Humble Beginnings to National Champion

Our Proud Beginnings

A brief history composed by Charles R. Davis in June of 2023.

In the Fall of 1965, at the beginning of my sophomore year, my brother, John Butler Davis, was a senior at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He invited me to visit and attend the Navy versus Notre Dame football game. As John and I walked across campus to the football stadium, we passed a group of students playing an interesting looking game. My brother John said it was Navy Rugby playing Notre Dame Rugby. We spent some time watching the free-flowing sport. I thought “what fun…. maybe we should play rugby at my school”!!

Later that evening, I asked my brother if he knew who was in charge of Notre Dame Rugby and he said the club president lived in his dorm and introduced me to him. This gentleman offered lots of information about rugby and encouraged me to pursue my idea. I challenged him to a match in the Spring: Wheeling Rugby against Notre Dame Rugby. He accepted my challenge, and I asked him for a written confirmation which he produced on official Notre Dame stationery.

Rugby was all I could think about! I returned to Wheeling on Sunday afternoon and enlisted the help of my roommate, Bob Wolfensburger. That evening we stuffed every student mailbox with a flyer inviting anyone interested in playing rugby to meet at our field on Tuesday afternoon. Forty young men showed up! We had a rugby team!!

Within a day or so, I received a note from Fr. McGroarty, the prefect of discipline, instructing me to report to his office immediately. He asked me to explain “rugby” and I responded that rugby is a sport of organized mayhem. He then asked me who we were planning to play, and I showed him the letter from the president of the University of Notre Dame Rugby Club. He read the letter and said, “How can I help?” The Wheeling College Rugby Club was born!

Fr. McGroarty asked me what I needed and I replied a practice field. He agreed to provide a field for practices and games. However, he would not provide any monetary funds. I then called my father who agreed to loan me the money to buy uniforms and equipment.

The next step was to learn how to play rugby. So, we went to Duquesne University Library in Pittsburgh for books on the sport. While checking out, the librarian told us that her boyfriend (a professional gravedigger) played rugby. We contacted him and he agreed to coach our team. His payment was two cases of beer for each visit. He helped us learn all the basics of playing rugby.

Four months later, we were ready for our match with Notre Dame but sadly the game was cancelled due to a big snowstorm. However, we did play John Carroll, Ohio State and Penn State in the Spring of 1966. This was the beginning of the Wheeling College Rugby Club. In the years to come, rugby would become an integral part of the history of Wheeling College, Wheeling Jesuit College, Wheeling Jesuit University and Wheeling University.