Thanks to Ed Viehman for submitting this summary from club's latest trip to the Rockies.

Photos, courtesy of Craig Peterson, are available on here.

September 16-19, 2004 Aspen, CO

ASPEN RUGGERFEST

Before I give the results,I know that I speak on behalf of all the Minneapolis Old Boys in saying that the support from the Metropolis and Metro Old Boys and the Amazons was greatly appreciated.All the Minnesota Clubs,fans and wives showed-up to support each other whether the match was at Rio Grande or at Wagner Park.Notable old timers on the sidelines were amaiable Hurc Hurciot and Big Doug Hansen.Now for

the results:

After winning two matches handily on Thursday,the semi-final was all that we could handle.The highlight of those matches was Johnny Mulken rushing in for a try only to blow out a muscle high in his thigh and limp the final 15 meters dragging the leg behind him as the opposition closed-in.The GOBS (Denver University) squad for the semi-final was massive and led 3-0 with seconds to go. In what can only be described as an act of sheer desparation, Larry Prahm grabbed the ball at the 7 meter line on a penalty kick from an improper bind and popped a high "up and under". All were shocked and the Minneapolis forwards reacted witha big "huh" and two savage rucks with a recycle to Pedro from Timmy Mayer who cut back into the far side of the ruck and put the ball down on the line.DJ gave Pedro a little nudge before the ref arrived to eliminate any judgement as to if he made the line and it ended 7-3 full side 30 seconds later.

After massive intakes of water, ibuprofen and Aspen beer, the final was set against the Black and Blue of Missouri, a combined elite team of the St.Louis Bombers and KC Blues and anyone else who was a legend over 44 from Chicago, Pittsburgh or California. They had 42 players on the pitch versus our 22 and we had lost 3 of our second rows to job commitments (Kittleson,Shertz and Seveland) but no excuses being offered, you play with who you have.They were a hard, fast, good-rucking squad that we managed to match up against for the first half. Stupid hands in the ruck penalties kept us in our half throughout the match. We were down 3-0 at half and beginning to run out of players as the injury count went up and playing time without relief went up.

John Shenk played in typical Old School Rugby attitude at hooker most of the match with 3 broken ribs suffered in the second match on Thursday. He got two against the head with broken ribs in each half.Mark Mitchell and Ton yMills both got dinged up and played sparingly in the second half and the pack play began to deteriorate as the numbers game became a factor. Joe Kiley got hurt and was out with 12 minutes to go . DJ, EricHeindeke and JD Koloc tried to stem the rush but it was beginning to be too much.They scored luckily on a 5 meter scrum and brought in their big boys for the push.Stil lwe were in the game.They began pulling our front rows down and getting away with it.Our back line was heroic and deserved huge credit for keeping us in the game as they crashed big forwards against our backline.

Dana Johnson ,just off knee surgery and still limping, made a try-saving tackle and ruck on a 50 meter deep kick to the three meter line that ended being knocked-on by KC with a scrum to us and a kick to touch at the 30. Both Mike Anders and Kurt Hagman ended up with bloody faces in the second half.KC scored another try to make it 13-0 and the whistle blew 2 minutes later.

Congrats to all of you who came and played or watched and provided support on the sidelines.The hit of the Ruggerfest was the Cows in the end zone and the hit of the bar scene and talk of the town were the Minneapolis Amish Old Boys who stayed in character with beards, hats and Amish style clothing.Kudos to Pedro for suggesting it in a ridiculous moment that we go as the Amish. He was shocked when we actually did it. It took followup by Mike, Kurt and Travis to make it happen.The comment from our referee after the Final said it all:"You! guys from Minneapolis and Metropolis get it.You understand what the spirit of Rugby is all about.You play solid Rugby,have fun and shake it up every time you come to this tourney and that's good. People can't wait to see what you're going to do next time!"

Congrats to all.As always,the mad dash to the Denver airport had 7 of us arriving 2 minutes before departure due to a TSA delay for security screening at the gate of 75 minutes.Only Timmy Mayer and his lady got pimped because of late arrival and overbooking.

Cheers.ED