Edwin Mays

Edwin Mays came out for the Lions back in 1990, talked into playing rugby by a persuasive Frenchman he knew from the Red Lion. Hailing from the Midwest, Mays put his former football and track skills to good use, and whether he was suiting up in the centers or at flanker, was always the fittest guy on the pitch.

Fifteen years since reluctantly taking the pitch for the Lions, the Benson lookalike's playing days are long since past, but he still makes a point of following both the men’s and women’s teams, and staying in touch with old teammates to share Lions memories from all over the world. He made time for a pint at Friends and Family Day before heading off to buy a swank new Beemer.

A PINT WITH: What keeps you coming back to watch the Lions?
EDWIN MAYS: Friendships. Some of my closest friends came from this rugby team.

APW: How did you find the Lions?
EM: They kind of found me. I worked with Thierry Langlais’s wife Pamela, and we became friends. Then Thierry and I became very good friends. He was working at the Red Lion, and said, “I’ve got this rugby team, do you want to come out and play?” I was like, “I don’t want to play rugby, that’s a crazy sport.” He said, “You used to play football, you ran track, come on out.”

I went to watch them play Princeton, and made the mistake of wearing shorts. They only had 15 guys, and someone got hurt. So they told me, get out there.

APW: How long before you really got bit by the bug?
EM: I was kind of passive for the first season, then I got hooked. The camaraderie was amazing. It was one of those deals where you just enjoy being part of the team. I’m sure it’s the same way now, but in those days, we were ragtag. They’d call people the morning of games – hey, are you gonna play? The same group stayed together for years.

APW: When you think about calling guys to come out on game day then, and what Friends and Family has become now, how does that make you feel?
EM: Oh, it’s great. It’s really, really great. It’s a total family atmosphere. I remember when these little kids’ moms and dads were stumbling drunk! It’s fun.

Half the guys I know here met their spouse through someone on the rugby team. I met [girlfriend] Barbara basically through the rugby team. Basically through you!

APW: Really?
EM: Yeah! You had a party and this woman Katherine Branston was there. Katherine and I became good friends, and a couple years later, she invited me to a party, and Barbara was there.

APW: I don’t even think I know Katherine.
EM: You probably wouldn’t know her.

APW: Lions shenanigans around the Village are somewhat legendary, but what are some memories from outside the city that come to mind?
EM: We were in France for Freddy Langlais’s wedding. Andy Gonzalez, Bret Costain, Pete Lynch and I went over there – we went to Paris, then a little town south of there. We didn’t know the monetary thing, didn’t know what a franc was. The funniest thing – it was bad at the time, but it’s funny now – they threw a big part for us Americans at this swanky place. It was all these old people, and little kids running around. Thierry gets up on this table -- really just a few sawhorses with a piece of plywood on them -- and starts dancing. He eventually falls off, and Andy says, “We can’t let this Frenchman show us up.” So he jumps up on the table, and hits in between the two boards and crashes it. All the food and wine went all over everyone – it was nasty. The old people were screaming, the bride was coming after Andy.

Then we went to Paris, and Andy gets in a fight. A French Foreign Legion guy threw Andy over his shoulder and ran him out of the club.

APW: Why’d the guy pick him up?
EM: Because Andy was going to get a beating. We’d been hanging out with these guys, a Polish guy and a Yugoslav – they were basically criminals that ended up in the French Foreign Legion. They were huge.

We happened to look out onto the dance floor, and Andy was fighting with this German guy. So the French Foreign Legion guy grabs Andy, throws him over his shoulder, and runs him up like 20 sets of stairs. Then Andy gets in a fight with his friend Pete Lynch. The French Foreign Legion guys thought they saw everything, then they saw that -- they were scared to death. That was a great trip.

Then there was Hong Kong, a trip to Greece. The game has taken me all over the world.

APW: You’ve always been one of the more fit Lions. What kind of workout do you do?
EM: Right now, not much. I used to run a lot, running up walkways in East River Park. I did a lot of sprint work, and after I blew out my knee, a lot of weight work, which allowed me to play for a couple more years.

APW: Who from the young guys impresses you?
EM: Oh man, Stevie Raia, though he’s not really a young guy anymore. A couple other guys, but I don’t know their names. The team is a lot fitter as a group than when I was playing. These guys have like 8% body fat – we were lucky to have one or two guys like that. These guys are fast and strong, and good athletes. We basically just had good rugby players.

APW: Have you seen many women’s games?
EM: Not this year, but Jess Houser, I helped train her off and on via email as she was training for the U.S. team. The women’s team is really impressive. Maybe that’s why the guys are so fit now, because they saw how well the women were doing.

APW: What do the women bring to the club dynamic, especially compared to the old days?
EM: It’s actually a lot of the same stuff -- the freewheeling attitudes, diverse careers and cultures. It’s good. I think it opens the guys up a bit.

Quick Facts:

• Job? Financial Consultant (Smith Barney)
• Age? 42
• Years with Lions? Since 1990 (haven't played since 2000)
• Favorite Drink? Paulaner Hefe-Weizen
• Best Lions Memory? Attending Freddie Langlais' wedding in France.
• Most Valuable teammate? Joe Kelly
• Dr. No or Goldfinger? That's a tough one...Ursula Andress versus Pussy Galore? Gotta go with Ursula in Dr. No.