| Full name | Princeton University Rugby Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Union | USA Rugby | ||
| Nickname(s) | Tigers | ||
| Founded | 1876 | ||
| Location | Princeton, New Jersey | ||
| Ground(s) | West Windsor Fields | ||
| League(s) | Ivy League | ||
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| Official website | |||
| http://www.princetonrugby.org/ | |||
The Princeton University Rugby Football Club (or PURFC) comprises the rugby union club of Princeton University. The school competes in the Ivy League in Division I of USA Rugby's intercollegiate competition.
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The men's team was first established in 1876 when Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, which used the rugby code. This makes it one of the oldest rugby clubs in North America.[1][2][3][4][5] After an interruption, the club was reorganized in 1931 under the leadership of Monte Barak, Hugh Sloan H.F. Langenberg, and coach John Boardman Whitten. It has been playing continuously ever since.[6] Over 5,000 people attended the inaugural Harvard - Princeton game in 1931.[7] The club competes in the Ivy League. With around 40 members, Princeton Rugby is one of the largest club teams at Princeton. The PURFC has won the Ivy League Championships in 2004, 1979, 1977, 1973, 1971 and 1969. PURFC is currently coached by Richard Lopacki.
The women's team, Princeton University Women's Rugby Football Club (PUWRFC), is the women's rugby union club of Princeton. PUWRFC was established in 1980, and 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. Since then, the sport has grown quickly across America and PUWRFC has continually found itself at the top levels of Division I competition.
PUWRFC won back-to-back national championships in 1995 and 1996.[8] 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. 32 Princeton women have been named All-Americans, and several of those received honors for multiple years.[9]
Princeton women compete in Division I of the Ivy League, against Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, UPenn, and Yale. PUWRFC is coached by Emil Signes, Peter Kelly, and Ginny Pitzer.
The first Ivy League Rugby Championship was played in 1969.[10] In 2009, the men joined a newly established Ivy League that kicked off as a separate conference in the Northeast Rugby Union, and the women began a full season of Ivy League play in the fall of 2011.[11]
Princeton Rugby goes on tour each spring. Past tours have included travel to Bermuda,[12] England, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina,[13] Ireland,[14] and Barbados.[15]
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.[16][17]
In 1940, the team traveled over spring break to Nassau and played before the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.[18]
Princeton plays on Rickerson Field located at West Windsor Fields. A third field is often set up for tournaments. The pitches are across Lake Carnegie and are accessible from campus by a stone footbridge.[19]
Princeton University’s West Windsor fields were the site of a week-long USA Rugby Collegiate All-Star selection camp in 2009.
The New Jersey State Tournament has been hosted at West Windsor Fields every spring since 2006.[20]
The sport of rugby has been played in New Jersey for more than 130 years, yet it has only been since 2006 that the colleges of The Garden State have competed for the intercollegiate state championship. Whoever wins the single-elimination format championship is awarded "The Rickerson Cup." The trophy is named for Princeton alumnus Stuart Rickerson.
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