TOMMY SMITH

Tommy Smith, after a decade-long playing career with the Denver Barbarians highlighted by the 1999 Harp Super League National Championship where he played alongside former UNL rugger and USA Eagle Bart Furrow.  Tommy arrived to UNL for graduate studies in either the Fall of 2001 or Spring of 2002 (he remains fuzzy on many things). Almost immediately he saw a rugby ball being spun around Cook Pavilion and, shortly after, joined the club as a coach. He served the Club in several coaching capacities until either 2008 or 2009 (again, he has been hit in the head a bit)!

It was his distinct privilege to coach with excellent practitioners and long-lasting friends: of course, the OG Niko Waqalaivi, Jess Brandes, Vinny Mbosa, Mark Palmer, Matt Ramirez, Tim Russo, and Nate Wood (probably more, but again…). He is most proud of the excellent squads, players, and people that UNL consistently fielded.

His favorite Rugby memory is the Whiskey 10’s in Chicago. UNL stormed onto the frozen tundra with a hard and fast squad that devoured the additional space provided by the 10-a-side format. After Nebraska ripped through pool play and crunched the University of Illinois in the semi-finals, the University of Iowa, feigning injury, forfeited the Final.

At the after-tournament award ceremony, “Tour-Director-of-All-Things-Good,” Justin Vahle presented the Iowa representative a luscious Barbie doll, replete with several Hawkeye-colored outfits.

Tommy is currently a professor of history at Chadron State College on the high plains of northwestern Nebraska, where he lives with his wife Jeanice Caporaso, daughter Jackson, and son Thomas.

I invite this community to help list those former coaches who volunteered their time, talent, and oftentimes, their treasure, to ensure the UNL students could play this great sport. The entire UNL rugby community thanks you for going up and beyond the call of duty!