BILL “ZIPPY” McVICKER

Bill McVicker, “Zippy” played for UNL from 1979-‘81, following a short and disastrous stint with the UNL Boxing Club.  He discovered rugby from his fraternity brother, Michael McHugh and after two practices, boarded a small, privately owned school bus, drove to Norman, OK, stepped onto the field, was immediately stiff-armed in the throat and somehow thought, “Yes, this is the sport for me!”  Being both small AND slow, he quickly gravitated from winger to the pack.  He played at UNL, mostly as a loose forward, back when small and slow was somewhat acceptable for those positions.  

After graduating, he moved to Colorado to enjoy the proverbial life of a ski bum and played for four years with the Blue Goose of Breckenridge.  He also spent several seasons commuting between Breckenridge and Denver two times per week, playing with the Denver Barbarians.  He later moved permanently to Denver and played two more years with the Barbarian horde.  In that league, “small and slow” didn’t suit a loose forward player, so he moved permanently to the center of the pack and played the remainder of competitive days as a hooker (which explains his inability to quickly look to the left or get out of bed in less than seven minutes). 

For some unknown reason, a decision was made that living close to the mountains, skiing, hiking, camping, etc. was too hard a burden to carry, so a move was made back to Lincoln.  He was elected player/coach of the Lincoln City Rugby Club for several years and then through a series of astrologically aligned events including the retirement of Vince Powers from coaching, assumed the reins of UNL coaching in 1989.  Not only as head coach, but the only coach for the next eight years, which included several regional championship seasons and led a number of Great Plains U-25 teams to mixed results over the years.  That included a tournament requiring the coach to strap on boots and play flyhalf (remember small and slow!!) because the team was one player short.

He joined Accenture in 1996 and made partner in 2011, but constant travel and work required abandoning both coaching and any significant playing.  HOWEVER, a four-year move to Canberra, Australia introduced him to “Old Boys” rugby.   After a return to the US, he accompanied former UNL rugger, the late Jim Cunningham to their first International Vintage Rugby Tournament to Limerick Ireland, having joined the International Bustard Eagles club, based in Brisbane Australia. 

Thanks to a small world of rugby, several of the Bustards were in fact old teammates from earlier Australia playing days.  Vintage Rugby Tournaments led to playing in not only Ireland, but Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii.  Finally achieving not just small and slow, but old and brittle, the decision was made that one more piece of hardware (which included numerous plates, screws and other medical devices) could prevent easy pass-through airport metal detectors; the boots were permanently retired.  

But after 40 years, it was not so easy to just walk away.  He joined the Nebraska Alumni Rugby Foundation board in 2020 and became president in 2022, which resulted in some of the entertaining/annoying newsletters received by alumni today.