Rugby

Rugby as a club sport began in 1960, started by David Zucconi ’55, who had played rugby in England while stationed there with the Air Force. After a first losing season, the club was highly successful. In the second year the Brown Rugby Club won five straight games to win the Division 2 championship of the Eastern Rugby Union, then defeated Villanova and tied Dartmouth to share the championship. In 1966 Brown defeated Notre Dame to win the Virginia Commonwealth Cup. The next year the club took a spring road trip to California, playing six teams in California, three in one day, and returning by way of the Virginia Commonwealth Cup Tournament in Charlottesville, where the Brown club shut out Duke and Virginia in the same day before losing to the Old Blue Rugby Club of New York. In 1968 Brown hosted the first annual Ivy League Rugby Tournament, winning over Columbia (11-0), Harvard (11-3), and Penn (6-3), and losing to Princeton (3-6). In its first nine seasons the club amassed an enviable 109-40-5 record. In 1970 Brown won the Virginia Commonwealth Cup again by defeating Notre Dame, this time in overtime, but had a less successful tour in England, winning one of six games. The 1974 team, led by Phil McMorrow ’75 (21 tries in eleven games), won the Ivy League championship. In 1977 when the team came in third for the national college title, the all-time record stood at 243-93-9. Jay Fluck ’65 became a volunteer coach in 1981 and has continued to coach since then. During this time Brown has won five Ivy League Tournament Championships (Spring) in 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988. Brown has also reached the Northeast Regional Collegiate Playoffs (Fall) on two occasions, in 1986 and in 1991. Brown players who have achieved All-American status are Bill Mullin ’68, Mike Diffily ’67, John Adamiak ’68, James Sabatier ’87, Hikaru Ogata ’90, and Scott Nader ’93. The team has also toured extensively, to Ireland in 1983, to England and Wales in 1985, to Scotland in 1987, to Trinidad in 1988, to Ireland in 1990, and to England and Wales in 1991. Women’s rugby started at Brown in 1987. In 1991 the women’s team finished fourth of six teams in the Ivy Championships, and attained full member status in the New England Rugby Football Union.

July 2013