Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Content Warning: <\/strong>this article contains mentions of domestic violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the fall of 2001, while she was president of the Oregon Sports Union, also known fondly as ORSU, Toni Fujiwara started a Women’s+ only collegiate rugby tournament, intending to show the team\u2019s facility and introduce college players to the next level of rugby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The tournament ran at the beginning of the spring season, with non-rugby games between matchups and awards given to those who embodied the spirit of rugby. The teams had a social afterward, and ORSU connected with the college players to help them with the transition to the club level of play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This then evolved into the Jesterfest Tournament in 2005, an inheritance from the ORSU collegiate tournament which the club ran in the \u201990s and 2000s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2005, the University of Oregon was still a relatively new club, and it was where Lindsay Babb played her collegiate career. She graduated with a sociology degree and continued her rugby career with ORSU. In Babb\u2019s time with ORSU, the team went to their first Sweet 16 in a National tournament in 2006, a number six ranking nationally in 2007 and a membership in the brand new Women\u2019s Premier League in 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBabb and a few other college players joined ORSU in our epic bus tours to Canada for the Abbotsford Tournament and knew on that trip that ORSU was the club for them,\u201d Fujiwara said. \u201cBabb was such a bright light, both on and off the field. She was a tenacious competitor and the best of teammates.\u201d Fujiwara credited Babb as a major part of creating the vibrant culture at ORSU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, tragedy struck June 22, 2010. Babb was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in an extreme act of domestic violence the morning after she broke up with him. Five days later, Babb\u2019s killer was charged with domestic violence murder. \u201cEven in the end, Lindsay didn\u2019t think her life was in danger,\u201d said Mike Babb, Lindsay Babb\u2019s father, at the sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That year, the rugby community across the entire nation came together in memory of Babb. For the 2010-2011 season, almost every team in the Womens\u2019 Premier League wore a unicorn \u2014 ORSU\u2019s mascot \u2014 on their sleeve to honor Babb. \u201cIt was a reminder that our community is so strong and truly has each other\u2019s back, through thick and thin,\u201d Fujiwara said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2011, the club renamed Jesterfest to Babbfest, keeping Babb\u2019s memory and impact alive. It\u2019s not about winning the tournament, but instead bringing the rugby community together for a day full of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tournament features speakers and sessions from Raphael House of Portland \u2014 Portland\u2019s shelter for survivors of domestic violence \u2014 and Rose City Self-Defense, where Fujiwara works as the Youth Coordinator. Part of the proceeds from Babbfest are donated to Raphael House in continued support of survivors of domestic violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen we talk about (being) prepared to defend ourselves in the line of work I do, I always remember that you can be the most prepared, you can know how to defend yourself, you can be the toughest of tough people and the reality is it can happen to anyone,\u201d Fujiwara said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor Content Warning: this article contains mentions of domestic violence In the fall of 2001, while she was president of the Oregon Sports Union, also known fondly as ORSU, Toni Fujiwara started a Women’s+ only collegiate rugby tournament, intending to show the team\u2019s facility and introduce college players to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3949,3946,3943,3948,3941,3944,3940,3939,3947,3942,363,1978,3945,3628,3938],"class_list":["post-21504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-abbotsford-tournament","tag-babb","tag-babbfest","tag-jesterfest","tag-lindsay-babb","tag-oregon-sports-union","tag-orsu","tag-orsu-jesters","tag-raphael-house","tag-rose-city-self-defense","tag-rugby","tag-university-of-oregon","tag-womens-premier-league","tag-womens-rugby","tag-wpl"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21509,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21504\/revisions\/21509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}