved reputation for being a hard-partying group. Their beer drinking and carousing is legendary in the annals of Missoula history, and those early days were steeped in alcohol.
Activities included such things as flying down a beer-soaked slip-and-slide in the nude, and business meetings where everybody brought a six pack of the cheapest beer they could find, then proceeded to have knock-down fights about how to spend club money.
Before home games, the team would often get liquored up, and then after the game, party their way across town afterward with 40 or more guys. For road games to places like Billings or Canada, there would be a keg on the old school bus that served as their transportation. The bus would break down several times along the way, turning a six-hour trip into 10 hours, and team members would show up to games thoroughly drunk.
“We all had long hair, beards, different colored socks, different shoes,” Cherry recalls. “And we’d always lose.
“And they said, ‘You look like a bunch of maggots,’ ” Cherry says. “It was Missoula in the 70s, this town liked to have fun. The parties, people had fun, they would take their clothes off and have a scrum out.”
Seeing this crew of inebriated foes, Canadian teams began calling them a “maggoty looking crew” or a “maggoty drunk.” So, when it came time to name their club, Maggots was a natural fit.
Cherry admits that the drinking and nakedness haven’t gone completely away, but right now, he says, the Maggots are more about rugby than anything else.
“For so long we’ve had to battle with people who don’t think we’re serious. We are. But we still like to have fun,” Cherry says. “As a guy who’s played for 25, 26 years, I have to say that it’s about the game. The partying is all good, but it’s not our first priority.”
Cherry was in charge of security at the Maggotfest this year. Missoula police helped out at the games, he said, and the club provided a bus to shuttle anyone who had too much to drink. All part of an effort to be sure people have fun – but don’t get hurt.
This new approach is not only for the protection of the revelers, Old Boys say, it is out of respect for a town that has allowed the event to become what it is today.
“Missoula makes Maggotfest,” Hegman says. “It’s a very tolerant culture, very accepting and accommodating. A more conservative community probably wouldn’t let it continue on as it has. The festival would not be what it is today without that.”
Commentary on the Spring, 2001 season's matches provided by Bill the Maggot, Chad, and Tex, Ace Maggot News Reporters.
From the Pit to the World Wide Web, bringing you the lies behind the fiction since 1976
March 10 vs. Helena All-Blues: We traveled to Sunny Helena rather than play the Jesters in the snow in Missoula and won by something like 4 trys or so to 0. We had a feed at some bar that I can’t think of the name of. And then we drove home and stopped somewhere along the way. It was a memorable day!
Ellensburg Funhouse Tour: March 17 vs. CWU, March 18 vs. Valley
CWU: 50, Maggots: 20
Papa and I drove over Sunday a.m. so we missed the CWU game – I can’t comment much on it except to say that Jason Ray’s got a pretty damn good college side going there.
Maggots: 36, Valley: 20
The team played pretty good but I would have to say the bright spot was Pig’s touch judging. Such exuberance!
March 24: vs. Billings
Maggot A-Side: 10, Billings A-Side: 29
Didn’t get the monkey off our back. It was a good match in which we had more possession but failed to score when we had opportunities. We were down 12-10 with about 6 minutes left and several breakdowns in our defense allowed Billings to score three tries in short order. Looking forward to the next meeting.
Maggots B-Side: 8, Billings “B”-Side: 27
March 31: Billings Fools Tourney
Maggots: 29, Regina: 15
Maggots: 12, Pokey: 12
Sad to say that, thanks in part to our friends at NorthWorst Airlines, I missed this 1-day tourney. From the sounds of it, we played well the first match. When time for the second match came along guys were more interested in cuddling in the pit under the Cadillac reading bus manuals than playing rugby in the cold.
The party was in a big barn near some pastures (duh, it was Billings). A couple guys in blue jerseys (must have been Kalispell) staged several calves in the chute and let them into the party around midnight or so. THE RUNNING OF THE BULLS! It was the highpoint of the party (and probably the whole tournament) but Billings didn’t see it that way. They announced that the party was now over. The Maggots bused up (and took all the fun with them). Once the Maggots were gone, Billings announced that the party would resume. Not! Maggots leave…party resumes. Doesn’t add up.
April 7: vs. Bozeman Cutthroats
Maggot A-Side: 24, Bozeman A-Side: 7
Maggot B-Side: 32, Bozeman B-Side: 5
We had a couple of good matches against Bozeman. In the A-match, Bozeman held possession substantially more than us and recycled quite a bit of ball. But, we maintained our composure in defense, holding them to one try. Tory, Papa, Pig and Jakey all scored tries for the Maggots and Bitchbutt converted two of them. The score could have been different if a try late in the second half had been upheld. Bozeman touched the ball down in their own in goal and Himsl signaled try awarded. We still don’t know who would have gotten the points if he hadn’t reversed the call. That is something for great rugby minds to ponder in the pit while clicking away highway miles.
We put nearly an entire new side out for the B match and had a real good run. Outstanding play by Brian Briske, and rookies Mark and Jeremy.
April 14: vs. Flathead Moose
Maggot A-Side: 58, Kalispell A-Side: 5 or 7 (not sure if they converted)
Maggot B-Side: 29, Kalispell B-Side: 0
Happy to report there was no snow on the ground and it only snowed a tiny bit during the games. Another notable point was that Tex scored four tries and was named Man of the Match. As Man of the Match, Kalispell presented him a nice Flathead Moose t-shirt. We chose Tex’s opposite, a break away who was all over the field, as Kalispell’s Man of the Match. Since we were not prepared with a t-shirt to give him, we conducted an archeological dig on the bus and unearthed a couple rare treasures for him – a Star Wars “the Phantom Menace” action figure and a partially-rucked bus manual. Obviously Tex (defending world champion beer skooner) won the chugging match.
Rob Bowden is coaching the Moose now and spirits seem to be pretty high. It was good to see they had some young new faces on the club.
We fed at the pitch then hit Moose’s bar……named Mooses I couldn’t believe it, but lo and behold, an Australian flyhalf CAN blow the horn! Who’d a thunk it?
After Moose’s we bused up and headed to the Garden Bar in Big Fork. We reminisced a bit about how we Rocked the Garden in ’97 on a similar trip – covering the entire dance floor with a giant pit toy. As it turns out, the Lar Brother’s brother was playing with his band, the Cold Mountain Rhythm Band, at a bar around the corner. CMRB plays sort of a funky movin’ bluegrass that’s SNAPPY! The Maggots quickly took control of the dance floor with some old favorites like the fish flop and surfer, plus some NICE individual improvisation. Group improv lead to a new Maggot dance tentatively called the “boot to the head.” A big circle of arm in arm Maggots (squeeze up Black) forms on the dance floor while members of the circle take turns hitting the floor in the middle and covering up. All Maggots in the circle give boots to the guy on the floor – staying in time with the music of course. Everyone gets a turn. We left the joint at about 11:30 to the tune of Nancy Reagan.
TOUR QUOTE: “You can’t play on the edge without going over once in a while.” A spectator’s explanation of why things sometimes get a little sketchy on the bus. Especially when the most violent element in society is involved.
April 21, vs. Coeur D’Alene Osprey
Still waiting for news on the scores, etc. But I know we won.
April 28, vs. Spokane Razorbacks
Maggot A-Side: 30, Spokane A-Side: 21
Maggot B-Side: 24, Spokane B-Side: 5
Spokane’s forward pack played very well, recycling a lot of ball off of hit ups. We held them off to hold on to a 9-point win. Pig kicked the ball.
We played a short B-game with both sides putting out nearly the same teams. It was a fun, flowing match. Bill kicked the ball.
Bad news: both forward kicks referenced above came off OK. Stay tuned for future match reports when Pig and Bill really fuck things up by kicking in a game.
May 3-6, 25th Maggotfest
If you were there, you know what happened. If you missed it, too bad.
May 12-13, Montana Rugby Union Championships, Bozeman
We won both cups!
Kalispell forfeited to us in the Quarterfinal
Semifinal Maggots 34, Pocatello 31
Final Maggots 31, Billings 26
B Final Billings forfeited to the Maggots, but we played anyway and won about 25-0
Tex’s analysis of Sundays Grand Final:
We beat the Billings Bulls in a very tough and exciting grand final 31-26. The All-Maggots took an early lead by vigorously attacking the opposition’s goal line during the opening quarter and came away with two converted penalty kicks in front of the posts with a favorable wind. Then the Maggot fly-Half Timmy scored a try in the same succession of attacks putting the Maggots up 11 points to nil. I’m not quite sure how this happened because I was coming out of the bottom of a ruck just in time to see the try. Billings’ threatening back-line was held scoreless until Bulls fullback Pierce attempted a drop goal into the wind which veered wide right and was chased down in a heads up play by Billings’ winger, Matt, for an unconverted try. 11-5. The Maggots missed a penalty goal directly in the middle of the posts to end the half.
Our scrums were not as steady and strong as they have been for most of the season, but Billings’ pack was probably the strongest we have faced all year; bar Spokane was tough (but not as tough), Central Washington and Pocatello at state. A great Maggot improvement is the speed of our backline with the forwards to cover field and support them. In the Grand Final the Maggots ran the best lineouts I have ever seen us execute. Our defense is the best it’s been in the three seasons I’ve had with the club.
Piggy came in with fresh legs in the second forty minutes and scored a try. The Maggots then took this part of the game into their own hands and extended the lead by playing ferocious defense, causing the back line to make mistakes. The Maggot centers made the Billings centers pay for it when they kept the ball with quick and hard tackling. “Chad” woofka’d Bulls open side flanker, kazoodo, in a lineout play designed to peel around the front. The Bulls kicking game was ineffective for most of the match as many of their kicks were blocked or covered well.
Timmy added some dynamics to the game as he put some long kicks into open field and continuously found touch. The Maggots held a lot of possession throughout the game by crashing their hard running centers back to their support. When the Bulls attacked they rarely found themselves within the Maggot 22 until the end of the game.
I know Rich scored an early try on a long run from the wing where he outran the whole Billings team to the center of the pitch and weaved the “S” move under the posts for an unconverted try. Someone else scored a try in here but I cannot recall whom (unless we converted a try and a penalty). Somewhere in there the Bulls put in a converted try. Smoothy put the Maggots up by 19 when he intercepted a pass between the outside center and the winger just outside of their 22 meter line and sprinted over the goal for a try.
We were up on them 31 – 12 when they made a run in the last ten minutes. Billings began to take quick penalties and attacking right up the middle creating space on the wings. They put two tries in directly beneath the posts and converted both kicks.
The Maggot sideline grew dangerously quite as the excitement began to reminisce of last seasons Grand Final were Billings came back from behind to force overtime and ended up winning. It did indeed look like the Bulls were controlling the game and had a chance to win, but there were a good number of Maggots on the pitch who decided that they were going to do whatever needed to be done to win the game. We finally found that confidence to get up on a strong team (we didn’t really hold the lead, something else to work on) and win the game.
Our defense held up in the end as they were attacking the goal line just beneath the posts. The Maggot loose forwards shut down a play off the scrum where the ball was intended to go from the 5/8 back into their strong running flanker but the ball was passed forward under pressure and the final whistle was blown. Maggots won by five: thanks for the penalty points from Fullback Jester Jamie who gave us the six point lead at the beginning of the match, which ended up being the difference in the game. Maggots win by kicking.
The Maggots are Montana State Champions 2001!
Starting 15:
1)Chad
2)Emer
3)Papa Chuck
4)Billings Bill the Bull-Maggot
5)Judlar
6)Tex
7)Scarecrow
8)Tybo
9)Richtmyer
10)Timmy
11)Buttba
12)Aaron Laird
13)Smoothy
14)Rich Sonderman
15)Jester Jamie
Subs: Pig on for Bill at the 4/8ths (lock/8) position during half-time.
From the Missoulian, May 24, 2001
Maggots win state rugby trophy
The Missoula Maggots won the Montana Rugby Union Cup for the first time since 1997, defeating the Billings Bulls 31-26 in a First Division match Sunday. The Bulls had won the Cup the past three years.
Rich Sonderman, Dave Morrison, Bryan Taulbee and Jaimie Steinson scored for the Maggots. Steinson also kicked three penalty goals and added a conversion for another score.
The Maggots also downed the Bulls in the Second Division game, winning 25-0.
The Maggots took the Most Honored Side Trophy at the Scottsdale, Arizona Wild West Bluesfest, March 1-4, 2002:
As Reported by Bill Merrill for the Missoulian
The 4th Annual Blues Fest kicked off last Thursday night with the hosts, Scottsdale Blues R.F.C. hosting Missoula in a friendly match. The Maggots gave the Blues all they could handle as the game went to half time tied at 7 points apiece. Missoula’s first try came on a 10-meter rumble by Jake Kreilick. The extra point conversion was also good on the toe of Brian Taulbee. Scottsdale, who is 8 games into their season, began to falter in the second half. The Maggots scored a quick try when Maggot Captain Dave Morrison touched down on a 30 meter run. Brian Taulbee failed to make the conversion that time. The Maggots then pressured the Blues in Scottsdale’s half of the field for the majority of the second half. With the score 12 points to 7 in favor of Missoula, Scottsdale’s fitness became a factor as this was Missoula’s first game of the year. The Blues capitalized on a few Maggot miscues to score the game-winning try with less than a minute remaining. The run came on an 85 meter burst by an athletic Blues wing. The extra point sealed the victory for the Blues as the referee whistled full time.
On Saturday, Missoula faired much better with a 2 – 1 record in the tournament. The Maggots started off against another tough side from Chicago. Ultimately the Chicago team outlasted the Maggots with a score of 15 to 8. The last two games of the day would show a much better Maggot side though. Timing and cohesion helped the Maggots win their last two matches in Arizona. The first win came against Tempe Devils who were previously undefeated in league play. Missoula fielded it’s best side and cruised to a 10 – 0 win behind newly acquired Australian Timmmmmeeee. Tim scored a try and a drop goal while Brian Taulbee kicked the conversion. In the final match Missoula poured it on a Miami of Ohio side by the score of 28 – 5 capping a great tour to Arizona. Missoula will next see action against Central Washington Univ. and Valley Kangaroos in Ellensburg WA. on March 17 and 18.
As for off-field tour antics: plungers, Carhartt’s, drag races, baseball, broken glass and Christmas trees. We won the Scottsdale equivalent of the Most Honored Side.
World Renowned Sports Psychologist and really old Maggot Hodgey (Dr. Ken Hodge) was quoted by the New Zealand Press and Rugby Heaven.
Wellington – Ever wondered why there is so much screaming at Maggot rugby matches? A new survey believes it’s female fans kicking up a fuss at beefy blokes in tight tops.
A survey of New Zealand sports fans revealed almost a quarter of women attend rugby not for the match, but to find their perfect match. A Colmar Brunton survey has found that 24 per cent of female sporting followers go to games to look for good-looking men. The survey found that 20 per cent of men also go to events hoping to spot attractive women. Of the 500 surveyed, 11 per cent admitted faking their knowledge of sports to attract members of the opposite sex.
While a quarter of sports fans enjoy the sex appeal of sports matches, when it comes to the crunch, romance still takes a back seat for most New Zealand men. Given the choice between a hot date with supermodel Elle Macpherson or a seat at a major match, 73 per cent of men would go for the game.
Leading sport psychologist Dr Ken Hodge, from the School of Physical Education at Otago University, says this finding is not surprising as many men find the male bonding aspect of watching and playing sports more fun than dating. “Some men have trouble expressing their feelings, but being part of the crowd at a sports stadium allows them to scream and yell and feel part of something,” Hodge said. The survey asked 500 New Zealanders their views about sport and its importance in their lives.