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Rugby at the Mount:
a long and storied tradition
Steve Morano
MSMU Class of 2024
(11/2024) On most fall Saturdays across the United States, college football is found being played at almost every level of the game. From NCAA Division 1 FBS powerhouse schools like Alabama or LSU to the lowest levels of Junior College Football such as at Feather River College in Quincy, California. The game has become a true stapple of American culture whenever the leaves change colors. But in Emmitsburg, the loud clashing of pads and the groans of tackled opponents have been absent since the mid 1950’s, ever since the university prioritized basketball over America’s proverbial favorite sport. With an absence so great as compared to the rest of the country’s college towns, another full contact sport has grown in the embers of the missing time on Echo Field. A sport born across the Atlantic at English public schools, for gentleman and gentry, but with no remnants in account of the way that it is played. It is Rugby.
Rugby has been an ingrained part of the Mount for the better part of the last half-century.
The origins of the game that would go on to birth other sports such as American Football, Australian Rules Football, Gaelic Football, and arguably the most popular of them all across the globe, Association Football or as we know it in America, Soccer, began as a mixture of games. Each English boarding or public school had their own version of "football" which had been birthed from the centuries-long tradition of medieval football in which whole towns would gather on two teams and try to get an inflated pig’s bladder to a certain point in the town while defending it from the other team. But at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, the game took off with naturally gained popularity for its organization, as opposed to chaos, and its fast-paced nature. A schism in 1895 between Rugby clubs in the North and South of England resulted in the creation of "Rugby League," a totally different game than the traditional form. "Rugby Union,"
as it would become widely known as, became the preferred form of the game and its popularity has ensued across the world.
Nearly 20 years had elapsed since the Mount had anything like American Football and the grass of Echo Field had become more accustomed to the spring sports of Soccer, Baseball, Lacrosse, and Field Hockey rather than the rough and tumble of American Football. But in 1974, Rugby was brought into the forefront of new sports added to the Mount’s storied sporting legacy. In the public sphere, records are spacy to the details pertaining to the "Rugby Football Club" at Mount St. Mary’s, but the Pridwin, the Mount’s yearbook that ceased publication in 2013, offers an insight into the team’s early years.
"Violent is the very last adjective any rugger would use to describe the game. As signified by the white collar on their shirts, rugby is a gentleman's game played by gentlemen. Throughout the course of a rugby game, not a single derogatory remark is directed to the referee on the part of any rugger," the Pridwin read in 1978. This superlative given to the men of the club is a set cornerstone within the sport of Rugby, with some leagues having mandated players being ejected for using a curse word on the field at all.
The 1982 edition of the Pridwin includes many photo compilations of the men’s team, but later in the publication, the headline of "A proud beginning for a daring few" loudly announced the formation of Women’s Rugby Club at the Mount. Later in 1994, the NCAA elevated Women’s Rugby to a varsity status as apart of the Emerging Sports for Women initiative along with Acrobatics & Tumbling, Equestrian, Stunt, Triathlon, and Wrestling. This status is something that the women’s game has over the men, as Men’s Rugby has never been recognized as a varsity, sponsored sport.
Within the men’s collegiate rugby sphere of existence, both Rugby Union and Rugby Sevens serve as the formats, with union being played in the fall and sevens being played in the springtime. USA Rugby’s Division 1-A governs over the respective rugby union competitions followed by the single elimination cup, the National Collegiate Rugby XV’s Champions Cup. Rugby Sevens, which is a shortened version of the game condensed into seven players on the field and a shortened game time, is governed by the Collegiate Rugby Championship.
Not only do the men participate in these respective competitions year-round, but they have the accolades to talk. In 2016, the Mount defeated Claremont College from California to claim their first piece of silverware in the NCR XV’s Champions Cup. But, in the post Covid-19 era, the Mount came out victorious again.
In the 2023 edition of the CRC 7’s season, the Mount came out on top in their conference and were slated to face Michigan in the first round of the National Tournament. Handily defeating the Wolverines 41-0, they then went onto Adrian College from Michigan 21-7 and Wheeling 7-5 in the Second Round and Quarterfinals respectively. They then went on to beat Belmont Abbey in the semifinals winning 22-5, setting up a date with destiny against Indiana to battle it out for the National Championship title. On April 30, 2023, the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 19-5 to claim the programs first National Championship and the university’s second outside of the 1962 Basketball College Division National Championship.
No matter what absences there may be in Emmitsburg or this part of Maryland, there is always some kind of push and give that comes with it. If college football does not exist, then rugby exists, and that rugby is played at Mount St. Mary’s. A school that has existed for almost as long as the United States and comes with all the legacy and legend that an institution of its age retains. And Rugby is a integral part of that legacy, especially in the later half of the 20th century and the early parts of this century where success has looked kindly on the members and fans of Mount Rugby.
Read past articles related to Mount sports
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