Mike Cobb, who played, coached, and officiated rugby for more than three decades, was killed Saturday when an automobile struck him in Thailand where he was participating in a rugby referee exchange.<\/p>\n
In every respect, Cobb\u2019s influence on the game he loved touched many in the U.S. and beyond. Once ranked as one of the top rugby officials in the U.S., Cobb served as Eastern Zone Manager for referees at the time of his death. He was a fixture at national rugby conventions and games and participated in dozens of international exchanges.<\/p>\n
“We were shocked and saddened to hear about Mike’s passing, our thoughts and prayers are with Mike’s friends and family at this time,” said USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville. “Mike was such a larger than life character, passionate about his rugby and always going above and beyond to help players, referees and coaches develop their potential.”<\/p>\n
Beyond officiating, Cobb found time to coach. In 2004, he led the Furman University women\u2019s rugby team to the Rugby South Finals. From 2005-08 he served as head coach for the Greenville Griffins men\u2019s team, leading them to the USA National Final 16 in 2006. At the time of his death, Cobb was assistant coach for South Greenville, a top high school club that is advancing to nationals.<\/p>\n
A native of Greenville and veteran of the United States Air Force, Cobb left a giant imprint on the sport he loved through his mentoring and friendships.<\/p>\n
\u201cFew in rugby, if any, could rival his dedication and work ethic, or his\u00a0irrepressible desire to make the sport of rugby better for all,\u201d said John Meyers, President of the Southeast Rugby Referee Society. \u201cWhat he meant to our Society cannot be summarized in a few sentences, nor could we give justice to such meaning.\u00a0He coached, mentored, and evaluated referees and referee\u00a0coaches both nationally and locally.\u00a0\u00a0He produced\u00a0innumerable rugby educational videos and gave numerous presentations each year.\u00a0Suffice it to say that\u00a0he was a rugby tour-de-force.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vince Atkinson, head coach of the Griffins, described Cobb as a \u201cproductive, reverent servant of rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only was Mike committed, he was extremely competent,\u201d said Atkinson. \u201cMike saw the game of rugby different than most.\u00a0 At times I disagreed with Mike philosophically on rugby. But now, I see that he was right.\u00a0 It just took me a while to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Returning home after serving in the military, Cobb played for the Greenville Griffins from 1983 to 1992 where he served as Captain. The club disbanded in 1992 but was reestablished in 1994. Cobb was one of the few older Greenville players to make the transition to the new team. In 1996, he retired as a player and became a certified referee the next year.<\/p>\n
Cobb\u2019s nimble mind, eye for detail and no-nonsense personality helped him quickly ascend the referee ranks. In May 2003, he was promoted to the grade B2, which moved him into the top 20 referees in the U.S. He retired from full time officiating the next year after undergoing hip replacement surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike Cobb\u2019s impact was not in the positions he held or the prestige he garnered, it has been the lives that he touched,\u201d said John Roberts, Coach of the Furman University men\u2019s rugby team. \u201cCobber was straight-forward and suffered no fools, but beneath that exterior was a guy who had a buoyant personality and wanted to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cobb was married for many years to Misty Cobb. Mike is survived by a daughter, Lauren, brother\u00a0 and teammate (Rich), father (Darrell) and mother (Shirley).<\/p>\n
A small group of Cobb\u2019s friends are working with the family to launch a memorial fund that will be used to perpetuate Mike Cobb’s memory and aid a rugby-related initiative. To learn more, please contact Dan Roberts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mike Cobb, who played, coached, and officiated rugby for more than three decades, was killed Saturday when an automobile struck him in Thailand where he was participating in a rugby […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-rugby"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}