McBride Field – Memphis Flyer

If I played rugby and had been on the winning team at the Elvis 7s, I would have won a guitar bearing a Troy McCall drawing of the King wearing a beret.

The tournament, presented by the Memphis Blues Rugby Club, was August 5th at McBride Field in Tobey Park.

I asked tournament director Harrison Lampley to tell me who came up with the guitar idea. “It was one of our colleagues, Dan Brewer,” Harrison says. “He found the guitars I think in a pawn shop. We changed trophies a few times over the years. This year, the first place trophies were the guitars and the little busts of Elvis were the second place trophies.”

Harrison says that, “Troy did the art and we printed those wraps at Van Wraps (Gallery) on Madison. They gave me a little tutorial on how to wrap them. I did one the night before at my kitchen table and one the morning of the event.”

Kudos to Harrison’s wife, Taylor, by the way. “My wife is pregnant and we had a baby shower (last) weekend. And somehow we fit it all in.”

They used vinyl material like what they use to wrap vehicles. But next year, he said, “we’re going to go with acoustic guitars, ’cause the electrics were a little too difficult.”

Acoustics, he says, “have those flat faces and electric guitars are just hard to wrap. The ones this year are cool ’cause they look like knockoff Stratocasters. But we’ll go with acoustic. That will be more authentic to Elvis anyway.”

Why is Elvis wearing a beret in his drawing? “The Rugby World Cup, which is contested every four years, takes place in France next month,” McCall says. “Since 2011, when the RWC was in New Zealand, I’ve always tried to connect the Elvis 7s graphic theme to the country where that year’s World Cup competition was being held. (In) 2015 it was in England. And Japan in 2019. And, of course, this year, France. Vive Le Memphis!”

That slogan is also on the guitars as well as the 2023 Elvis 7s T-shirts, which feature McCall’s drawing.

Ron McGhee at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Kyle Wilson at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Tezzyo Mosley, Javon Chapman, Dre Thomas, Christopher Lemon at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Bidders Butters at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Maranda McLemore, Cadi Morrison, Cassidy Clayton, Theresa Garcia, Claire Thompson , Christa Griffith at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

The Arkansas Griffins won the men’s division and the Little Rock Women’s Rugby Club won the women’s division. It was the latest competition for the Elvis 7s, which I’ve covered for decades, and it’s uniquely Memphis.

Ruggers play to a soundtrack of Elvis music heard over a loudspeaker. In previous years, players with shaggy side whiskers competed for prizes in the Mr. Sideburns Contest. They had to sing a snippet of an Elvis song. Even if they couldn’t sing.

There were a lot of former players who I’d photographed over the years, including Matthew Wrage, Kyle Baker, and Devin Faletto. It was like a “This is Your Life Covering Elvis 7s.”

Gibs Kell of the USA South Panthers, 19, wore bushy sideburns, but they were artificial and removable. Not like veteran rugger Chris Claude, whose chops were real.

Gibs Kell at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Cayden and Chris Claude at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

But it’s great to see players like Kell continue the tradition of celebrating Elvis through rugby. He’s 19 years old.

The hits keep on coming.

Johnny Holloway, Annabell Joyner, Jimmy Holloway, Jalen Jones at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Kameron Walker and Harvey Taylor at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Jennae Ramey, Alex Easley, Kayla Davis at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Bennett Murphy and Jace Phillips at at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Gabbi Jennings and Cameron Jennings at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Elvis 7s 2023 rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)

One of my all-time favorite events to cover is the Elvis 7s, the annual rugby tournament honoring Elvis presented by the Memphis Blues Rugby Club. I’ve covered it for decades. It’s such a uniquely Memphis thing.

Games are played against the soundtrack of Elvis recordings, including, appropriately, All Shook Up and Suspicious Minds, the latter with its words “Caught in a trap.” (Or, more fittingly for the occasion, a “maul,” which means being physically detained by the opposing team). An Elvis trivia game is played and, there’s a “Mister Sideburns” contest, in which players with various sizes and shapes of sideburns compete against one another as they sing a snippet from an Elvis song. The winner is usually given some kind of an Elvis memento.

Elvis 7s, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this year, was held August 6th (the event is traditionally held the first Saturday of August). The tournament, which for some years was held at USA Stadium in Millington, was back at its old stomping (literally) ground at McBride Field in Toby Park.

Pablo Sierra at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Julie Sandridge and Shaniah Jones at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Billy Dyer and Sally Kissinger at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Ricky Speed at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

In years past, the late Bill “Dollar Bill” Walker dressed as Elvis and his wife, now Sophie Duffel, dressed as Priscilla Presley. They were driven onto the field in a pink Cadillac. There also were Priscilla contests with competing women rugby team members in beehive hairdos.

The T-shirts are always great. This year’s shirt featured a drawing of Elvis in a rugby uniform with long socks. Troy McCall, a Memphis Blues Club alumnus came up with the image, which he’d used on previous T-shirts. McCall, a former Elvis 7s tournament director, has designed the Elvis 7s T-shirts for “at least 20 years,” he says.

Troy McCall and Alex Beckett at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Michael Donahue and rugby player John Elmore have a sideburns face off at Elvis 7s (Credit: Caleb Johnson)

Gerald Williams, Christian Flynn, and Reagan Rukstad (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Blink and Emac at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Watching the action at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Wally Dyke, who founded the event, wore one of McCall’s 2011 Elvis 7s T-shirts, which featured an image of Elvis’s face with a Maori tattoo. “That year the Elvis 7s T-shirts were based on the fact that Rugby World Cup was being hosted in New Zealand,” McCall says. “Maoris are indigenous to New Zealand and are part of the culture.”

Wally Dyke at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

McCall attended the World Cup that year, and was wearing the shirt at a bar in New Zealand. McCall saw a Maori man with a tattooed face on the other side “staring daggers at us,” he says. He wondered if the man was disturbed by the shirt. McCall walked over and said, “Hey, man. We’re from the states and we’re here for the Rugby World Cup. I wanted to know, do you find this offensive?”

“He said, ‘Nah. That’s one of the best shirts I’ve ever seen. I’d love to have one.’ I literally took off the shirt I was wearing and gave it to him. And he gave me the shirt he was wearing.”

Another tidbit about that shirt: “If you look at the bottom left part of his face, the left cheek and jaw, it actually says ‘Elvis’ within the design.”

The first Elvis 7s event was in 1987. “It had four teams and he (Dyke) brought his stereo from home and hung his speakers from a tree,” McCall says.

“A cassette player,” Dyke says.

And, he added, “After that first year I think we had 12 teams. Then we got to our maximum of 16, the most we can do in a day.”

Taylor Osment at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Noelle Equi and Gerald Williams at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Ladarius Holt, Majors, D’untae Barner at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Lacey Magee and William Blake at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Tournament director Rob Reetz says 16 teams from the Mid-South (Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama) took part in this year’s Elvis 7’s.

Rob Reetz and Troy McCall at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Chris Lemons, Jonathan Brewi, Ian Rasmussen, Spencer Hansen at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Kathy Camire, Jen Johnson, Hayley Wood, Savannah Austin, Jessica Willis, Katie McCord at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Collin Kita at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“It went great,” Reetz says.”We had absolutely no issues at all.”

And no rain. I actually covered the event one year when it poured. I stood in muddy water in a tent with a bunch of soggy players while rain pelted the roof. I can’t recall if Kentucky Rain was playing.

“I’ve actually never been to an Elvis (7s) where it rained,” Reetz says.

Knock on wood.

Or, as the King says, “If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.”