CURFC History
~ Richard Coppo CCRFC/OBRFC Historian ~
~ February 8, 2002 ~
[If you would like to add to the History page, please send text to the webmaster.]

Founding (1959-1961)
Momentous Beginnings (1961-1962)
The Split (1963)
Struggle (1964-1974)
A Comeback (1975-1980)
High and Level (1980-1990)
Foundation Board & 30th Anniversary (1990-1991)
A Woman Joins the Team & the Women's Club is Formed (1991)
The Club Falters and is Revived (1992-2000)
Back On Its Feet (2000-2002)

---------William Smith, Columbia College class of '57, was discharged from the US Army in August 1959. In October he began a career as a financial writer at the New York Times, where he was introduced to rugby by a coworker who played for the Westchester RFC. He excitedly told classmate John Wellington ('57) about this wonderful sport. John began to play with this club, along with several other CU grads. John and Bill had quickly determined, however, to start a club at their alma mater. Later in 1960, John, now at the Placement Office of Columbia University, spoke about this in a placement interview with Pat Moran ('63), a student from County Mayo, Ireland. The confluence of these conversations and events led directly to the birth of the CCRFC in 1960-61. Consensus was that Smith would be in charge of recruiting. His target was Bill Campbell ('62), who was then an undergraduate and captain-elect of the football squad that would win the Ivy League in the fall of 1961. Along with Campbell, who later became the Columbia head football coach (1975-79), came former Lion quarterback Dick Donelli ('59) and many Lion football players. The CCRFC was recognized as an official University club in the second half of January 1961, just subsequent to its admission to the Eastern Rugby Union. On Thursday evening, January 19, 1961,a recruitment meeting was held at the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity house. Some 30 persons turned out, 22 of them from the College. Moran gave a lecture to explain the game. Wellington was elected President, Moran Captain/Treasurer (and coach), Campbell VP, and Smith Secretary. (These four officers comprise the four founders of Columbia College rugby.) Sportswriter Paul Zimmerman ('55) had quickly followed his Columbia mates from the WRFC to join the new CCRFC, and was named Publicity Director.

---------It was midwinter, and the NY metropolitan winter league of 7-a-side rugby was under way. It was named the ERU Tournament, though primarily NYC area teams entered, and it took place each winter over a series of Saturdays at the old Squadron 'A' Armory at 94th Street and Madison Avenue. The CCRFC entered a team to meet Yale. The Yale football team had gone a perfect 9-0 in the Fall, and its 7s side was the ERU powerhouse, and had beaten Westchester 13-0 the week before. The first CCRFC players chosen to ever officially take the pitch were Smith, Wellington, Moran, Campbell, two frosh footballers - Billy Mitchell and Steve Joyce, and an ex-Columbia halfback Manny Migliorisi, who worked in the CU gym handing out phys-ed equipment. They took the pitch - a dirt infield used for polo matches - outfitted in old football jerseys and socks 'borrowed' from the soccer team. For four of them, the first game they ever saw was the one they played in. And play they did. They hit hard and they fought harder. Migliorisi broke for 50 yards through the Yale defense, drew the last men, and passed from the tackle to create the try by Moran, as the CCRFC stunned the ERU with a 3-0 win over Yale. So it was that, on a Saturday evening, February 25, 1961, Columbia rugby made its auspicious debut.

---------The effect on campus was electric. Columbia athletes, grad students and alumni turned out in force for the Spring 1961 season. The beginning play of the Columbia University RFC could be characterized as anything but humble. In its first season in Spring 1961, it advanced to the finals of the ERU Division III Championship, which it then won in Spring 1962. In Spring 1963, the club went a perfect 12-0, to top off an 18 game winning streak, and won the ERU Mid-Atlantic League. The CCRFC then concluded the Spring of 1963 by winning an ERU 7s tournament at Villanova. The introduction of the CCRFC to ERU and US rugby had been nothing less than a stunning 7s upset, followed by 3 Division finals, 2 Division Championships, and a 7s title against veteran men's clubs, all in its inaugural three ERU seasons. Some of the great athletes who contributed to this astonishing performance included Tom O'Connor, Tom Haggerty, Tony Day, Bob Asack, Mark LaGuardia, Fran Furey (CC Capt. '65), Hank Dieselman, Buzz Congram, Jonah Raskin (CC Capt. Fall'62), Bob McCool, Cas Troskie, Charlie Blackman, and Andy Lewin.But, change was in the wind. The Columbia College club at its inception included undergraduates, alumni, graduate students and affiliated members. Even while the College club grew in size and stature, the assumption and intention of the founders and other playing alumni had always been to create a senior club, separate but affiliated with the College club. By the Spring of 1963, the club had become overcrowded with members. There was grumbling by some undergrads hungry for playing time. The more senior players were happy to continue competing and winning as the Columbia College XV that they had so recently created. At the same time, they were not indisposed to the notion that the club be henceforth represented by its undergraduate athletes, leaving the graduates to realize their plan to depart and create a senior club.

---------Also at the same time, informal signals from the College administration and Dean's Office had filtered down to the club administration about the desirability of, and preference for, a rugby club composed of members who were undergraduates or who were otherwise affiliated with the University. These hints were accompanied, no doubt, with noises about justification of University support for the program. It would appear that there were no formal ultimatums per se; it was more likely a case of rhetorical speculation, thinking out loud, passed on in the washrooms and hallways of Low Rotunda and in the corridors outside of the Dean's offices in Hamilton Hall. So it was that in Spring 1963 players like Pat Moran, Bill Campbell and Dick Donelli, who were either in grad school at Columbia or were coaching its teams, played CCRFC rugby. So too did John Wellington (he, already working in the University administration but wishing to take no chances, had immediately run out and signed up for some graduate courses). Bill Smith and Paul Zimmerman returned to the Westchester R.F.C. with several other players, and actually played against the C.C.R.F.C. that season.

---------These same six individuals would found the fabled Old Blue RFC after the Spring 1963 season. In the Spring of 1963, on and around the University's Morningside Heights campus in New York City, the CCRFC held a series of meetings that ultimately precipitated the creation, as previously often discussed, of a senior club to be named the Old Blue RFC as of the coming Fall 1963. It was indeed to be separate from, but affiliated with, the College club; and with the creation of the Old Blue RFC, aspiration finally became reality. Bill Campbell was, by consensus, chosen the first Old Blue captain; and Smith and Zimmerman returned along with others from WRFC when the Old Blue began play in non-league, informal fifteens competition that Fall. (The ERU held league play only in the Spring season This was, in no small part, a concession to the autumn football commitments of many key players on many clubs in the ERU. The Columbia College RFC (and now Old Blue as well) was no exception, as many key first XV players were generally unavailable for fall matches.)

--------- The Old Blue Rugby Football Club's initial impact in official ERU league play proved to be an even more auspicious beginning than that of the Columbia College RFC from which it sprang. Campbell was otherwise preoccupied with his Columbia football coaching staff position much of the Fall of 1963. He was available, however, to play for and captain the initial OBRFC 7's side, on November 30, 1963, to the NY Sevens title, their first championship. In the Spring of 1964, he captained the Old Blue to an undefeated 10-0-1 inaugural season, and the OBRFC were ERU Champions. Even from its inaugural season, the club dominated; as the NY Times quoted it as "one of the outstanding clubs on the East Coast". That season it tied one of Canada's best sides, the Montreal Barbarians, and beat the Bermuda All-Stars, previously unbeaten on their US tour, before more than 2,000 spectators. The Old Blue ultimately was undefeated in the first 18 ERU matches in which it ever played. It was to successfully maintain to the present day - more than a third of a century hence - an historical dominance of Eastern USA rugby and a national stature as perennially one of the top rugby clubs in the United States. The Founders and other Old Blues representing American rugby have gone on to play against all of the best national rugby teams in the world. The OBRFC has appeared in four USA Rugby Men's XV Finals in seven USA Final Four appearances, and qualified for the men's club division I national playoffs every year from their inception in 1979 until 2001, when USA Rugby excluded Super League clubs from division I men's club playoffs. The OBRFC was a founding member of the USA Super League in Spring 1997; was twice Super League Eastern Champion, and appeared in the first two SL Finals. The OBRFC won the USARFU National Men's Club 7s Championships in 1993; and advanced to the USA Rugby National 7s Sweet 16 in 2000.

---------Even as the CCRFC lost the numbers and skills of its many gifted alumni founders, it was witness to an explosive growth in the number of clubs in the ERU. This growth began in the remainder of the 1960s, and continued over the next two decades. The CCRFC struggled through losing seasons through much of the period from 1964 through 1974, despite the efforts of players such as Joyce (CC Capt. '64), Artie Silvers (CC C '67), Max Carey (CC C '69), and Bob Mattingly (CC Pres.'65). Nonetheless, during this period it proved to be a powerful and successful source of talented players for the OBRFC. The Old Blue roster remained composed of predominantly CCRFC alumni in this same period, as it assimilated young CCRFC ruggers who collectively led the OBRFC to continued dominance. Among these CCRFC alumni were such OB Captains/Presidents as Ed Malmstrom (C), Bob Klingensmith (C), Joe Cody (C/P), Tom Chorba (C), Bob Donohue (C), Richie Brown (P), Bob Yuhas (C), Mike Sherlock(C/P/Eagle), , Charlie Johnson (C), Jim Ferguson (P) and OBRFC A side players Tony Helfet (CC Capt.'66), Al Butts, Russ Warren, Joe Tuths, Gerry Zawadzkas, Roger Dennis, Art Sprenkle, Rich Coppo, Scott Denny, Terry Smith, Steve Jenning, and Steve Woods. Another CCRFC alum (Pres.'74) of this period was four time OB President Lew Fischbein (CC'72). Of special note in this interim was the CCRFC tour of Great Britain and France in 1972.

---------But the flow of CCRFC players to Old Blue had begun to ebb as the CCRFC approached the middle of its second decade. At the same time, fewer College athletes were joining the CCRFC than in its first decade, and coaching continued to be virtually nonexistent. This changed dramatically in the Spring of 1975. Firstly, Founder Bill Campbell had returned to Columbia in the Fall 1974 as head football coach. He encouraged his players to try rugby. Secondly, CCRFC Captain Peter Beller and President Jim O'Donnell actively pursued and welcomed such athletes, as well as the coaching support of CCRFC/OB back Rich Coppo (CC'69). The effect was significant and immediate. Fine players like Al Lussier, Gerry Keating, Rob Nooter (CC C'76), Dwight Valentine, John Gill, and Luke Vaughn were joined by future Old Blues Steve Noble, Rocky Klanac, Mike Delaney, Tom Masso, Mike Hansen, Chip Hillenbrand, John Garland, Larry Bellone (OB P), Mike Neal, Chuck Donigian (CC C'77), Lou Guarnari, and Chimere Okezie. (Guarnari, while a wing for the CCRFC and tight end for Campbell, was selected to play 2nd row for Met NY vs. France in 1976. Okezie, who also played vs. France, would become a US Eagle and play club rugby in France. Donigian would go on to have an enormous influence on the success of the OBRFC for nearly a quarter century as its four-time captain, and as coach for a decade.) In March 1975 the CCRFC toured the Bahamas, gaining a tie vs. Freeport; and later took 3rd in the Ivies, defeated Penn 19-6, lost to champion Brown 0-19, and shut out a Harvard side 10-0, by scoring 2 tries vs. a side that had not given up a try prior. The team finished the Spring '75 with the first CCRFC winning record in a decade, and were the Met NY Champs. In 1976, the CCRFC again were Met NY Champions, and again took 3rd in the Ivies, defeating Penn 20-0, losing to champion Brown 7-25, and beating Princeton (a double overtime 0-4 loser to Dartmouth) 16-6. The 1977 team won the Met NY Division III against top men's club B sides, and won the 1st Rockaway 7's Tournament with Old Blues Rich Coppo and Mike Sherlock on the team. Coppo would continue to assist the club through the 70s and early 80s and nurture the Columbia-Old Blue connection; and the core of these CCRFC teams would go on to the OBRFC and, captained by Chuck Donigian, go to the inaugural USARFU Final Four in 1979, and in 1980 and 1981 as well.

---------The resurgence of talent and success of the CCRFC continued through 1980. More fine CCRFC players from 1978-80 would go on to the OBRFC and US national competition through the 80s: Will Sherlock (CC C'78), Parker Bagley, Bob Muzikowski, Greg Finn (OB C), and Phil Yacos (CC P'79). The 1978/9 club captained by John Doran took 3rd in the Ivies, went on a FL tour and beat the London School of Economics RFC at Baker Field in Spring'79, and won more than 22 games for the school year. The 1980 CCRFC team under Captain Greg Finn went undefeated in the Spring '80 season before falling in the Ivies to Brown to take 4th in the Ivies; placed 12th in the ERU Collegiates, and went to the finals of the Rockaway 7s. Then again the flow of college football players dried up and the connection to the OBRFC became tenuous. In 1981 the CCRFC toured Southern CA; and the club faltered until 1984 and 85, when it captured the Met NY Division II titles. Dennis Jablonski, a former US Eagle, coached these teams. Influential in that success were Pete Barbaro (CC C'85), and future Old Blue players Doug Garrity (CC C'84; OB C), Dom DeCicco (OB C), Eldridge Gray, Darcy Hunter, Jim Kearny, Randy Leiberman, Adam Sutner and Brian Murphy. The 1984 team toured England and Wales, while the 1985 team visited Scotland and France.

---------In the Fall of 1987, Brian Murphy returned to alma mater to undertake the coaching of the CCRFC, reestablishing an OBRFC-CCRFC coaching connection that would continue until 1996. Half of that decade saw Murphy coaching, two years by four time OB captain Ed Simpson, with part time contributions from Coppo, Smith, and Donigian. Murphy built success with a team of athletes for the most part not football players. Players who were instrumental in reviving the CCRFC included Craig Blackmon, Eli Neusner (CC P'89), Brian Thomson, Steve Toker, and Greg Watt (CC C'89). In Spring 1990, the foundation that this group had prepared yielded a 2nd place finish in the Ivies, its best ever. The CCRFC defeated defending Ivy champ Harvard 16-10, then Cornell 23-0, before falling to Dartmouth in the Finals. Mark Eames and Erik Johnson all made the ERU Select side, and were joined on the All Ivy team by Jamie Kane. They were joined in the resurgence by Brian Amkraut (CC C'90), Troy Berry, Paul Shaneyfelt, Peter Hatch, Brian Straughn(CC P'90), Mark Bures (CC P'91), and Mark Snowise (CC C'91). The team went 8-4-2 and finished ranked 8th in the East, another best. All of these players went on to the OBRFC in the early 90s.

---------In the summer of 1990 Columbia rugby alumni organized a Foundation Board and established a capital account with the Columbia Athletic Department. Funds also are credited to the Columbia Alumni Fund, earmarked for rugby and cannot be withdrawn without approval of the Board and for good cause. Donations are tax deductible, as when made to the University. On October 27-28, 1990 the first Homecoming weekend Friends of Columbia Rugby Alumni Match occurred. In football, Columbia beat Princeton 17-15; and the rugby Alumni beat the undergrads 22-15. On April 20-21, 1991 the College club held its 30th Anniversary with a dinner at the Columbia Faculty House and a match in which the College rugby Alums beat Harvard's 14-6 at Baker Field. Players who kept the CCRFC competitive in the early 90s included Eric Fleming (CC C'92), Rob Perle (OB co-Capt.'99), Ned Kirk, Josh Levy, Dave Lennon, Mike Concannon (CC P'93), Oren Cohen (CC P'94), and Rick Rosivach (CC P'92).

---------The Fall 1991 proved to be historic for the club when freshman Lara Christine Coutinho (Barnard 1995) became the first woman ever to play rugby at Columbia College; and she did it playing on the men's team. On the occasion of the 2nd CCRFC Homecoming Alumni Weekend, Lara played hooker at Van Cortlandt Park against Army B's on October 13, 1991 in a 9-9 tie. The cadets gave her no quarter, and she played fearlessly and courageously. She was impressive. In the Spring of 1992, Lara went over to the Columbia College women's rugby club, which had been founded in the Fall 1991, when practices were held in preparation for Spring '92 fixtures.

---------But the club faltered as the 90s unfolded, as the lack of numbers and athletes interested in rugby affected performance. From 1995 through 1997 the club fell on hard times. At the extreme, the club abandoned its schedule and virtually disbanded in Fall 1995. There were few players, and fewer at practice, which lack of commitment led to no coaching - as prospective coaches walked away in frustration. The club failed to even enter the Ivies from 1995 to 1997. In the Fall of 1997, Murphy, senior Andy Johnston and a group largely of freshmen resurrected the club and, though Brian left NYC after the season, the club maintained its viability and reentered the Ivies in Spring '98. In the fall 1998, Marc Porter, who played U Penn/Life College rugby, became coach, joined this group, and has provided continuity to the present, assisted by John McNamara, from Cal-Berkeley/Old Blues-SF rugby. By Fall 1999 as juniors, Dan Wetmore (CC C'98/99) and Ike Ibe led the CCRFC to a 2nd place finish in Division II and an NRU playoff appearance. They improved upon that in the Spring 2000 with a winning record and an Ivy Tournament win over Penn 27-12, notable in that it was the first such win in nine years, led by Mike Mahoney (CC C'00), Paul Sheridan, and Rob Culpepper. The Fall 2000 was one of the best ever as CCRFC went 9-0 through the Met NY Division II playoffs, which they won, ending 10-2 overall, with a first round win in the NRU playoffs, led by seniors Rich Luthmann, Stu Dearnley, Jerome Pehuet, and Jeremy Mangion. The start of the new millennium brought further University distinction to Columbia rugby alumni when Founder William V Campbell was awarded the prestigious Columbia College Alexander Hamilton Medal for distinguished service and accomplishment on November 16, 2000, and Dr.Russell Warren and Marty Domres (CC '69) were selected to the Columbia Football Team of the Century. Dr. Warren also was the inaugural Columbia honoree at the 1st Ivy Football Association Dinner on January 25, 2001. Many CCRFC and OBRFC alumni attended the functions.

---------With the addition of football linemen Matt Hughes and Nick Elkins in the Spring 2001, the CCRFC won the Washington, DC tournament, toured the South over spring break and came in 2nd in the Savannah, GA tourney, all vs. first division sides. At the Ivies they then shut out both Cornell 11-0 and Harvard 17-0, after a tough 8-18 loss to Princeton, to finish 5th, the best in a decade, and concluded with a 12-2 Spring '01, for a 23-4 school year record. Hughes and Eddie Torres were selected to the NRU territorial team. Over 50 alumni attended the club's 40th Reunion on April 20/21, 2001, in conjunction with the CCWRFC's 10th and with the OBRFC-KC Blues Super League fixtures, as the CCRFC defeated the CCRFC Alumni 15-8 on a last minute try. The warm reminiscences for two deceased alumni at this reunion led directly to the establishment of a non-endowment sub-account to the Friends of Columbia Rugby fund, the Al Lussier '75C and Phil Yacos '80C Memorial Fund, for the purpose of addressing the long-term needs of the club. In Fall '02 an undermanned team, after the loss of 11 seniors, went 5-4, yet qualified for the NRU playoffs when they finished 2nd in the Met NY Div. II playoffs, where they fell in a double overtime loss in the finals.