Full name | Princeton University Rugby Football Club | |
---|---|---|
Union | Ivy League | |
Nickname(s) | Tigers | |
Founded | 1876 | |
Location | Princeton, New Jersey | |
Ground(s) | Rickerson Field, Haaga House | |
Director of Rugby | Josie Ziluca | |
Coach(es) | Josie Ziluca (Varsity - Women); Rich Beck (Club - Men) | |
League(s) | Ivy Rugby Conference | |
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Official website | ||
www |
The Princeton University Rugby Football Club (or PURFC) is the college rugby team of Princeton University. The team currently competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference, an annual rugby union competition played among the eight member schools of the Ivy League.
Princeton played Rutgers University in 1869 the first United States intercollegiate game, which, according to U.S. Soccer, used rules that resembled rugby union and association football and had little resemblance to gridiron American football [1] as the teams were able to pick up and run with the ball but were not able to make a forward pass nor was there a line of scrimmage where a center snapped the ball but rather a scrum where players battled to gain possession. [2]
The men's team agreed to only play using rugby union code rules on November 23, 1876 when Princeton Yale, Harvard, and Columbia met at the Massasoit House in Springfield, Massachusetts and formed the Intercollegiate Football Association. Among Princeton's first games using a rugby code closer to rugby union was a game (employing rules similar to rugby union but with twenty players) less than two weeks earlier against the University of Pennsylvania rugby football team in Philadelphia on November 11, 1876. [3] This game against Penn and other games Princeton played in 1876 make Princeton one of the oldest rugby clubs in North America. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Princeton played in the very first Thanksgiving rugby football game against Yale on November 30, 1876.
From 1877 until at least 1903, Princeton played football using rugby rules. [9]
Indeed by 1893, forty thousand (40,000) spectators showed up to watch Princeton play Yale on Thanksgiving in New York’s Manhattan Field. The game they played on Thanksgiving of 1893 was much closer to rugby than American football as there were no forward passes (as such rule was not established for another dozen or so years when Walter Camp, a Yale Alumnus and rugby player, worked with University of Pennsylvania alumnus and rugby player John Heisman to change the rules of 19th century college rugby to create American Football). [10]
Princeton continued to have its alumni play rugby in first decade of 20th century as demonstrated by the experience of Donald Grant “Heff” Herring Sr., Princeton class of 1907, who as a senior, won Princeton’s first Rhodes scholarship for graduate study at Merton College, Oxford University where he became the first American to play on the Oxford University rugby team that beat arch-rival Cambridge University by the then-record score of 35 to 3. [11]
A letter to the Varsity, a sports paper in Oxford, reviewed Herring’s stellar career at Princeton and Oxford, reported that he was caricatured in a cartoon in The Tatler, an English sporting magazine, and detailed that he created a sensation in America by stating in a 1910 letter to The Daily Princetonian that British rugby football was a better game than the American Football game. [12] In 1910 "Heff" Herring was hired by Woodrow Wilson just months before Wilson was elected Governor of New Jersey, but is better known for his military service in both world wars and acquiring one of the finest arts and crafts homes near campus, the Donald Grant Herring Estate [13]
Princeton rugby was reorganized in 1931 under the leadership of Monte Barak, Hugh Sloan H.F. Langenberg, and coach John Boardman Whitton. It has been playing continuously ever since. [14] Over 5,000 people attended the inaugural Harvard - Princeton game in 1931. [15]
The club competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference. Princeton won the Ivy League Rugby Tournament (the tournament that crowned the Ivy Champion prior to the formation of Ivy Rugby Conference) in 2004, 1979, 1973, 1971, and 1969. [16] The team also qualified for the Division I-AA Sweet 16 in 2014. [17] The men's current coach is Richard Beck.
Princeton University Women's Rugby Football Club (PUWRFC), is the women's rugby union club of Princeton. PUWRFC was established in 1979 by Catherine Chute.[ citation needed ] The new team aspired to compete in the young world of U.S. women's rugby, which was established only eight years earlier by the creation of four women's teams in 1972.[ citation needed ] Since then, the sport has grown quickly across America and PUWRFC has continually found itself at the top levels of Division I competition.[ citation needed ] Currently, the Princeton women compete in Division I of the Ivy League. PUWRFC is coached by Josie Ziluca.
PUWRFC won back-to-back national championships in 1995 and 1996. [18] [19] Princeton women advanced to the Final Four in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005. Throughout the team's history, PUWRFC has often won the MARFU Championship, the Ivy League Tournament, and has secured several bids to the Sweet Sixteen. More than 35 Princeton women have been named All-Americans, many of whom have received honors for multiple years. [20] In 2011 and 2012, the women placed 3rd in the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships. [21]
In the first year of regular season Ivy League play, the Princeton women won the 2013 Ivy League Championships.
The Women have also seen success with their rugby sevens squad, winning the shield final at the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship. [22]
PUWRFC will become Princeton's 19th women's varsity program starting in the 2022–23 academic year. [23]
Princeton Rugby has its club house, three game fields, two practice fields and a scrummage machine located at West Windsor Fields. The pitches are across Lake Carnegie and are accessible from campus by the Washington Road bridge.
Princeton University’s West Windsor fields were the site of a week-long USA Rugby Collegiate All-Star selection camp in 2009.
Princeton plays its home games on Rickerson Field located at West Windsor Fields. The field is named after Stu Rickerson, Class of 1971, and his Princeton varsity soccer playing spouse, Nancy Jones Rickerson, Class of 1987. [24]
Opened in 2013, Princeton Rugby has a home in Haaga House located at West Windsor Fields. Haaga House was named after alumnus Paul G. Haaga Jr. following a donation to build the clubhouse. It includes Men's and Women's team rooms, visiting team changing rooms, bathroom facilities, storage rooms, and a large gathering space for events and spectators. Princeton is one of the few universities in America to have a dedicated rugby facility. [25] [26]
The porch at the Princeton eating club Tiger Inn has been named "The Dickey-Larrimer Rugby Porch" in honor of Will Dickey, 68' and Terry Larrimer, 69', two former Princeton Rugby Captains. The porch also has a permanent installation called the "Rugby Wall" that lists all previous men's and women's Rugby Captains on bronze plaques. The rugby club holds gatherings on the porch, such as post-game socials and alumni events, and utilizes the Inn's boardroom for executive meetings. [27] [28]
The first Ivy League Rugby Championship was played in 1969 and won by Princeton. [29] In 2009, the men joined a newly established Ivy Rugby Conference that was formed to foster better competition among rugby teams from the Ivy League schools and to raise the quality of play. [30] Ivy Rugby formed committees to manage the league independently of the Territorial Area Unions. [30] The Ivy Rugby Conference, and specifically its sevens tournament, has enabled the Ivy schools to tap into existing rivalries and fan bases. [31] The women began a full season of Ivy League play in the fall of 2011. [32]
In addition to their traditional 15-a-side rugby union teams, the men and women each field a rugby sevens squad. Every year Princeton and the other Ivy Conference teams compete for the Ivy Rugby 7s Championship. [33] The winner of the Ivy Championship qualifies for the College 7s National Championship. [34]
The Yale vs. Princeton rugby rivalry has strong historic roots dating back to the 1870s. The first game between the schools in the modern era occurred in 1931, which resulted in a Princeton win. [35] In 2002, after many years of not playing Yale regularly, Princeton decided to re-establish the tradition and challenge Yale to an annual match each spring. The following year, Yale accepted Princeton's request by creating a trophy in memory of Rob Koranda. [36] Rob died in a Chicago porch collapse in June 2003, a tragedy that claimed 12 other young lives.
The New Jersey State Intercollegiate Championship is hosted at West Windsor Fields every spring. The sport of rugby has been played in New Jersey for more than 135 years, yet it has only been since 2007 that the colleges of The Garden State have competed for the intercollegiate state championship. [37] It is a knock-out tournament for the 1st and 2nd XV Men's rugby sides from every college in New Jersey. The tournament includes the selection of an All-New Jersey XV and MVP. Participants have included Drew, Fairleigh Dickinson, Montclair, NJIT, Princeton, Rowan, Rutgers, Seton Hall, TCNJ, and William Patterson.
Since the 2010 tournament, the players have helped raise awareness and call for more research funding for pancreatic cancer organizations. This intercollegiate rugby initiative has raised over $140,000 for The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. [38]
The winner of The New Jersey State Intercollegiate Championship is awarded "The Rickerson Cup." The trophy is named for Princeton alumnus and New Jersey native Stuart Rickerson, for his 40 plus years of support for the sport of rugby in New Jersey.
Year | Champion | Score | Runner Up |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Princeton | Seton Hall | |
2015 | Princeton | 80-5 | Seton Hall |
2014 | Rowan | 38-31 | Rutgers |
2013 | Princeton | 17-6 | Rowan |
2012 | Princeton | 33-0 | William Patterson |
2011 | Princeton | 36-0 | William Patterson |
2010 | Princeton | 10-3 | William Patterson |
2009 | Princeton | 63-5 | Seton Hall |
2008 | Rutgers | 22-12 | Princeton |
2007 | Princeton | 60-3 | Seton Hall |
The Doc Whitton Cup is contested annually between current undergraduate players and returning alumni during reunions. The first match was played in 1970 and has been played every year since. [39]
Princeton competed in and won a number of times the now defunct Bermuda Intercollegiate Cup. [40] The competition was held during Bermuda Rugby Week from the 1930s to the 1950s. The Cup was offered by the Bermuda Trade Development Board but was dropped in 1958 because of complaints about off-pitch behavior. [41]
Rob Koranda MVP Award:
Princeton Men's Rugby Most Valuable Player Award, granted annually.
Phil Rogers' 79 Memorial Prize:
A winner will be recognized annually for his or her unique leadership and sportsmanship qualities, both on and off the rugby field. [42] These qualities are well captured in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “IF”. They include courage, tenacity, composure, action and fairness. It is against these criteria that each candidate is measured.
Chris Mello Award:
Given annually to the Men's player who best demonstrates loyalty to the team on and off the field.
Harry Langenberg Award:
Awarded for outstanding dedication and service to the Princeton Rugby Football Club.
Princeton Rugby goes on tour each spring. Past tours have included travel to Bermuda, [43] England, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, [44] Ireland, [45] Barbados, [46] and the Cayman Islands. [47] These tours have often resulted in wins over the local National XV.
Princeton Rugby, along with the Harvard and Yale Rugby teams, began the tradition of U.S. college students going on Spring Break to the Caribbean. [48] [49]
In 1940, the team traveled over spring break to Nassau and played before the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. [50]
Alumni Tours, where former players travel abroad to compete and reconnect with their teammates, have been popular events since Princeton Rugby's early days. Recently, the "Flying Tigers" have had great success, beating the Curaçao, BVI, and USVI National Teams in 2013. [51] In 2010, the alumni players visited Martinique with similar success. [52]
More than 35 Princeton women have been named All-Americans. Below is an incomplete list.
Princeton Rugby's official kit provider is Nike.
Former kit sponsors have included KooGa and Barbarian Rugby wear, and Boathouse Sports.
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference of eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, and in football, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The term Ivy League is used more broadly to refer to the eight schools that belong to the league, which are globally-renowned as elite colleges associated with academic excellence, highly selective admissions, and social elitism. The term was used as early as 1933, and it became official in 1954 following the formation of the Ivy League athletic conference.
The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country. Like the other Ivy League colleges, Harvard does not offer athletic scholarships. Athletics at Harvard began in 1780 when the sophomores challenged the freshmen to a wrestling tournament with the losers buying dinner. Since its historic boat race against archrival Yale in 1852, Harvard has been in the forefront of American intercollegiate sports. Its football team conceived the modern version of the game and devised essentials ranging from the first concrete stadium to a scoreboard to uniform numbers to signals.
The Dartmouth College Big Green are the varsity and club athletic teams representing Dartmouth College, an American university located in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth's teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Ivy League conference, as well as in the ECAC Hockey conference. The college offers 34 varsity teams, 17 club sports, and 24 intramural teams. Sports teams are heavily ingrained in the culture of the college and serve as a social outlet, with 75% of the student body participating in some form of athletics.
The Yale Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The school sponsors 35 varsity sports. The school has won two NCAA national championships in women's fencing, four in men's swimming and diving, 21 in men's golf, one in men's hockey, one in men's lacrosse, and 16 in sailing.
The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of athletics is Peter Pilling.
The Fordham Rams are the varsity sports teams for Fordham University. Their colors are maroon and white. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference for most sports. In football, the Rams play in the Patriot League of NCAA Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision. The University also supports a number of club sports, and a significant intramural sports program. The University's athletic booster clubs include the Sixth Man Club for basketball and the Afterguard for sailing.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football game on November 6, 1869, in which Rutgers defeated a team from the College of New Jersey with a score of 6 runs to 4.
The Harvard Rugby Football Club is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I rugby union program that represents Harvard University in the Ivy Rugby Conference. Having been established in December 1872, Harvard has the oldest rugby college program in the United States.
The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in men's lacrosse, and eight in men's golf. Princeton's men's and women's crews have also won numerous national rowing championships. The field hockey team made history in 2012 as the first Ivy League team to win the NCAA Division I Championship in field hockey.
The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University and competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level as a member of the Ivy League. Princeton's football program—along with the football program at nearby Rutgers University—began in 1869 with a contest that is often regarded as the beginnings of American football.
The Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League was an athletic conference for men's college basketball, beginning with the 1901–02 season and ending with the 1954–55 season. Its membership ranged from four to eight members; all of these teams now compete in the Ivy League, which began play in 1955–56. The Ivy League's men's basketball league claims the EIBL's history as its own. Through the EIBL, the Ivy League is the oldest basketball conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association; the next oldest, the Big Ten Conference, began play in 1905–06.
The Yale Bulldogs men's soccer program represents Yale University in all NCAA Division I men's college soccer competitions. Founded in 1908, the Bulldogs compete in the Ivy League.
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 Ivy Rugby Conference was a rugby union conference consisting of the eight member schools of the Ivy League. As of the 2022 season the teams now compete in the Liberty Rugby conference, but an Ivy League champion will continue to be awarded. The Ivy conference was formed in 2009 to foster better competition among rugby teams from the Ivy League schools and to raise the quality of play. Ivy Rugby formed committees to manage the league, independently of the LAUs and TUs. The conference took over the organization of the Ivy rugby championships that had been contested since 1969.
The Yale Bulldogs Rugby Team, or simply, Yale Rugby is the rugby union team of the Yale University. Yale has fielded a team that has played using the rugby rules since at least 1876. The school competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference and in Division I-AA of USA Rugby's intercollegiate competition. The YRFC plays a fall and spring schedule, which includes both a 15s and a 7s program. The team has approximately 45 players and is coached by Head Coach, Craig Wilson and Assistant Coaches Brad Dufek, Alycia Washington and Greg McWilliams.
Emil Signes is a former coach for the United States national rugby sevens team. He also facilitated the inclusion of the rugby sevens in the Olympics, due to his promotion of women's rugby worldwide. He is the founder and coach of Atlantis, an invitational 7s rugby team for developing rugby talent among both men and women.
The Princeton Tigers women's basketball team is the intercollegiate women's basketball program representing Princeton University. The school competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Tigers play home basketball games at the Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, New Jersey on the university campus. Princeton has won sixteen Ivy League championships and will make their ninth appearance in an NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship in the 2022 tournament.
The first recorded match between two colleges in game played in United States using rugby union code rules occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University. Predating rugby using the rugby union rules were rugby union style "carrying games" with use of hands permitted including a game between Harvard College Freshmen and Sophomores at a game played at Harvard campus in 1858. Harvard varsity interscholastic rugby team was not founded until December 6, 1872
The Harvard Women's Rugby team is the women's rugby union program that represents Harvard University in Division I tournaments organised by the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA). Harvard competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference.
College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of the NCAA and are instead governed by National Collegiate Rugby and USA Rugby, two nationwide governing bodies. 27 women's programs participate in the NCAA.
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