In the Beginning....

Stuart Tennent (Registrar in '79) and I.B. Dent (Student Union Staff and Sponsor in '79) saw the future when they contacted myself and others to start the Club with refugees from the Soccer Team and other interested students. After the Fall '78 Soccer season, the school decided to moved Soccer from D-III to D-II, hire a "real" Soccer Coach and recruit "real" soccer players. We only had about 12 on the squad at the time. I and others had played for 2 years or better. We played 45 minutes or so each match, but most of us were converted football players, lacrosse players, etc. We were good D-III subs, but would have been seriously challenged at the D-II level. We were soon to be "lost." Tennent and Dent were our saviors.

After organizing student interest, Tennent and/or Dent contacted the "Richmond R.A.T.S." (Richmond Area Training Side) to come teach us the game. It was a Sunday afternoon, I believe, and the R.A.T.S. beat the "ever loving **&*$" out of us in a "practice match" after the teaching ended, but we were on our way. The party after was "outrageous" in activity, but we learned to sing songs. Our original pitch is where the baseball field is now. The baseball team's success moved us out to the President's House. We went from probably the best pitch in the state with the hillside for spectator viewing to the worse pitch in the state.

From David Crabil (1979-1982) Longwood Rugby started with a few matches in 1978 - no wins. The first official schedule was in 1979 - with our first win at Lynchburg College that fall. We had no coach or sponsorship. We trained, practiced and schooled ourselves to a undefeated fall season beating the likes of Richmond, Mary Washington & W&L. A photo of the W&L win was put in the yearbook for 1980. A very fun win in a muddy mess at Lexington! The 1979 team put Longwood Rugby on the map. The 1979 team was considered the roughest, toughest hitting small school in the state.This made it difficult for us to schedule the 1980 campaign. With this reputation the smaller schools said no to matches and we had to visit bigger institutions. (Mason, VMI, VCU etc.)

During the reign of Jay Maizel, he pretty much messed everything up. We were suspended for the spring of 1997 because of not paying our dues and also we had some altercation with Hampden Sydney's crazy woman coach...hope she's gone now. During the summer of 1997 we had to work butts off to get back into the Virginia Rugby Union. Jeff Stahl, John Burks and Jim Ernst (match secretary) went to the University of Richmond for the annual Virginia Rugby Union meeting to plead our case and to show we were in good standing financially (long story on how we got the money, but lets just say it was a marginal acquisition). Jeff Stahl was a great leader and if I recall by 1999 we were ranked as the #2 Div II school for rugby on the East Coast.

Picture from 2009 Alumni Game