A Tribute to my Sports Hero, Chippy

By Chris McQuoid, Senior Manager, Legal Practice Management at Lloyd's Banking Group

After thinking long & hard about this I couldn’t look beyond my friend Chippy Baird. Unfortunately, recently we lost Chippy, he was in his 40s and enjoying life to the full, watching his young twin sons grow up and follow in his footsteps playing rugby. We lost Chippy in December last year but the legacy that he left as a player and Chairman of Malone Rugby Club will be everlasting, this however is not the only reason that he is my hero.

Chippy will always be one of the strongest allies of the LGBTQ+ community I will have ever had the pleasure to meet. Our story started about 15 years ago in Belfast, NI. I had met Chippy through a mutual friend a couple of months before and was currently playing for the “gay” rugby team in Belfast at the time having come back from a serious knee injury. As you can imagine playing for a team like this, in Belfast, at this time wasn’t the easiest gig especially as the team was in it’s infancy and many players new to the sport. Rugby can be a tough place to learn your trade and the team was proving less than successful on the pitch which unfortunately was hampering the impact the club could have on the wider rugby community.

Now we come to why Chippy is my hero. After a particularly large defeat at the hands of Malone Rugby Club’s 5th team, I was sitting in the bar with one of my eyes swollen shut and my partner’s (now husband) words ringing in my ears about how I was going to get seriously injured if I wasn’t careful – clearly having a lump the size of an egg blocking my sight wasn’t considered serious for him. At that moment Chippy plonked himself down beside me and asked me would a like a beer, if you know me you know the answer, and could he have a chat about something. On returning with said beer what he said to me next shocked me. “Chris, what do you think you are playing at? You know that you could make so much more of a difference than playing for that team?” At this point I was speechless, again if you know me yes this was one of the few times, but he went on, “Come and play for us up the club, the Titans will continue to make an impact but having an openly gay rugby player in a “straight” team higher up the leagues will have more of an impact. It will introduce people who claim to never have met a gay person to one, it will break stereotypes and hopefully it will allow others to feel confident to come out. If nothing else it’ll teach the *bleep* here a thing or two and maybe I’ll get a decent player as well.”

As I sat there thinking through what he had just said and whether I was ready to do this having only come out months before and was still not out to most of my family, I started to realise that Chippy was right (maybe the beer taking hold) and he was thinking about the bigger picture. That I owed it to myself and him not only for wanting to do the right thing but also trusting that I was good enough on the field so that this wasn’t a stunt.

Due to Chippy’s ideals and vision he showed that day the opportunities that I have been privileged enough to have over the next years about breaking stereotypes and having some very interesting conversations not only whilst still living in NI but also when moving across to live in Brighton, where it was pointed out I was maybe the most senior openly gay rugby union player currently active in the South (more a sad reflection on the sport than a good reflection on my ability).

If it wasn’t for Chippy broaching what could have been a hard conversation and being my friend and sometimes calming influence in those early years, I would have never grown into the player I am today but more importantly the person.

So this is why I want to pay respect to my friend and my hero, Chippy Baird. RIP, once a Viking, always a Viking.