Making a Bid for the Big Time

Despite a unanimous vote by the Harvard rugby club to pursue varsity status, Harvard Athletic Director Jack Reardon has advised the club to discontinue its varsity bid until other Ivy league rugby teams improve their programs.

The squad last week submitted a three-page proposal, drawn up after a November 20 team meeting, to Reardon for his input on how the club should approach the Athletic Department.

"You have to look at what else is going on in the [Ivy] League," Reardon said. "I think it would be difficult [for Harvard] unless a majority of teams decide to go varsity."

Harvard Rugby Club President Bruce Rossow said he now plans to meet with Reardon, adding, "We're still going to go for it."

The club desires varsity status principlely as a confirmation of the support the Athletic Department currently gives on a year-by-year basis--money, a playing field, and equipment.

Reardon has assured the team that the Athletic Department will continue to provide aid to the team. "As long as a lot of kids want to play, they will be provided with the space and the facilities," Reardon said.

But this is not enough, Kingston countered. "Jack [Reardon] wants an open contract, and to deal completely on faith," the sixth-year volunteer coach said. "But we have to look to the future."

"The only way we've gotten anything is because Martyn Kingston has gotten up at seven in the morning--as a student, not as a coach--and put forth the effort," Kingston continued. "The people [in the Athletic Department] have been good to me, but I don't think they realize the time we put in."

Kingston led the squad to a national championship in 1984, a second-place national finish in 1981, and a winning record in all six seasons. However, the sixth-year Sociology student plans to take the fall term of 1987 off to work on his thesis in South Africa.

"We have done pretty well," Kingston admits, "but I'm leaving, and the guys have put too much time in to let it go to waste. If I leave [permanently], what happens?"

The very future of the rugby program at Harvard may depend on the club and/or the Athletic Department hiring a coach, Kingston said.

"Rugby as a club sport is in danger," Kingston said. "How can the University expect such a grueling sport to function without a coach?"

Kingston said he would take the job of head or assistant coach if it was offered to him.

"Rugby needs supervision, and a coach must be hired. If they just let the guys run around without a coach in football there would be some serious injuries," Kingston said. "Both are contact sports and require supervision, and I hope the University responds accordingly."

A coach, Co-Captain Lanny Thorndike said, "would shore up a lot of our problem areas."

One of these areas is improved safety measures and more active university supervision. Rugby, both nationally and locally, is governed by the United States of America Rugby Football Union (USARFU), and at most colleges, also comes under the supervision of the Athletic Department.

The USARFU is behind the Harvard move for varsity status and agrees with the club that the Athletic Department should take the responsibility to control safety by maintaining the conditions of the field, supplying dependable trainers, granting access to training facilities, and actively supervising practices.

"The adequate level of fitness and safety of our club has been achieved as much by our coach's close rapport with the Athletic Department, and through our own care, as it has by any perceived sense of obligation and duty by the Athletic Department," the Harvard rugby club's proposal said.

Rugged Credentials

Harvard rugby is the oldest rugby club in America, founded in 1871 and first recognized by the Harvard Athletic Association in 1932. The Harvard-McGill rivalry, begun in 1874, was the world's first international college sports match-up.

Since the ruggers' fantastic success between 1979 and 1984--when the ruggers won four Ivy championships, the national championship in 1984, and a host of other local titles--the club has been able to capture only a single title of any sort. Last October, as host of the N.E. Championships, the squad was eliminated in the first round.

"Rugby is getting more and more competitive," Kingston said, "and its affecting our ability to stay at the top."

Harvard consistently fielded well over 50 undergraduates at its practices during the past fall season, but it has been unable to keep pace with the improvement of the varsity programs around the country. The list of varsity teams includes Maryland, Colorado, the military academies, and Cal-Berkeley--the winner of six of the last seven national championships.

The Ivy League schools have remained clubs in the face of this national varsity trend, with the exceptional case of Dartmouth. While the Big Green program is labelled a club, it is for all intents and purposes a varsity sport.

Dartmouth, which was the national runner-up to Cal-Berkeley a year ago, receives $10,000 a year from its Athletic Department, money the team uses to pay for professional coaching and the maintenance of its field.

"They are very well organized and it's one of the best run clubs on campus," Dartmouth Administrative Assistant of Club Sports Rhonda Martin said.

In comparison, "we have no building, no office, no central location. The only place we have to meet is the cold-side of a hard field," Kingston said.

"We've gotten more and more each year," Kingston added, "but as a club sport, we don't have good status in the pecking order."

Even if the club is granted varsity status, it plans to continue collecting the dues it now collects from club members.

"Money is not the issue," Rossow said. "We know we'll never be rich, but we will get along."

"We're not looking for a handout," Rossow said. "We're only looking to confirm what we already have."