Idaho State University’s Ram Eddings receives rugby Lifetime Achievement Award

POCATELLO – Ram Eddings, Idaho State University diversity resource center program coordinator, was among 13 inductees at the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame when he received his Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this month at a ceremony in Chicago.

Eddings, who was an ISU rugby club coach for nearly 20 years, received the award in the company of top rugby players in the country.

“I got the opportunity to interact with a lot of people I had known including some old coaches of mine,” Eddings said.

The Lifetime Achievement Awards recognizes and honors individuals who have dedicated their life to the sport of rugby and whose service and commitment to rugby may have gone unrecognized.

Eddings has been involved with rugby for more than 40 years. In 1974, Edding began his rugby career and played on a Pocatello team. He played the sport competitively for 19 years and started to coach afterwards. He was the coach of the ISU men’s rugby team until 2013. He is now coaching the ISU’s women’s rugby team.

Eddings received his award Sept. 4, and then headed back to Pocatello Sept. 5 at 4:30 a.m. to play his final game of rugby at 2 p.m. at the ISU Rugby Club’s 20-year reunion game held at Bartz Field. Eddings promised he would play in the 20 year reunion game and he did so for three minutes. After being hit by another player he decided to rest on the bench for the remainder of the game.

“It was a very quick exit,” said Eddings. “I was feeling pretty dead after flying on a plane, then driving in a car, then trying to play rugby.”

One of the memorable moments for Eddings at the ceremony in Chicago was seeing the son of Rudy Scholz receive an honorary award for his dedication to rugby. Scholz won gold for the U.S. in the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, the only years rugby was part of the Olympics.

Amy Slack, ISU graduate studies coordinator, nominated Eddings two years ago, but he wasn’t selected until this year. The award date happened to be just one day before his reunion game, which was planned a year in advance.

“I was really honored to have been selected and to receive the award,” said Eddings. “It was pretty special.”

The award ceremony is typically held in San Diego where the rugby headquarters is, but it was held in Chicago because the national U.S. Rugby Team had a game against the national Australia Rugby Team, which Eddings was unable to attend.

“They kind of figured the chances of me coming back [for the reunion game] were good because my all-time favorite team in the world is the New Zealand All Blacks, so if it would have been the All Blacks playing they wouldn’t have seen me,” said Eddings.

Even though there was an international game going on Eddings came back because of his dedication and love for ISU. This reunion game met very much to him.

When asked what he missed most about rugby, Eddings said, “Playing, I really enjoyed playing the game. There are those moments when mentally you want to get out there, but you know the real deal.”