Navy Rugby History: Told by Navy Ruggers!

(Submit Navy Rugby stories via “Contact Webmaster”: epic games, unique individuals, program milestones, reunions that embody With You, etc.)

The Beginnings of U.S. Naval Academy Rugby

“Rugby was first played at the Naval Academy in 1962 but had its roots much earlier. Mr. William H. Buffum, a professor in the Foreign Language Department, was hired by the Naval Academy in July 1941 and floated the idea of rugby with the Athletic Department. In 1958, he decided to raise the ante by going to Captain Slade Cutter, WWII hero and the Director of Athletics, who reportedly replied, “rugby, who in the hell wants rugby?” It wasn’t until a new AD was hired, Captain Bill Busick, that rugby got some traction. CAPT Busick was approached by a Midshipman from Santiago, Chile, Luis A. Adriasola ’63, a member of the Men’s Soccer team but whose first love was rugby. Louis convinced the new AD to give rugby a go but he had to find players and a coach(es). Mr. Buffum was still on the USNA Faculty, and he agreed to coach, and he recruited a colleague, LT Paul Revak, to coach as well. In late spring 1962, 15 Midshipman showed up on Dewey field (later Farragut field) to learn the game of rugby from Luis, Mr. Buffum and LT Revak. Due to lack of numbers, the two coaches often had to play but nevertheless, USNA had a rugby team! The winter of 1962/1963 was spent introducing the Brigade to rugby as an intramural sport. LT Joe Fournier joined Buffum and Revak as a coach and rugby caught on quickly as each Battalion filled their rosters with many eager yet inexperienced rugby players. On May 5th, 1963, a Brigade “all-star” team (led by Adriasola), was formed for an exhibition match against an undefeated Baltimore First Fifteen team. Navy’s All-Intramurals only trailed at the end of the half 10-5 but eventually fell 28-5, when Baltimore’s superior kicking game wore Navy down. On May 12th, the All-Intramurals beat a good Washington Rugby Club 23-3. Navy Rugby’s grand inaugural season came to an end during June week of 1963. A team formed from three British frigates visiting from Dartmouth (England’s Naval Academy) beat the Mids 13-0. Adriasola, Navy’s rugby advocate, erstwhile coach, and captain graduated in 1963 and went back to Chile. After his departure, Second Battalion repeated as Brigade Intramural Champions led by three MIDN 1/C who prospered from Luis’ leadership—back Ernie Blake ‘64 and forwards Bill MacAulay ‘64 and Bill Tate ‘64. While there was no formal rugby competition during the winter of 1963, that did not preclude daily competition between battalions gearing up for the spring and for a place on what was now called “The Brigade Rugby Team”. The strength and intensity of the battalion intramural program was a major factor in the rapid growth and maturity of Naval Academy rugby. An exhibition game with the Baltimore Club in mid-April 1964 reflected the effort put forward by battalion players during the winter as they defeated Baltimore 19-0. Key members of that squad were Andy Simon-Pietri ’66, Jim Pender ’66, Bob Friedrick ’65, Frank Corah ’65, Don Bonsper ’65, Judd Hallenza ’65 and Jay Fyfe ’65. In two short years, rugby at the Naval Academy became a well-established program that boasted intense Brigade competition as well as a “Club” team that could compete against the best area clubs. By the spring of 1964, the likes of Fordham, Princeton, Loyola of Chicago, and Virginia were eager to schedule the Midshipman; however, as rugby was not sanctioned by NAAA, these matches never materialized. The Baltimore and Washington Clubs, eager to put Navy on their schedules for some local competition, were the only games played through the spring of 1965. “ Ernie Blake USNA 1964

Women’s Navy Rugby Beginning:

“In the fall of 1995, 38 women showed up for the very first women’s rugby practice at the Naval Academy. Many were recruited here to play other sports: basketball, soccer, softball, track; sports they had probably played and excelled at since they were little girls. And yet they gave up those sports to try something new. A contact sport that was played on the exact same field as men, using the exact same equipment as men and played using the exact same laws as men. Finally, a full contact sport for women! An extra-curricular activity, we were on probation for two years before gaining club status. We had no uniforms, no money until the next fiscal year and nowhere to practice. We met on Hospital Point hoping some company intramural flag football team had decided not to practice that day. We were also on probationary status with the Virginia Rugby Union and as such, every match we played for the next 2 seasons was an away match. We had no uniforms. Earlier that summer I had made a call to Matt Godack of Godack Rugby Supply in N VA and explained our situation. Matt graciously sent me 20 sets of matched Jersey’s and socks and 10 practice rugby balls all on a verbal promise from me that he might see some money come next March or April; assuming, of course, that our team had not folded by then. So we went from absolute ground 0 that first day of practice in the fall of 1995 and played our first match at Mary Washington College. As expected, we lost but we did finish better than .500 that first season and just got better and better with experience. Just two years later we beat Penn State 34-31 on their pitch. Then we won the Virginia Rugby tournament and followed that up by crushing Va Tech in the semi-finals of the MARFU tournament and finally crushed Princeton in the finals 31-0. And that put us in the final 4 in the spring of 98 where we beat Air Force for 3rd place. Love the Legacy! “ Tom Edwards USNA 1977, NRAA Hall of Fame Women’s Navy Rugby Coach

“A lot of people were involved in getting Women’s Navy Rugby up and running. It was an exciting but daunting task and “we didn’t know what we didn’t know”! But we really have to start by saying sincere thanks to the amazing women who really started this team, Jen Goddard ‘96 and Julie Maynard ‘96. Without them none of this, the amazing memories or the successful legacy would exist! Thank you both so much!!”

“I remember when Niki Peoples was walking the hallways asking every woman in the hall: “Do you want to come play rugby? We’re starting a team.” Then of course, the next question was “What is rugby?” The reply: “Well, you get to come out on the field and hit people!!” Hey Guess What? We all showed up on that field and luckily we had a coach who had the patience of a saint, who taught us about the sport; looking back some of my fondest memories are from that rugby pitch.”

“There is one other group that we want to recognize in addition to Tom (Coach Edwards) but I do want to talk about Tom one more second because, as Rachel said, he did have the patience of a saint and he had to explain the game to us including all the positions. And you can imagine the giggles and laughter; we could not stand up straight when we heard that there was position called the hooker. We had no concept of this game and Tom, so patiently, taught us; we all talked at the same time, we did not listen and we all had opinions about everything and we wanted to express them! So we remain grateful to Tom Edwards and without him women’s Navy rugby would have been a long time coming. The other group that we want to recognize is the men’s Navy Rugby team of 1996. Tom mentioned that Matt Godack donated us uniforms. And we were so grateful when those uniforms arrived! Because, you need to know, that until those uniforms arrived, what we played in were the men team’s sweaty just used uniforms! Yes, very character building! We could not have accomplished anything that first year without that 1996 men’s team because they gave us balls (laughter from the audience!) and they lent us their uniforms. They would go in after their game, into that little one room building on Hospital Point, and take their uniforms off and lay them on the bench organized by number, and we would then walk in and put on those exact same uniforms; rugby shirts, shorts and their socks! (laughter and screams from the audience). But we were like: So what? They are muddy and sweaty but we are just going to get them more muddy and more sweaty; so why not? We owe a lot to those guys!” Rachel Nagle USNA 1998, Laura Maasdam USNA 1998 (1998 Women’s Navy Rugby Team NRAA Hall of Fame acceptance speech)

Navy Rugby Crest Design

“In the early fall of 1977 the team decided we would change from the traditional blue and gold striped jersey to something a bit more distinctive.  Many, if not all teams were wearing the alternating striped jerseys and we thought it would be a good investment to change things up a bit.  In conjunction with that change, we had noticed that the more established and better sides we had played over the years, all had club patches sewn on their shirts.  We decided that would be a good idea.  As one of the team Captains, I decided that I would take a go at the patch.  I designed it initially during an Ocean Engineering Structures class, tuned it up in my room later in the day, and gave it to our fullback, Mike Conklin '78 who was our resident businessman and the player coordinating uniform purchases.  The attached photos show our original jersey (my actual playing shirt). The Mitre logo was eventually removed from the ball due to legal concerns, but the patch has lived on.  Another small detail: you will see that the patch has been modified further in that the Naval Academy wording has been reversed in the final versions of the patch.  Of note, the eagle is my best replica, drawn in Structures class, of the eagle on my class ring and it was intended to show our allegiance to the Nation and the US Men's National Team.” John Wissler USNA 1978