The Little East Conference (LEC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. The member institutions are located in all six states of New England.
Boston Ironsides Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Ironsides play in the New England Rugby Football Union as a Division 4 Men's Team; retaining around 40-60 members each season.
The Boston Irish Wolfhounds Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team based in Canton, Massachusetts, US. The club competes in, and is governed by, the New England Rugby Football Union, the Northeast Rugby Union, and USA Rugby. In 2014 it joined the American Rugby Premiership.
The Mystic River Rugby Club, sometimes called Boston Mystic, is a New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) club, founded in 1974, located in Malden, Massachusetts, and Melrose, Massachusetts, who field teams in Division 1 American Rugby Premiership and Division 2 Rugby Union in the United States and are the current 2018 USA Rugby D1 National Champions.
The Williams Rugby Football Club (WRFC) and the Williams Women's Rugby Football Club (WWRFC) are intercollegiate club sports teams at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The men's club was founded in the spring of 1959 by David Coughlin with support from J. Peter Pierson, the team's first coach. The men's and women's clubs play in NERFU Division II. Beyond the sport itself, the teams endeavor to foster a sense of community for participants and to provide a safe social environment not only for the players on the team but for the Williams community as a whole.
Three popular American sports were invented in New England. Basketball was invented by James Naismith, a Canadian, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1895. Paintball was invented in 1981 in Henniker, New Hampshire.
The Fairfield Yankees Rugby Football Club is a Division II and IV Men's and Division II Women's Rugby Club based in Fairfield, Connecticut. Founded in 1975, the club consists of many teams, two Men's sides and one Women's side, as well as teams for Summer Sevens and Youth and High School Teams with the Fairfield Rugby Club. The Yankees have fielded teams in the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union as well as the New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU), and currently are members of the Empire Geographical Union. The Yankees won the USA Rugby Division II Men's Club National Championship in 2004, and the Division III Men's Club National Championship in 2016.
The Beast of the East is the largest college rugby tournament in the world. Beast of the East is held in April of each year. In 2022, the tournament added sevens competitions to the schedule in response to the increase of teams playing rugby sevens in the spring season. In 2010, the 27th annual tournament, 84 college rugby teams participated in five divisions. The tournament is hosted by Providence Rugby Football Club on six rugby fields at The Glen in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
The Allegheny Rugby Union is a non-profit corporation whose objective is to promote, serve, and manage the game of rugby union in the greater Pittsburgh area. The Allegheny area is the region described as Western Pennsylvania, Western New York, Northern West Virginia and Eastern Ohio bordering Pennsylvania in the United States of America. The Allegheny Rugby Union is a member of the Midwest Rugby Football Union (MRFU) and USA Rugby.
The Northern California Rugby Football Union (NCRFU) is the Geographical Union (GU) for Adult rugby union teams in Northern California, as well as northern Nevada. The NCRFU is part of USA Rugby.
Charles River Rugby Football Club, nicknamed The Rats, is an American rugby union club based in Boston which currently competes in the New England Rugby Football Union. Charles River has also a women's section.
Worcester, Massachusetts, is home to minor league sports teams and NCAA Division 1 college and university sports, most notably The College of the Holy Cross. Other professional teams that have moved on from the city include the New England Blazers, a Major League Lacrosse team that played at the Worcester Centrum during the 1980s, the Bay State Bombardiers of the Continental Basketball Association, who played in the Worcester Memorial Auditorium from 1984 to 1986, the Worcester Ice Cats, an American Hockey League franchise and developmental team for the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues who played in the DCU Center from 1994 to 2005, and the Worcester Sharks, an American Hockey League franchise and developmental team for the NHL's San Jose Sharks. Many historic and local sporting events have occurred in Worcester such as the first official Ryder Cup golf tournament at Worcester Country Club in 1927.
The Providence Rugby Football Club (PRFC), established in 1969, is a rugby union club located in Providence, Rhode Island. It includes both men's and women's teams, with the women's team known as PWRFC. The PRFC men's team competes in Division III within the New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU). PWRFC competes in the Division I within NERFU in 2023-2024.
The 2009 Men's Division III Rugby Tournament is a tournament which involved 103 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NSCRO Division III college rugby as a culmination of the 2008–09 rugby season. It began in the fall 2008 season in the northeast, midwest and mid-atlantic, and picked up again in the spring 2009 season for the southern teams, and concludes with the Fearsome Four, a final four-style semifinals and championship games co-hosted by South Jersey RFC on April 25-6 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
The Northeastern University Rugby Football Club is a college rugby union team representing Northeastern University. The club competes in the Liberty Conference of Division 1-A Rugby and is governed by USA Rugby.
The Old Gold Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The club competes in, and is governed by, the New England Rugby Football Union, the Northeast Rugby Union, and USA Rugby. The team currently fields sides in Division II and Division IV in NERFU.
The Empire Rugby Football Union Geographical Union is the governing body for over 100 men's and women's rugby union clubs and colleges in New York State, Northern New Jersey and Southern Connecticut.
The Texas Rugby Union (TRU) is the Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams playing in Texas and portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma for USA Rugby. It is a non-profit organization and is the primary overseeing body for the promotion of rugby union in the region.
The Capital Geographic Union is the Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams playing in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. It is an association of youth, high school, collegiate, and adult men's and women's rugby teams in the Mid-Atlantic United States under USA Rugby.
The Carolinas Geographic Rugby Union is responsible for administration and governance of Rugby Union for adults in North and South Carolina and surrounding areas in Tennessee and Georgia. The CGRU currently serves over 30 men's (D2/D3/D4) and women's (D2) clubs. Membership has grown significantly in recent years with over 1400 registered players. The mission of the Carolinas Geographic Rugby Union is to grow, develop, support, and manage the sport of rugby union in the Carolinas and surrounding areas.
