For half a century, Steamboat Rugby has hosted one of the premier tournaments in the Rocky Mountains.

While the venue has changed several times over the years, the spirit of rugby at a local scale has continued to grow with each year of the Cowpie Classic, now celebrating its 50th anniversary. It’s a bond that the men and women cannot shake.

“Rugby is a fraternity — it is a little family of friends,” said a player on the Steamboat Old Boys rugby team who introduced himself as “Warpig.”

“Year after year, we come and share some stories, some beers and a little bit of contact,” he said. “It’s not like other tournaments — it’s the Cowpie.”

For the first time in Cowpie history, the Steamboat men, women and old boys all won titles and earned the famous Cowpie trophy. This was also the first time the old boys have won the event, defeating the old boys from Boulder.

Billy Wernig has competed in the Cowpie since 1976, the third annual event. He said the team was “terrible” in the early years and didn’t really start getting good until a run the Steamboat men had in the early 2000s, when they won the home tournament several times over the span of a decade. 

For Wernig, it was the brotherhood that kept him coming back. A majority of those players from the early 2000s competed for the Steamboat Old Boys this year to help lift the trophy.

“In 1973, they had the Ski Town Tournament at the rodeo grounds, and the rodeo let all the cows out on the field,” Wernig said. “They were playing in all this cow (poop), and then the guys had a couple beers and decided we should have a Cowpie tournament. That’s how it started.” 

The tournament moved to Whistler Park in the 1980s, and then the Ski Town Fields years later. Construction at Ski Town pushed the tournament to Emerald Park this year for its 50th anniversary. 

A city ordinance passed in 1996 restricts the uses for Emerald Park to organized youth activities, along with informal adult pick-up games and general recreation — but the city decided in March to provide a one-time waiver to allow the Cowpie Classic to take place there.

Emerald Park got rave reviews from the players. Stephen Beamon, a player on the men’s team, said the amount of space available was incredible and the fields were very well maintained. He hopes the tournament can return to Emerald in future years. 

Beamon is a six-year veteran on the local rugby team, and he just falls more and more in love with the sport with each Cowpie Classic. 

“I’m grateful to be part of a legacy like this,” Beamon said. “I just met these guys about six years ago, and I’ve been able to play with them and get to know them, and I’m just excited to play. This has been really good for me mentally and something I can always return to. I love sports and being able to train for it so this has kept me on the straight and narrow.”