UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

 May, 2005

New spin on rugby
Quadriplegic athletes take sport to the extreme with wheelchair version

By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff | May 31, 2005

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- James DuBose, 33, became a quadriplegic in 1992 when a deer cut in front of his pickup truck and he was thrown from the vehicle. But that hasn't stopped him from being an athlete.

Robert Boothby exults after batting away a final pass to preserve Texas's win over Alabama at the 2005 National Quad Rugby Championships. (Globe Staff Photo / Stan Grossfeld)

Hustling for a loose ball, DuBose, playing for the Pasadena Texans, is clipped from behind. He flips his wheelchair and lands on his head. The game is stopped and DuBose is picked up by members of the staff. There is no hush from the crowd, because Broadbent Arena is empty. His teammates are totally unconcerned. They see this as an opportunity to catch their breath, make minor adjustments to their gloves, grab a gulp of water. DuBose refuses to come out; after all, this happens all the time. The players call it "Murderball" among themselves but they use another name in an official capacity so they don't terrify sponsors.

PHOTOS: Rugby to the extreme

Welcome to the 2005 National Quad Rugby Championships.

"I figure I've already got a broken neck, what else can happen?" said DuBose.

According to league officials, at least 75 percent of the players incurred their spinal cord injuries in motor vehicle accidents, and there's an alarming number of young players who were gunshot victims.

The game is played by quadriplegics in special wheelchairs with angled wheels and metal grills. Played on a regulation basketball court, it's a combination of football, basketball, hockey, and ''Ben-Hur." They don't have to wear helmets, but all players must be strapped in.

Robert Boothby is a Massachusetts native who moved to Texas when his team, the Boston Pitbulls, folded three years ago. He is a singer and musician who was born with no hands or legs. But when he smacks into an opponent, he hears the ''1812 Overture" in his head. "It sounds to me like the Boston Pops and I'm sitting there on the Esplanade and watching the fireworks go boom," he said. ''I love to hit."

It is only fitting that the championships are held here in Muhammad Ali's hometown, because each athlete has the heart of a champion. Eight teams battle for a trophy. There is no prize money. To be eligible, players must have a combination of upper- and lower-extremity impairment. Three limbs must be affected.

Before the tournament, each player is evaluated and given a classification ranging from .5 for the worst injuries to 3.5. Teams field four players at a time, and their combined classifications must not exceed 8. They use a regulation (but sticky) volleyball with a pseudo-blood-stained hand as a logo. They play four eight-minute quarters.

Murderball was invented in Canada and imported to the University of North Dakota in 1981 by Brad Mikkelsen, a quadriplegic who formed a team called the Wallbangers. With 45 teams in the United States and 20 international teams, Quad Rugby is the fastest-growing wheelchair sport in the world. A documentary on the sport, ''Murderball," won a top award at the Sundance Festival.

The rules are simple. The player with the ball has 15 seconds to cross halfcourt. You must dribble or pass the ball every 10 seconds. To score, the two wheelchair wheels must be over the goal line. There are hockey-like penalties and hockey-like hits. There are pick-and-roll and boxing-out strategies, as in basketball. There are football end runs and goal-line defenses. One of the players sports a T-shirt that could be the league motto: "The hit isn't real unless it bends steel."

Woman are allowed to play, but few do. Rachel Cowan, 22, of the Pittsburgh Steelwheelers says being a woman has advantages, especially when playing in the South.

"We were playing Jackson, Miss., and the coach had to yell at them after I scored a goal," she said. ''He said, 'I know you were raised as southern gentlemen, but you need to stop that. You need to hit her and take her out.' A lot of times they hit me and then they apologize."

Chris Cooke, a Quad Rugby Hall of Famer, says the sport is unlike any other. "It's the only sport where guys with limited functions are important," he said.

Life-altering accidents
Rick Marshall, 32, had a soccer scholarship lined up. But that all changed on St. Patrick's Day, 1990, in Lakeland, Fla. "I was drinking at a high school party," Marshall said. ''Vodka, beer, and smoking pot. I passed out where the cars were parked. A Ford [pickup truck] ran over me. I was in a fetal position. The tire went over my neck. I'm laying there and a friend of mine is telling me to breathe."

Now Marshall plays for the Hoveround Lightning. "Rugby is the best form of therapy you can get," he said. ''I've learned so much from the others who have been injured."

Mark Zupan of the defending champion Texas Stampede is the 2004 Quad Rugby Athlete of the Year. But his life almost ended Oct. 14, 1993, in Fort Lauderdale, after playing in a high school soccer game.

"It was nickel beer night, $1 shots," he said. ''I passed out in the back of a friend's pickup truck and wound up lying in a canal off Cypress Creek Road for 14 hours with a broken neck. I remember feeling raindrops, seeing my body twisted to the left. My legs weren't moving. Yelling for help."

He broke his C-7 vertebrae and ruptured C-6. ''I have one good hand to shake and some use of my trunk," he said.

Zupan has tattoos on his arms and legs, a goatee, and a game face reminiscent of Larry Bird's. He works as a civil engineer, but this is his passion.

"Of course it's an outlet," said the 30-year-old. ''I train my butt off to do this, lifting weights. My body takes a beating, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I've hit my head and had concussions, broke ribs, fingers, but nothing life-threatening. I enjoy the pain. How many people have an Olympic medal? [The US won a bronze in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.]"

Last year he visited veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington. ''I told them there's a whole new world they can tap into," he said. ''I hope I gave them hope."

There are no Iraqi War veterans playing, at least not yet. Most of their injuries are not spinal cord injuries.

Tricks of the trade
Tim Davis is a Vietnam vet who struck a land mine south of Da Nang. He woke up in a helicopter with part of his mangled leg next to him. "I went to Vietnam 6-2. I came back 2 feet shorter."

Now he's a referee. Davis compares the game to "football on wheels. But it's really flat-out Murderball. Anything goes out there. They know the rules, but they try to bend them."

Trisha Suhr, a physical therapist and classification panel official, agreed. "They try to cheat," said Suhr. ''There's cheating in able-bodied sports, too. We figured out the tricks they can do. Like pretend a muscle doesn't work when it does." It costs a team $50 to make a challenge on another player. That used to happen "tons of times," Suhr said.

Scott Burrows, 40, of Tampa, Fla., broke his C-6 and C-7 vertebrae in a car accident with a drunk driver and is partially paralyzed in all four limbs. He gives inspirational talks around the country.

"What's unique to my story is I relive what happened to me and then I get out of my chair and walk," he said. ''That doesn't play so well in Murderball. Some of them say, 'You're not a real quadriplegic. Why are you playing rugby?' "

Adam Bencsik, 24, works at Staples when he's not flinging himself all over the gymnasium floor.

''I'm pretty meek in real life," said Bencsik, who contracted a type of meningitis at age 15 that shut down his extremities. "But when I get out there, I get aggressive."

Adam Bencsik of Philadelphia (Globe Staff Photo / Stan Grossfeld)

On the sideline, Corina McNicholl of Indianapolis watches in awe. Her son Jordan, 17, was injured five months ago when he broke his neck diving into a pool. McNicholl remembers driving Jordan to Louisville for the first day of the three-day tournament.

"He loved it and wanted to stay, but I had to be back at work," she said. ''The guys said, 'Leave him here with us.' It's amazing what these guys can do. They said, 'You can do that yourself, you don't need help.' Seeing how independent they are really gave him hope.

"We've already ordered him a rugby chair."

The biggest winner
On the court, the championship game between Texas and Alabama goes into overtime. Inexplicably, the Texas coach sends Boothby, the shortest player on the court, out for the opening tip-off against Lakeshore's Bryan Kirkland, a member of the US team that played in the Athens Paralympics. Somehow, Boothby winds up with the ball. He gets it to Zupan and Texas scores. With four seconds left. Alabama tries a desperation Hail Mary pass. Boothby bats the ball away as time expires. He is mobbed by his teammates. Final score: Texas Stampede 42, Lakeshore Demolition 41.

''He stole the tip," said Zupan, draped in the Lone Star State flag. "We won because a man with no arms and no legs jumped and stole it."

It's not the first time people underestimated Boothby. Three years ago, he walked into O'Leos Pub in Brockton, Mass., for a karaoke show and set his sights on Nikki Colburn, who was the DJ for the show. He asked her out and she said no.

''She wouldn't give me the time of day," remembered Boothby.

But he refused to quit. He kept coming back and made friends with everybody else in the bar.

"He told them I wouldn't go out with him because he was too short," Colburn recalled with a smile.

They wound up getting engaged. 

© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

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