Bob Sweeney, on the right, was an avid rugby player who died after a game at the Can-Am Rugby Tournament in Saranac Lake on Friday. This photo from a Can-Am several years ago shows, from left, David Martin, Don Warner, John McClusky and Sweeney, all former teammates with the Manhattan Rugby Club who were playing for the Mystical Geese. (Provided photo)

SARANAC LAKE — A rugby player with massive love for the sport, who competed around the world and had teammates and friends around the country died during the Can-Am Rugby Tournament over the weekend.

After playing a game at the Petrova Elementary fields on Friday, Robert Sweeney, 67, of San Diego, California suffered a heart attack and died later in a hospital, according to organizers and teammates. He was playing with the Mystical Geese Eh! over-60 club. Sweeney leaves behind his wife, Kelly, a daughter, Megan, and son, Owen.

“We are saddened by the loss of one of our rugby community members who suffered a heart attack while at Can-Ams this weekend,” the Can-Am board said in a statement. “We can only hope that he was able to spend time with his family and his team doing something that he loved.”

Sweeney’s friend and teammate David Martin said “Bobby” was a great teammate and a great friend. On the field, he was physical, fast and “understated.”

Martin remembers a Can-Am a couple of years ago when Sweeney won the game for the team he was playing for — scoring a try, stopping a tackle and running the length of the field to seal the win.

“I came up to him afterwards and said, ‘Bobby, you won the game!’ and he was like, ‘Whatever,'” Martin said, chuckling.

Off the field, he was a person who made time for his numerous friends.

Sweeney and Martin met in a Manhattan rugby club in 1988. After Sweeney moved to New Hampshire and then San Diego, they still met up often at tournaments in each others’ home states to get together, play some rugby and enjoy each other’s company.

Sweeney had attended Can-Am around a dozen times and played for many teams.

“In rugby, if you’re a back, and you can still run, everybody wants you,” Martin said.

After Friday’s morning game, Martin had seen Sweeney and told him he had some good tackles, passes and runs. Sweeney gave him his ever-humble, “Thanks.” A short time later, Martin said Sweeney was in the medical tent.

Sweeney’s death has been a tough thing for the team to absorb, Martin said. After the announcement came, they had another game. Before playing, both teams gathered arm-in-arm to have a moment of silence for their friend. Instead of starting with a cheer of “go team,” they shouted “Bob Sweeney.”

In a social media tribute to his friend, Martin said, “Good luck Bobby. Score tries in heaven.”

Martin said Sweeney had a heart attack a couple of years ago at the Missoula Maggotfest tournament and came back and kept going.

“He just never stopped playing,” Martin said.

Months later, they both played in a tournament on Catalina Island on a team called “The Cardiac Kids.”

Sweeney had attended Iona College to play baseball and picked up rugby, according to Martin. Once it got in his blood, he couldn’t let it go.

“He’s sick and twisted,” Martin said with a laugh.

Everywhere he moved, Sweeney joined a club — Manhattan Rugby Club in New York, Seacoast in New Hampshire, Back Bay in California. After he retired as the CFO for a finance company in San Diego four years ago, he joined the PacLantic club to travel the world playing “golden oldies” tournaments in places like Australia, France or Germany. He had just returned from a tournament Singapore.