Skip to main contentEd Suhr does not have the use of his legs. He only has partial use of his arms-he can hold his arm out to shake hands but can't grip-and even if he weren't in a wheelchair, the lean Suhr, with his close-cropped gray hair, wouldn't look like most people's image of a competitive athlete. But as captain of the Portland Pounders, the United States Quad Rugby Association's local team, Suhr is every bit a modern-day gladiator.
There are a lot of misconceptions about quadriplegics. Most people think of the late actor Christopher Reeve-immobile from the neck down-when quadriplegia can apply to those with impairment in all four limbs. And when it comes to quad rugby, most people don't know it exists, or are incapable of even conceiving of it.
"I tend to call it wheelchair rugby, because people get a better picture then," Suhr says. "If you just say quad rugby, they just say, 'Huh?'" But as the new documentary Murderball rolls into theatres (pun intended), that may be about to change.
To the uninformed, the sport is likely to conjure all sorts of images, some of which are no doubt on par with midget-tossing and cow-tipping. But in this version of what's normally a bruising, bloody British field game, wheelchair-bound warriors slam into each other. Sure, it could sound comical-if it weren't so damn brutal. The game is played by four-person teams. Players, who must have impairment in all four limbs, are ranked based on physical ability.
"We call it classification," Suhr explains. "Everyone is classified according to their function, from .5, which is the lowest-which is me-to 3.5, which is the highest function. That would be someone who has fairly good use of their arms and fingers and sometimes their trunk, too."
The ranking system makes it so no team can be composed solely of high-functioning players. The combined ranking of any team on the court can not exceed 8.0. "The idea behind the classification system is that you can't put four highly functional players out there while the other team has four lower-functioning players," explains Suhr. But the ranking has no effect on a player's tenacity. High- and low-function players slam into each other with a speed and ferocity that speaks of no fear. The intensity of the players seems to say, "What's the worst that could happen, we break our necks?"
Quad rugby originated in Canada back in 1979, as an offshoot to wheelchair basketball and ice hockey. In those days the aggressive sport-a sort of demotion derby with wheelchairs instead of cars-was called murderball. The first U.S. team emerged from North Dakota in the early 1980s. A national organization was formed in 1988, and by the 1990s there were teams all over the world, including more than 40 in the United States alone. Earlier this year, the Portland Pounders competed in the national championships.
"It went all right," says Suhr, referring to the spring championships in Louisville, Ky. "We went in seeded seventh in Division One, and we finished seventh. Wasn't quite exciting, I would say. But it was a pretty good tournament."
Injuries sustained in a car accident a little over 20 years ago left Suhr, then 21 years old, confined to a wheelchair. Several years later he became involved in wheelchair rugby as a player and coach, leading to an almost decadelong tenure as president of the national organization.
"It's very important," says Suhr of his involvement with wheelchair rugby. "In some ways for me it's become almost a way of life. I was exposed to wheelchair sports before I got into rugby, and there were some good role models there. But once I got into rugby, I would say it had a much more positive impact on my life. It was just eye-opening and confidence-building; once you travel more and find a little more independence, you get a confidence that starts to snowball into other areas of your life."
The tremendous buzz surrounding the film Murderball, which follows the American national team to the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, brings a heightened awareness of quadriplegia and increased exposure of wheelchair rugby. "I think it will be very interesting to see what the impact of the film is for teams everywhere," says Suhr, who saw Murderball in March when it screened at the Longbaugh Film Festival.
"When the film comes out, I think life's going to get kinda crazy," says Mark Zupan, the iconic wheelchair warrior who is one of Murderball's main subjects. "I think it's going to bring awareness, that's the coolest thing about it."
One of the colorful members of Team USA who competed in Athens, the tattooed Zupan is a brash loudmouth who hasn't let life in a wheelchair hinder his in-your-face personality or his competitive nature. But as the central character in Murderball, Zupan is now the poster child-literally-for quad rugby, his image emblazoned on the film's poster.
"You just add it to the list of weird shit that's happened," says the athlete of his newfound fame. "I mean, the soundtrack just came out, and I'm on the cover of that. Add that to the list as well. It's strange, very very strange."
The movie, directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, looks beyond the game to make a bigger point. "The documentary isn't even about the sport," Zupan says. "It's about life in a wheelchair."
And that's why Murderball succeeds: Like the classic basketball chronicle Hoop Dreams, the film is less about the sport and more about the athletes, and that's why it joins Hoop Dreams as one of the best of the genre of sports documentaries. Ultimately, both the film and the sport of wheelchair rugby itself are powerful reminders that there are people who refuse to be allow their disabilities to destroy their lives.
"I just think it's about living your life and enjoying," Suhr says. "And rugby, for most of us that play, it's that athletic outlet and that competitive outlet that many of us need. But I think it's really just finding what you need in life and going after it."
For more on Suhr's team, see www.portlandpounders.org .
Murderball opens Friday, July 29, at Fox Tower.
WWeek 2015