"We've got a potential rugby powerhouse this year," said Coach Tom Calhoun. But he added, "The question is, when are we going to get going?" He hopes it will be in time for the ruggers' game against McGill this Saturday.
Four outstanding men have added power to this year's team. The Business School's Pete Slusser is straight from the Stanford varsity football squad. Pete Hager, another Business School man, is a 220 pound rugby forward from Princeton. Tony Mitcheley, a third Business student, and Dick Salisbury, of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, are both Britishers, and veterans of English college rugby.
Phil Isenberg, last year's varsity football captain, was hoping to come out this fall. But he said his Medical School studies have "closed in" on him for this term. He doesn't expect to be out until the main season in the spring.
Few of last year's first string men have left the University. Crimson ex-football players, Sam Adams, and Sam Butler are continuing in rugby. So are John Cotter from Princeton, Bill Lewis from England, and Brad Lundborg from Stanford. Among the undergraduates on the team are Doug Purdy, Pierre Le Landais, from France, and Ken Kunhardt.
Midget Ruggers
Calhoun yesterday pointed out Kunhardt as an example of the fact that, contrary to general opinion, good ruggers do not have to be giants. Weighing only 150 pounds, Kunhardt managed to make last year's All-Star American Rugby team. This team is drawn from American universities which compete each Easter vacation at the Bermuda gala Rugby Week. Usually the universities are Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and M.I.T.
In past years, the Crimson had trouble in getting its team into good playing order for these games. Soldiers Field was always frost-bound longer than the fields at Yale and Princeton, and the ruggers had to content themselves with constricted practices inside Brigg's Cage.
To beat this hazard, they introduced their first fall season last year. They hoped to train new men this way, and give them some experience in inter-varsity games. Despite competition with football, three other universities were able to field teams, and decided to make the season an annual one.
Two Headed Princeton
After the McGill game this Saturday, the ruggers have a double-header with Princeton, using both Varsity and Junior Varsity teams. They will wind up 1951 with a second game against M.I.T.
The big season will still be in the spring. Yale and Dartmouth join the Rugby League after Bermuda, using teams drawn from their first-string football elevens. Another Crimson opponent is almost certain to be the Missouri Rugby Union. Last year, the Crimson won the Union's $500 Challenge Cup, and will either have to defend it in the spring, or send it back to St. Louis.
Two new rugger forays are in the offing. Vice-president Brad Lundborg is trying to arrange one of them which involves a flying visit to California sometime next term. Stanford and U.C.L.A. have invited an Australian International Touring team to visit them, and suggested that the Crimson participate.
The west coast universities are financing the whole project, and are fairly confident it will show a profit. They expect to fill the 85,000-seat Stanford stadium for each game. This is not so ambitious as it sounds, for every year they manage to draw around 70,000 Rugby spectators to the U.C.L.A.-Stanford game.
New Born Baby in East
Here on the east coast, rugby has been neither as long nor as firmly established. The real impetus of its growth has come since the war, with the introduction of the Bermuda week. Today, all big eastern universities have teams except Columbia. Dartmouth is the latest comer. They sent their first team to Bermuda last spring.
The next step will probably be a tour of the English universities. During the last few months, the Harvard Rugby Club has been working on such plans. So far, Oxford has shown interest, and has suggested a game for Christmas, 1952.
The biggest obstacle in the way of such a scheme is finance. For instance, nearly $11,000 would be needed for passages. But Tom Calhoun thinks the visit of the Cambridge Crew last spring set a "rather encouraging" precedent.
Since Rugby is not a Varsity sport, the ruggers cannot call in the H.A.A. for help. They form a club, membership in which is open to any student in the University. That way, the sport gets the benefit of varsity football stars or as in the case of the Englishmen, trained rugby players.
