Summer 98 Volume II Issue 1

We Americans, for the most part, know as much about rugby as the English or Irish know about, say, baseball, or good pizza. So the accomplishments of Irish rugger and pipe enthusiast Willie John McBride are a bit hard to gauge. Let's begin by naming his equals from other sports. Michael Jordan ... Wayne Gretzky. That help at all? Cal Ripken? Babe Ruth ? Get the picture?

While we've thus established McBride's athletic eminence, you still wonder why you should be persuaded to spend your valuable time reading about some rugby player. Fair enough. Well ... The story's about a guy who gave his heart and soul to the sport he loved for 23 years, and never received a dime for his efforts. The story's got gratuitous violence ... Copious alcohol intake ... Brazen revelry ... And the guy really digs smoking his pipe.

As we reported in Spring PipeSMOKE (page 8), Willie John McBride was recently feted in England as the Pipesmokers' Council "Pipesmoker of the Year." As such, he was the guest of honor at a banquet attended by 350 pipe enthusiasts at London's Savoy Hotel, and the recipient of the Council's Personality Pipe trophy - a custom-made pipe shaped like a rugby ball, mounted on a stand resembling a rugby field, goalposts and all. "I was delighted to win the award," beamed the gentle giant. "I enjoy smoking my pipe and hopefully will continue to do so for a long time. The function was absolutely super - I've never seen so many pipesmokers together in my life."

It's 1975, and Willie John McBride's brilliant career is winding down. The Irish national team (a combined squad of the Republic and Northern Ireland) is playing France, in Dublin, and it's McBride's last game on home turf. Ireland pulls off a dramatic win and, near the end of the match, McBride finishes his career with an emphatic flourish by scoring a touchdown, known as a 'try'- his first-ever in an international match. After he enters the end zone, the crowd envelops McBride and drapes an Irish flag across the big man's shoulders. In the eyes of the spectators, no single man better personifies the spirit and pride of Ireland. It's an emotional moment for all in attendance.

While he's on par with the Jordans, Gretzkys, and Ripkens of the sporting world, McBride differs from his peers in that he cheerfully answers his own phone, and one doesn't have to go through a litany of agents, personal stewards, and publicists to reserve a few minutes with him. He's unfailingly upbeat, and has more than enough time to answer questions for a pipe magazine across the pond.

While Willie John was born and resides in a small town in Northern Ireland, his sporting achievements were not lost on the Pipesmokers' Council across the Irish Sea in London, or throughout the rest of the rugby playing world, for that matter. Standing 6' 4" and weighing 240 pounds in an era when few men occupied that kind of space, McBride's size, skills, and charisma made him a natural leader throughout his career in the '60s and '70s. "He's an amazing world figure," says Irish sportswriter and TV commentator George Hook. "Willie John can go anywhere in the rugby playing world, and he'll be recognized and warmly received."

Edmund Van Esbeck, who's covered Irish rugby for 40 years and is the author of McBride's biography Willie John, is unequivocal in his description of McBride. "Pick who ya' like in the history of baseball: Joe DiMaggio, Cy Cobb, Jackie Robertson," says Van Esbeck, who apparently knows a bit more about rugby than baseball. "Willie John's of that ilk. He's one of the great figures of Irish sport, and a superb ambassador for both rugby and Ireland."

Back in McBride's era, rugby was quite different from the game today. While the essence of the game - 15 hard men fighting 15 hard men tooth and nail for the ownership of a little white ball is the same, the modern game's video cameras and sideline officials keep the punching, kicking, and headbutting to a minimum. Back then, substitutions were allowed only when an injury forced a player off the field, and teams were permitted just two subs in a match. Toughness was as essential to a player's resume as speed, stamina, and strength.

And none were tougher than Willie John McBride. Growing up on a farm 30 miles outside of Belfast, McBride's initiation to the sport did not start until his 17th year - stunning for a world class athlete in any sport. "We had the farm," he explains in his thick Northern Irish brogue. "My father passed away when I was 5, and my brothers and I were all called upon to take care of the farm, so there was little time for recreation. We had things under control later on - we'd obtained a tractor - and there was a bit more time for sports."