Curt Huckaby was one of the good guys. 

The founder of the Arkansas State University rugby team took the once upstart club from a group of seven guys and his schoolboy son, Matt, to a national D2 power to a top-ranked D1A, school-supported program over the course of 14 years before stepping down from his role as volunteer head coach in 2010.

Matt Huckaby became an All-American and an Eagles sevens player while playing for his father and took over overseeing ASU's program when “Old Man Huck” was stricken with ALS. Before Curt Huckaby died in June 2016, Arkansas State and Life decided to honor the great rugby coach and self-described “simple country judge” with the Curt Huckaby Cup, which returns this Saturday for the first of two games between the Red Wolves and Running Eagles.

Saturday's opening matchup of the home-and-away series is streaming live on FloRugby and also serving as Life’s opener in Mid-South Conference play — kickoff is at 1 PM ET.

Life University's Mitch Wilson Talks Playing For Huckaby Trophy:

There’s a lot of meaning to this game, not least of which is the fact that these are two intense rivals.

“Life has been setting the bar for the last couple of years, so any time we play them the guys see it as, all right, we’ve got to test ourselves and see where we’re at at this point in the season,” said ASU head coach Blake White, who added that Huckaby taught him discipline, doing things the right way, and having fun with the game at the same time.

ASU Coach Blake White Discusses Curt Huckaby's Influence:

You can’t make mistakes against Life, added White. 

“We’re going to find out how close we are with that discipline we’ve been talking about,” he said.

The Running Eagles are coming off a 103-0 pasting of LSU that put everyone in D1A on notice.

“There were a few areas of improvement that we took away from the LSU match,” Life’s Mitch Wilson said. “It’s sticking to our game plan and executing what our game plan is on any given day. All of the Mid-South games are rivalry matches. It’s going to be a strong conference again this year and there’ll be some pretty close games.”

There are, in fact, some very close games in the Mid-South. 

“It usually comes down to executing the basics,” Wilson said. “We haven’t watched any Arkansas State game film this year. We just need to play the game how we play. We know it’ll be a very tough match regardless.”

And one that means a lot to everyone.