Draft:University of Texas Rugby Club

This page is about the current rugby union club. For University Rugby, see https://www.texasrugby.club/.

{{Infobox rugby team | teamname = University of Texas Rugby Football Club (Men) | image = = | imagesize = | fullname = University of Texas Rugby Football Club (Men) | nickname = Texas Longhorn | unions = USA Rugby | Regional - Lone Star Conference | National - CRAA - Division 1A Men | location = Austin, Texas | founded = Spring 1985; 39 years ago | founders = Nigel James, Randy Lott, David Pelton |current coach = / Van Stewart[1]

Before 1985 - Early years

As Kirk Tate stated students who played on the Austin Huns and the Austin Blacks mens rugby teams would come together for the Collegiate Tournament and play just for that weekend. They would then go back to their clubs after this tournament.  So there are remnants of UT games going back. There is some record in 1982 that John Redhorse and David Pelton filled out some forms at Rec Sports for these tournaments. We also have one picture from 1984 from a collegiate tournament team below.

1985 - The Beginning Vision

“ In 1985, a few young men sat on a rugby pitch at Zilker Park and made a decision that has become a legacy – to create a collegiate rugby team and play competitive rugby.  That year eight members of the founding team were chosen to be on the Texas Select side ; the rest is history.  Who would have predicted the legacy back then? “

At that time there was no dedicated collegiate division or eligibility rules. All the clubs played men's rugby in the TRU. Each spring there was a one weekend, winner take all collegiate championship tourney a week or two after the TRU championships (or maybe before, not sure). All the UT students playing for the Huns and Blacks would come together, practice for a week, and then show up as the UT Rugby Club. The only requirement was a student ID. Could be part time, could be a grad student. So we'd have 18 year olds playing side by side with 30 year olds, and all were men's club players. Spring 85 a group of those guys got together at the end of the tourney and said "you know, we could do this for real." And so the UT Rugby Club was founded.

1985 Collegiate Championship in Dallas

Fall 1985 - The Official Beginning

And with that decision, work was set out to formal created the club. David Pelton went down to Rec Sports and filled out the paperwork to become an Intramural club.   Nigel James was studying Chemical Engineering at the time and so had a Apple IIC computer and EPSON dot matrix printer.  He started making the formal documents to create the club via the Rec Sports Intramural team. A lot of the initial documents, newsletters, and formation documents have been retained from this time. There was a constitution written for the Rec Sports for the creation of the club. This was ratified on 10-November 1985.   (SCAN LATER – excuse the Cheeto stain when you see it).     The official four founding fathers are:

1. President / Captain – Randy Lott
2. Vice President – Nigel James
3. Treasurer – Bill Bartok
4. NSA - David Pelton

   

This small group then set up a table on the registration area at Palmer auditorium and we handed out another dot matrix poster that said “Give blood play rugby”.   We signed up a bunch of people and had 90 kids show up for practice the next week.  And that was the start of this great legacy!!  Also a cool note was a lot of the OG were also player coaches and did a lot for the game / team in that front.

Alan Sharpley and Cormac O'Donaghue of the Austin Blacks rugby team were the first coaches. We trained Monday and Wednesday since they had their own club training to attend on Tuesday and Thursday. Most Saturdays we were on our own, player led on game days. But since the bench in those days was a whopping two men, there wasn't much for a coach to do on game day anyhow. That first season we lost a close match to A&M in the collegiate final. The other college teams were Univ Dallas, Southwest Texas (now Texas State), SFA, SMU, Texas Tech, and Rice

The First Formal Rosters- Fall 1985   -1986

We have three rosters from that Dot matrix printer. from that year  spring and fall.  Fall 1985.     One has the officers listed above. The 2^nd has this list of officers so not sure it this was for the next season. These are the formal CHARTER officers and CHARTER members of University of Texas Rugby team.

1985 Fall Roster 1 Officers	1985 Fall Roster 2 Officers
Randy Lott – President	Nigel “EWOK” James – President
Nigel “Shirley” James – Vice President	Lenny Bocian – Vice President
David “Babyface” Adams – Recruitment	Joe-Mike Desaloms Match Secretary
Bill “Flounder” Bartok – Treasurer	Rodney “Chewy” Garza – Joint Social Director
Stephen Cash – Co-Publicity Director	Tom Kenney – Treasurer
Joe-Mike Desaloms – Match Secretary	Randy Lott – NSA / Captain
Greg Klausmeyer – Promotional  (I think you got the Shiner kegs for us!)	Glenn Mack – Recruitment
Skip Lemon – Captain	Mike Martin – Promotional
Andy McPherson – Social Chairman	Mick “Raging Bull” Wagoner – Recruitment Godfather
David Pelton – National Security Advisor	Stevie Ray Walters – Joint Social Director
Mich Short – co-publicity director

1986 - The tournaments

The first official University of Texas team photos are here with the names

First Official University of Texas Team photo 1986

Team photo with names

Riding high on the collegiate tournament success, in the spring we went to a Tulane University tournament and a tour to England. The Mardi Gras Tournament Feb 8-9, 1986  I have the program

After only being around one season, the team did an ambition step and did a rugby tour in England. They played 4 games.

Upload - England Trip itinerary – Dec 1986

University of Texas Rugby Team - USA to England and Wales Tour 1986/86

To end this exciting year they were featured in an article in IMAGES (supplement to the Daily Texan) – Dec 1986 – center article

And the team made the official Cactus yearbook, page 221.

UT rugby team in Cactus Yearbook 1986

Rugby writeup in Cactus yearbook 1986

Presidents Club / Coaches

Here is the line of Presidents and Head coaches that started and lead and help the club grow:

Years	Presidents	Head Coaches - 15s	Head Coaches - 7s	1st 15 Captain
1985	Randy Lott Nigel James	Alan Sharpley
1986		Ty Landry
1987
1988
1989		Bob McDowell
1990		Bob McDowell
1991		Bob McDowell
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004		Chris Cronn
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009			Jacob Lieberman
2010		Butch Neuenschwander	Jacob Lieberman
2011		Butch Neuenschwander	Jacob Lieberman
2012		Butch Neuenschwander	Jacob Lieberman
2013		Chris Hopps	Jacob Lieberman
2014		Chris Hopps		Taylor Hayes
2015		Chris Hopps	Mickey Johnson
2016		Chris Hopps	Mickey Johnson
2017		Zac Mizell
2018				John Cullinan
2019				John Cullinan
2020
2021
2022		Brian Hannon
2023		Van Stewart
2024	Carter Bentsen	Van Stewart		Carter Bentsen
2025

Artifacts

1. Key games / articles that I have flyers or documents of
   • There was a color  magazine we were featured in but I can’t find it.  
   • 1^st Annual Longhorn Summer Sevens Rugby Tournament. I have a nice stapled 8 page hand made programme

The Teams

1990-2000

Daily Texan Feb 19, 1991  “Longhorns repeat as state college rugby champs”

2010-2020

In 2012, the Rugby club started a scholarship fund thanks to Mickey Johnson

They also held a combine to help recruit and build the quality of the team

In 2017, there was a nice article in the Alcade talking about the team's legacy

Club Honors

Drop in championship info here

State champions 1990 and 19901 - Coach Bob McDowell

The Longhorns' improvement led to Texas winning the Southwest Conference in the 2011–12 season to qualify for the sweet sixteen of the 2012 national championship playoffs. Texas won the 2012 Southwest 7s tournament to qualify for the 2012 USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships.

The Longhorns rugby program has been boosted by its participation in the Collegiate Rugby Championship, the highest profile college rugby competition in the US, which is broadcast live on NBC. In the 2011 CRC, Texas defeated Big 12 rival Oklahoma to reach the quarterfinals. Following Texas's participation in the 2011 CRC, Texas "raised an additional $10,000 from alumni, landed a new apparel sponsor, and have been contacted by 90 students (including two DBs from the football team) who want to play rugby." In the 2012 CRC, Texas defeated its rival Oklahoma to again reach the quarterfinals of the tournament.

The Longhorns rugby program reached a new all-time high during the 2013–2014 season. Texas won the 2013 Southwest Conference 7s Championship advancing them to the 2013 USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships, where they finished ranked #12 in the nation. Months later Texas won the 2014 Southwest Conference 15s Championship, making them the first team in the conference to win both the 7s and 15s championships in the same season. The Longhorns finished the season with their first participation in The Varsity Cup Championship, where they finished in the top 8.

Notable Former Players

Nigel James went on to play in England for the Grimsby Town 2nd side (attach two articles here), coached a youth rugby side in Grimsby and then started up the first Alumni association. He is still active in the Alumni team today push the vision started in 1985.

Tom Kenney - went on to play at the highest domestic level rugby super leader for PAC - Potomac Athletic Club RFC from 1991 - 2005

Kirk Tate (OG 1986) - went on to coach the Austin Huns and also become the President of TRU and was inducted into the TRU Rugby Hall of Fame.

David Pelton - went on to get involved with international match officials. He was appointed referee 2000-2004 for the Woman's Hong Kong 7's tournament. Two IRB appointments to North America 4 as Asst. Referee. World Rugby Appointment with 39 tests as citing commissioner including World Cup 7's, British and Irish Lions tour, and 2 World Cups . He currently leads citing commissioners Rugby Americas North and Major League Rugby.

U20

Continuing the Legacy – Alumni.  

• We then have a colorful history on the alumni front  as it evolved, but I love that it showed out continuation to keep the vision going and all the leaders across the decades that continued to make it happen. 1998 – we have letters and now emails showing we are setting up an alumni.  Still on the dot matrix printer
• 1^st newsletter   June 10, 1988
• 1^st Annual Long Alumni Association Rugby and BBQ Event  April 15, 2000
• I wanted to shout out that a lot of guys were fighting overseas and in the military – would love to gather that list together (Mick/Randy/Willard….)
• We have the Front Page of the Daily Texan – “alleged rugby nudity investigated” on 4/22/99
• Achieved 501© tax exempt status and a name change to TEXAS EXILES  - Email August 5, 2001

            Initial Board of directors – Nigel James, Randy Lott, David Pelton, C.J. Trimber

            Next year officers were then in the email

 Nigel James – President
 Randy Lott – VP
 Anthony Holm – Treasurer
 CJ Trimber – Secretary.

We went through several name changes. But finally with wisdom joined into the great network organization through Texas Exes and your can go here for our page and provide scholarship donations.

Texas Exes - Men's Rugby Alumni Network

We also then had   Randy/Homer come back and be coaches for the team.   That is another great legacy of keeping the dream alive.

In October 2021 we held a reunion

Nice article on the Alumni Reunion 2022

Taken from the Texas Longhorns page

Rugby

[edit | edit source] Founded in 1985, the Texas Longhorns rugby team plays in the Allied Rugby Conference, and plays its postseason in the Varsity Cup Championship. The Longhorns rugby program has been improving in recent years. Texas rugby has instituted a combine to identify the most elite athletes on campus with an eye towards recruiting them to play rugby. The increasing popularity of rugby in the United States and the announcement that rugby would return to the Summer Olympics led Texas to upgrade the designation of its rugby program from club to Olympic. The Texas Rugby Alumni association and the Texas Exes have begun an endowment to award scholarships to Texas rugby players, which is viewed as a vital recruitment tool.