“Put your money where your mouth is.”
Who knows where that saying, used way too much, came from, but, here’s another overused phrase, “I knew a guy,” who did just that, and everyone he touched was better for it.
For those who know a little about me, or follow me, or have come across me for better or worse, you know that a lot of my time is spent, in what one of my former bosses, Tom Chestnut, once called “the lunatic fringe of sports and entertainment.” There are dalliances with the NFL, and MLB and the NHL etc., but some of the more interesting work has been on the outside looking in; with startups, and emerging businesses or never wases, great stories that needed to be told.
In the last five or six years part of that work has been in and around rugby in the United States, especially the now Olympic sport of sevens rugby, through the highly successful USA Sevens event in Las Vegas, which draws over 70,000 people every year, and the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championships, a marvel of an event every June in Philly which has gotten almost 30,000 fans per year to see a fast rising college sport that is still in its early stages of formation.
At the core of all that, and countless other events in and around rugby, was Jon Prusmack, the CEO of United World Sports. While many in traditional sports did not yet know Jon, those in rugby, and many in football, and at the service academies and in the defense industry where he really made his mark, knew Jon very well. We lost Jon on Friday after a long on again off again battle with cancer, which was documented here.
I first met Jon in his Rockland County office about five years ago. It had nothing to do with rugby; it was all about its sister sport, football. Jon had a vision, the disruptive vision that helped make him such a success in so many areas of business, to transform football into a seven on seven game; something that could have more speed, more action, less violence and could appeal to a new generation of fans who were growing tired of the NFL but still loved action. Ironically that vision, an NFL alternative in various forms, is being played out yet again this spring, from Arena and Fan Controlled Football to no less than five other springtime startups in various phases of financing and development, none of which have really proven concept yet (the closest to Jon’s vision is the American Flag Football League, heading into its second season this spring and summer with some NFL support).
While we quickly realized that like many other entrepreneurial ideas he had, seven on seven football might not be right for now, we started talking rugby and his company United World Sports, which had not just proved concept that Sevens Rugby in the U.S. could be a financially successful venture, it had established a unique beachhead in a global sport that was still struggling to find a larger spot in the sports business lexicon in the United States. There were lots of cooks, lots of talk, but in reality you had to have the dollars to match the vision, and Jon had both.
Jon’s entrepreneurial spirit and his ability to take risk to complete a vision was one that many young people should take note of and emulate. He had a great passion for the sport of rugby and found a way, with the right funding, to create events or enhance ones, that were forward thinking to an audience that would crave excitement at a fast pace. Sevens is a sport that is built for a global millennial generation. Ironically when the IOC selected sevens as a sport for inclusion in 2016 many said it was akin to putting three on three basketball in the Olympics; a smaller, nontraditional version for 15’s which is played more around the world.
Last summer when 3 on 3 basketball was named to the Olympics, Jon sent me a message that said, “so much for the traditionalists and the Olympics!” While his respect and admiration for all areas of military service was beyond compare, Jon also had the vision and the maverick attitude, at least in sports, to disrupt the status quo. He talked to everyone and anyone about the vision for a Sevens League in the U.S. His leadership at United World Sports even proved the concept of how a version of the lighting fast 14 minute game could fit into a two hour broadcast window with longer halves. NBC even did a test of the format a few years ago, and Jon continued to put his own money…millions…into rugby sevens in the quest to find a way to create a sevens league, called Super Sevens.
It is a quest, along with the quest for more investment dollars that it would take beyond the substantial investment he had already made, that will go on now that he has passed, with others leading that charge.
Jon loved the idea of a game that was more inclusive for all, especially on the intercollegiate level. His push to have more women’s teams involved during the Penn Mutual CRC drew praise and appreciation from many, and has helped grow interest in having more schools take on rugby sevens as a sport on the club level, a key grassroots area of growth for the game.
Rugby in North America continues to go in fits and starts. There are many who have looked in the last few years to climb to the top of a scramble for leadership positions, most of whom shouted for buzz and attention but fell way short on the dollars needed to execute a startup business. Jon Prusmack as an entrepreneur was never the loudest yeller, but he was the most solid investor, continuing to ante up his own dollars in a sport that continues to have potential but needs that type of capital to raise the profile of the game in a crowded sports marketplace. He looked to build consensus, but realized that you may need to rock the boat, a large international boat, to build something that could work here in the States.
USA Rugby, the national governing body of the sport, is in transition in many ways. The men’s Sevens team is enjoying a great run and is amongst the best and most consistent in the world, led by explosive players like Carlin Isles and Perry Baker. That type of multicultural global athleticism is what Jon envisioned as the future of the sport, both on the collegiate and the professional level. Where one professional rugby league faltered a few years ago, another is trying to find its ground.
What will the future hold? United World Sports, the company that Jon was CEO of, and runs the day to day business of USA Sevens, The Penn Mutual CRC and other businesses in and around rugby in America, will go on and look to keep executing on Jon’s vision. More consensus and investment is needed to expand rugby beyond its core now, and maybe many of those seeds which Jon nurtured and funded will keep taking hold. Sevens rugby is a fun and exciting game to watch for both men and women, and no one enjoyed watching it more than Jon did.
When I heard this past Friday night that Jon had passed, I remembered a conversation I had had with him and Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster last June in Philadelphia. McMaster was on hand to present the Pete Dawkins Trophy to the 2018 CRC Champion (another visionary move by Prusmack was to name the award after the former Heisman Trophy winner and businessman who also played rugby after his football days were done), because Dawkins wasn’t able to attend.
McMaster was just days removed from his role in the turbulent Trump presidency, and was enjoying the matches in a suite. As his career was transitioning, he marveled openly at Jon’s spirit and his vision to keep growing rugby, at an age when most people would be slowing down. Jon laughed and said that maybe he was a little crazy and he certainly was looking for help to get the sport to another level, but he said his enthusiasm had never been stronger. What really kept him going?
“I am always motivated by ‘The Wonder of What’s Next,’” he told us. “’What’s Next, and what we can do is a great driver, and it should be for all of us no matter what the age.”
What’s next for many who knew Jon Prusmack will be a world without his presence, but one hopefully with his spirit and energy passed on to those who can pick up the ball and run with it.
Here’s hoping we can all have the wherewithal, the mental toughness and grit, and the vision to drive our dreams forward like Jon did. He will be missed, but his legacy should and could live on.
Put your money where your mouth is? In rugby and business, Jon did so much more than that.
