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Fox Sports
Year by Year
FOX Sports World
Along with Ruck and Maul Rugby Promotions operated by Daniel
Morgan and Darrin Barner, Fox Sports World has been part of
four major rugby events in NE Nebraska.
April 2001--Wayne,
NE
With the inaugural kickoff of the first rugby game ever to
be played in Wayne, NE, a double header was slated for the
2001 Challenge Cup Sponsored by FOX Sports World.
In the men's game UNI, U. of Northern Iowa traveled 6 hours
to challenge the U. of Nebraska Cornhuskers. The second
game featured the women of Nebraska University, matching up
with South Dakota State.
UNI won the men's game, and showing the crowd that they would
use Nebraska as a stepping-stone, on their way to later winning
the National Championship. The women's game ended in a tie.
With over 2 inches of rain falling just as the game started
and temperatures only in the high 20's, treacherous conditions
of 30MPH winds, rain, sleet, small hail and even a tornado
funnel cloud only 20 miles away did not keep 300 people from
lining up the sidelines during the "ICE BOWL".
KTCH radio did air the games play-by-play and cars lined
the entire outside fence line to listen to the game on the
radio while staying in their cars with the heaters cranked
up to the highest setting. The
only thing louder then the crowd yelling through their scarves
and heavy winter coats was the artillery cannon shells fired
off by the Wayne National Guard each time a team scored.
The talk of the town all next week on Main Street was all
about the game that several sports fans listed to on the radio
by KTCH with Keith Dalton from Dallas, Texas doing the play-by-play.
Many fans that were at the game and braved the weather acknowledged
that the game was far more entertaining then they thought,
and the seed of rugby was now planted in NE Nebraska.
October 2001--Norfolk,
NE
With the big impact of word of mouth advertisement from the
match up in Wayne, NE, FOX Sports World was ready for a much
bigger event. With #1 Nebraska and #2 Oklahoma playing
football on Saturday, a rugby game between these two schools
the very next afternoon would be massive to the dedicated
Cornhusker fans in Northeast Nebraska.
With 100 donated radio commercials
by KEXL and WJAG in Norfolk, NE a crowd of 1,700 packed Norfolk
Memorial Football Stadium all wearing Husker RED T-shirts
from the Game Of The Century III, when Eric Crouch scored
the game winning touchdown in the closing minutes of the football
game on Saturday. The electricity of Saturday's big Cornhusker
win, carried over to the rugby game on Sunday.
Some fans arrived over 90-minutes
before kickoff to get prime seats at the 50-yard line. All
1,700 fans took to their feet when the Cornhuskers took the
field to the school fight song. What was even more
impressive was when a small group of 30 Oklahoma parents wearing
Crimson and Cream also clapped on the Husker ruggers.
The Cornhusker men did outscore the Sooner's of Oklahoma
University on Saturday during the football game, and also
the rugby game on Sunday. However in the double header,
South Dakota State women did defeat the Cornhusker women in
the 2 nd feature.
With 1,700 in attendance at
the game, and a large portion of the college crowd being from
Wayne State College only 30 miles away, the talk on campus
the very next day was the future of getting a team started
at Wayne State College for the Wildcats. A post game
social was sponsored by Brad Ottis, at the Depot Sports Café
after the game. Ottis played college football at Wayne
State, and played in the NFL in the late 1990's.
September 2002--Scotland,
South Dakota
With Wayne State starting a rugby program in March of 2002
for both men and women, and both teams posting winning records
in their very first season; the WILDCATS of Wayne State were
ready for their first big challenge.
Scotland, SD was hosing their annual Scottish Festival and
Highland Games at the town's football stadium, and an invite
to be the feature event at the Highland Festival was given
to Wayne State College.
Again FOX Sports World jumped on this great opportunity to
promote their cable channel and promote the weekly Championship
Rugby Show, with the men of South Dakota State and the women
of University of South Dakota going to play in a stadium setting.
The Border War between these two schools of Nebraska and South
Dakota was heavily advertised.
Kilts, bagpipe bands, haggis, FOX Sports World banners and
beautiful weather was just part of an excellent rugby afternoon.
South Dakota State ended up on top in the first game,
however the Wayne State women handled USD with 3 tries in
the 2 nd half to chalk up another victory.
Ruck and Maul Rugby Promotions again kept NE Nebraska in
suspense with the great Play-by-Play announcing by Keith Dalton,
Dan Morgan and Angus McTavish on KTCH-FM Radio.
The Wayne State ruggers showed their support for being invited
to this event by helping take down all of the tents and picnic
tables at the event. WSC the next week was awarded
with a cash donation from the City of Scotland for being great
sports off of the field, and the money was used for the charter
bus that was used the fallowing week up to Fargo, ND.
September 2003--LeMars,
Iowa
With the previous three FOX Sports World events along with
the power of Ruck and Maul Rugby Promotions, what was going
to be the next challenge? The biggest of all four of
the events was held in LeMars, Iowa with a two-day event during
the first ever "British Days Festival" held in the Ice Cream
Capital Of The World, LeMars, Iowa.
A 28-team two-day rugby event
was held, along with the Tri-State advertising blitz in Nebraska,
South Dakota and Iowa. TV commercials were held on
NYPD Blue, and also a commercial during the Monday Night football
game between Indianapolis and Tampa Bay in a great 28-point
comeback, that went into overtime.
The first night was topped off with the Grand Opening of
the Olson Cultural Center, an outdoor event center in the
middle of the town square. A live band and carnival
games were held at the street dance and over 600 ruggers were
on hand for an enjoyable evening.
With the 28-team tournament concluded by 1pm on Sunday, all
teams then went to the stadium to take part of the big marquee
match up in the stadium between Iowa and Iowa State in the
men's game and Wayne State taking on St. Benedict of Minnesota
in the Women's game.
With a packed stadium and several ushers
wearing matching Ruck and Maul Rugby Shirts along with FOX
Sports World hats, a big game was just around the corner.
With the players walking in side-by-side out of the
stadium tunnel the entire crowd stood on their feet to cheer
on both teams. Iowa and Iowa State went to the 50-yard
line waved to the crowd and shook each other's hands to show
the crowd true rugby brotherhood and sportsmanship.
Iowa State did come out on top of the game 21-5, and Wayne
State winning 50-0 in the women's game. The Chamber
of Commerce and the LeMars Visitors Center has already contacted
Ruck and Maul to host a similar event in the future, due to
the huge success of this two-day event.
With Wayne State's success along with winning the Great Plains
Championship in both women's and men's division in just their
first year, WSC has been mentioned on Championship Rugby on
FOX Sports World, by former USA Eagle Captain Brian Vizzard.
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