Jack Cushing is hoping that history can repeat itself. Back in 1971, after having played American football through college, he saw a brief feature about a sport he had never seen before and decided he wanted to try it. 

Cushing went along to a training session when his local club in South Bend, Indiana, advertised that they were looking for players. Very quickly his relationship with his new sport became a love affair. Cushing had fallen for rugby.

Fast forward more than 40 years and Cushing, pictured celebrating a score for his team, is the director of rugby in Chicago’s Mount Carmel High School, the first school in Illinois to form a competitive rugby team (in 1998). 

The long-time coach, who recently celebrated his 68th birthday, hopes that the historic test match between USA and New Zealand earlier this month will give the game the sort of exposure on network television that can pique the interest of the next generation.

“That match is going to make a big difference to rugby in Chicago,” said Cushing. 

The city was buzzing

"Yes! It’s a rugby day!"

Jack Cushing

“The city has been buzzing about rugby. There is huge exposure from national television. This match and the run-up to the Olympic Games in 2016 is giving us the exposure we had been craving for years.”

His excitement is palpable as he describes what happened in the Windy City that week.

“It was wild all week. It’s not just the enthusiasm of the whole rugby community but also people that don’t know anything about rugby are all saying ‘how about that big game?’”

Downtown Chicago had All Blacks and USA Rugby banners on all the lampposts. There were lots of Kiwis doing hakas all around the city. It was something to see!”

Part of the joy for the Chicago rugby community in hosting the Eagles’ test against the All Blacks was that they sold out iconic NFL venue, Soldier Field. Cushing’s own family has a proud gridiron pedigree with both of sons working in professional capacities within it.

Started a high school rugby team

“My sons love football, yet they had been going to rugby games since they were both in diapers!”

His eldest son, Matt played in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers and his younger son, Adam, has had much success as an offensive line coach for North Western University. Indeed, in his schooldays, it was Adam who sparked the idea of high school rugby.

“When my son was a senior at Mount Carmel, he said ‘Dad, there is a bunch of guys over here that want to start a rugby team’ and I said, ‘but there is nobody else in the state for you to play’. So, I went to a Chicago Area Rugby Football Union meeting and said, ‘hey, I’ve got a high school team, does anybody else want to get a high school team?’

“Four teams surfaced that spring and it has grown a lot since then, we now have 70 clubs in the state.”

Stateside, Mount Carmel is renowned as a football powerhouse but Cushing feels that rugby has unique selling points for students and parents.


They like the rugby values

“They like the values of rugby, the idea that if each spring you come to practice, you will play each and every week. In other high school sports, you get cut from teams. I don’t want anyone to be just sitting on the bench, if you practice you will play. That is a tradition of rugby worldwide and that just really grabs the kids’ interest.”

As well as attracting youngsters who are actively involved in various sports, Mount Carmel and other schools with rugby programmes have seen a high uptake in rugby from those who were not playing any sport in school.

“We also get a whole bunch of kids who barely do any physical activity, kids who barely walk and chew gum! They absolutely fall in love with rugby. They love the sense of pride of doing something, of accomplishing something.”

Cushing notes that is own son and the Mount Carmel boys were not alone in their push for a school rugby programme and this trend of young people demanding more rugby has been instrumental in its growth in Illinois.

“When high school rugby began to take off in Illinois, the kids would go to the high school administrators and go, ‘so and so is playing rugby, so can we get a rugby team going?’

Real growth happening in Chicago rugby

“That groundswell was coming from the kids, which is pretty interesting. One kid tells another kid about rugby and pretty soon it has spread to another school. It has gotten so organised thanks to USA Rugby’s help in employing high school rugby co-ordinators.

“When I used to go to meetings for the older, men’s clubs, there might be 10 or 15 people there. We now get 40 or 50 people at the youth meetings and everyone has got something to say. We have a real growth thing going on here with rugby.”

The introduction of rugby sevens at the Rio Olympics is also helping to draw talented young athletes towards the game.

“The Olympic promise is playing a big part in this groundswell of kids wanting to play rugby. We had a couple of kids graduate last year that were real quality athletes, what they were saying was, ‘we want to go to Olympics’, they went off to big rugby playing schools, so we are hopeful for them.”

Thinking to his own future, has Cushing got any plans to retire from his involvement in rugby?

His answer is just as enthusiastic as any high school student. “I could never get away from rugby because it is a passion. I wake up on rugby days and think ‘yes! It’s a rugby day!’”

This feature forms part of our Around The Regions series exploring the game beyond its traditional heartlands. Do you have an interesting story to tell about rugby around the world? Let us know by emailing aroundtheregions@worldrugby.org.