The quadriplegic, rugby-playing star of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Murderball" might not be able to stand, but he can definitely kick your ass.
In front of a crowd in Cardinal Hall on Thursday, Mark Zupan recounted his life as a quadriplegic athlete and the film that put quadriplegic sports on the map.
When firemen riding in a borrowed fishing boat dragged Zupan out of the water, Zupan was near death. His body temperature hovered around 88 degrees, and he was covered in ant bites.
In all, Zupan said he spent 14 hours in dirty canal water that could very well have been seething with snakes and alligators.
Zupan said the firemen told his father they didn't know how he was still alive.
MOVING ON
As he lay recovering in his hospital bed, Zupan's friend, the driver of the truck he'd been in, came to visit him.
"The instant he walked in to the hospital room I forgave him," he said. "He didn't forgive himself for 12 years."
Zupan said coming home from the hospital was not what he had hoped for.
"Leaving the hospital, getting home for the first time sucked," he said. "I ended up sitting around the house. As time went on I'd get more bitter, more angry."
Zupan said this anger went away after he went back to college and started playing a new sport.
"When I found rugby I felt like life was like how it was before because I got back that competitive aspect," he said.
Zupan said he excelled at the sport, capturing four MVP awards at tournaments around the United States. In 2002 he was voted Quad Rugby Player of the Year.
Soon after, a reporter from Maxim Magazine contacted Zupan. The reporter said he had read an article called "Quadriplegics Kicking the Crap Out of Each Other," and wanted to learn more about quad rugby. Through a series of events, the inquiry led to Zupan starring in "Murderball," another name for quad rugby.
SEX
Filmed over the following two and a half years, a camera crew followed Zupan and other murderball players around everywhere they went. Zupan said he stopped short of letting the camera crew tape him having sex.
Zupan calls the question of whether he is able to have sex "the question people don't want to ask."
He currently has a girlfriend and they have sex - his penis still works, he said.
The "Murderball's" candor in dealing with sex has caused some awkward moments, he said. This was especially true when his mother saw the film when it appeared in New York City.
"I'm sitting there saying, 'Yeah, I like to eat pussy,' and my mom's like 'Yep, that's my son.'"
LIFE AFTER "MURDERBALL"
Zupan said the film has brought him notoriety and brought more attention to the sport of quad rugby.
"It's been crazy," he said. "It's been very, very strange."
Zupan said he divides his time between Austin, Texas where he works as a civil engineer and touring the country. Zupan said he currently plays for the quad rugby team the Austin Stampede.
Today, Zupan doesn't often think about the day he fell through the air and landed in a Florida canal.
"After 12 years in a chair I wouldn't trade anything to not be in a chair again," he said. "You close one chapter, you open another."
STUDENT RESPONSE
Ball State University senior George Taylor said that as a rugby player, he was inspired by Zupan's speaking.
"I really enjoyed the documentary," Taylor said. "He moved on and put it all back behind him."
Ball State freshman Laura Hruska said she was surprised by Zupan's demeanor.
"He was just so funny," Hruska said. "It's good he told us about the times when it did suck, when he felt like a failure."
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