History of Southern Illinois Rugby

The Start of Something Big

In May 2022, the SIU-RFC celebrated its 50 th anniversary. Across these fifty-years, our alumni ‘Old Loads’ group has grown into one of the largest and most active alumni associations at SIU. Each May we fill hotels, bars and the sidelines of our beloved rugby pitch for the Old Loads match pitting SIU-RFC alumni against the men’s and women’s current clubs. By any measure, SIU Old Loads is a thriving alumni group capable of filling hundreds of seats at rugby matches, tailgates and alumni events and turning Carbondale into Old Loads Headquarters every first weekend in May.

 

But how did all this begin? Who started the SIU Rugby Clubs?

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Getting Started

The year is 1971. It’s a brutally hot fall semester at SIU-C. Steve ‘Tex’ Ashe, a scholarship athlete from nearby Marion, has endured dozens of sweltering Saluki football practices trying out as a halfback. “You’d run a play, get clobbered, then they’d blow the whistle, and you’d run laps until it was your turn again. It was hell. “ Tex loved playing team sports, but he wanted something more. He left the Saluki football team and the athletic dorms at Thompson Point and moved into Boomer #2 in the Triads. In the same Fall 1971 semester, Tex surveyed Trueblood Hall for an open spot at a lunch table. He joined another Boomer #2 resident, Tom Skora and, in the words of Tex, “We got to talkin’ “. Tom Skora had played rugby at the University of Illinois the past summer and loved the experience. He described the game, the culture and the rugby comraderies in a way that captured Tex’s interest and imagination. “ More than anything, Tom wanted to start an SIU Rugby Club and I told him I’d help.“

But they needed players.

 

The First Team

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Recruiting began right away. Tex and Skora set-up a table at Student Center during the Clubs and Activities recruitment drive. Eight fledgling rugby players showed-up for the first practice at the original pitch behind the baseball field. The SIU-RFC was born. Tex brought four telephone poles and building materials to the pitch. Goalposts were raised and the pitch was lined. Roles were taking shape; Tex was the organizer and point person for club operations as well as gaining a foothold for the rugby club within SIU club sports.

 

And Skora ? “ Skora whipped us into rugby shape” said Tex of those early practices. “Hills. Fartleks. Sprints. Thompson Lake runs. It was just run, run, run. It all paid off too, we were never tired at the end of a match. They spent the remainder of Fall 1971 building the club organization and continuously recruiting.

Ready for Action

Spring 1972, the first ‘official’ season of the SIU-RFC saw 18 players on the roster. Some of the first team members included Ed Willi, Jim Clapsaddle, Doug Vincent, John Streetmatter, Al Dennis, Danny (DK) Kenyon, John Angstrom and many others (see photo below). They practiced Monday through Thursday and took on the likes of Fort Campbell, Illinois State, Eastern and Western Illinois and the University of Illinois throughout the inaugural season.

Fast forward to the summer of 1973. Barrington native “Big Dan” Conrad arrived in Carbondale and quickly found the SIU-RFC via a bulletin board recruiting flyer in Student Center. Tex and Skora’s recruitment efforts had delivered more than two full sides of eager new ruggers. Conrad remembers Skora’s intense practices as well as the first ‘official’ SIU-RFC kit: “Our kit in the beginning consisted of white practice football jerseys that we bought from a shop named Gusto’s on The Strip. We had ‘SIU Rugby’ screened as a badge logo. Shorts and socks were whatever you showed up in.”
 

After a few early matches, the defining moment for the young club arrived in October 1973: The Heart of America Tournament in Kansas City. “The first thing that happened that Saturday morning was the delivery of our new kit: Maroon jerseys, white shorts with pockets and maroon socks with white tops” recalled Conrad. “We were like kids in a candy store and felt like a million bucks heading into the tournament. “ SIU-RFC won their first match hours later against Topeka. Elevated by their new kit, SIU-RFC played a strong tournament and then enjoyed “ .. a party on Saturday night that was unlike anything that any of us had ever seen before ! “

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A Tradition of Excellence

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The growth of the SIU-RFC was resounding. Fall 1977 saw three full sides on the men’s team.

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