Will Johnson was all wrapped up with football when he completed his last season at Harvard in 2005.
Things were upbeat. Harvard beat Yale in three overtimes in what probably was considered the biggest Ivy League game of the year. For Johnson, the victory meant that he was on the winning team all four years in the struggles against the Elis, and that was enough to puff out his chest.
But he also had interest from the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots of the NFL. He played center and guard at 6-foot-3, 305 pounds, meaning he might have had a chance to venture where most graduates of the Ivy League don’t measure up.
“To have played in my last college football game and to go out on a historic Harvard moment, I thought it might be the ultimate of the sports achievements,” Johnson remembered.
Now, some 40 pounds lighter, Johnson still is wrapped up in football, but a different kind. Johnson is a member of the USA Eagles, who are playing in the Churchill Cup rugby tournament this week at Infiniti Park in Glendale.
Instead of a path to the NFL, Johnson’s career path led him to a new sport and something just as exciting as Harvard-Yale. Last year, he played for Oxford in the traditional British rugby showdown between that school and Cambridge.
“The Oxford-Cambridge game is one of the classic sports competitions in England,” Johnson said. “They’re the gems of the university teams.”
Johnson remembered that when he entered the field at a packed stadium in London for the classic match, it was Harvard-Yale all over again.
Playing for the Eagles isn’t quite like playing for either Harvard or Oxford. There aren’t packed stadiums and great notoriety because rugby is a fledgling sport in the United States, with amateur players facing professional teams from around the world. The Eagles played Argentina in Wednesday night’s match after Ireland took on Canada in the afternoon set.
That’s where the Churchill Cup comes into the plan.
“Rugby is fast, physical and exciting,” said Cup director Terry Burwell. “It’s a high-action game. We have to get some exposure for the game. We see Denver as a natural place to try to build the game. All of the major sports franchises are here, and they are successful.”
The Cup is a proving ground in the growth of the Eagles.
“In time, I think we can claw our way up in the rankings,” Eagles coach Eddie O’Sullivan said. “We have some good young players coming through the college system. This tournament is valuable for us because we can get some young players into international competition.”
Johnson sort of stumbled into the game. After striking out in training camp with the Patriots and Browns, and deciding not to try out for the Arena Football league, Johnson was content that his dreams of playing profession football were over. After graduating from Harvard, he visited friends in San Francisco and was talked into playing in a “B” squad rugby game for the San Francisco Olympic Club.
“I had never played rugby before and didn’t know what I was doing,” Johnson said. “I’m still learning.”
His time with the Olympic Club led him to a chance to attend Oxford and on to the Eagles.
“We try to pick up good athletes, such as Will Johnson, who have played a little bit of rugby,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s a player for the future.”
Johnson explained that he found little carryover from football to rugby. The only possible similarity is controlling the line of scrimmage as an offensive line to force the issue in a scrum while playing tight head prop in the scrum alignment.
He’ll have to be patient before experiencing another Harvard-Yale with the Eagles. Rugby needs a major image boost.
“I was a wrestler in high school and I kind of compare it to that,” Johnson said. “Everybody went to the football games and they knew all about the team. But some of the same people didn’t know we had a wrestling team.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
