Alumni Rugby Football

Slide Shows

Dear Fellow Ruggers and Ruggettes: 

WOW…More than 30 years later and SBU Rugby is still alive and going strong. What started with a bunch of guys having fun, drinking beer (can you believe that) and learning a European game after growing up with American Football has now become a widely played sport by both sexes.

I feel it’s a great honor to have been asked by those (you know who you are, thanks) of you who have established an organization of Alumni Ruggers to give some history and personal insight into how Rugby got started at SBU.

HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED: During my first semester sophomore year a freshman from England named Frank Dooley recruited able bodied and not so able minded Bona students to take up the game of Rugby. About 40 of us got together to learn what it was all about, terms like “scrum”, “lineout”, “pitch” and others were rehashed over a few frosties in the “Skellar”. Practice began and we all looked forward with wild anticipation to our first spring season. Dooley was the founder and acted as the first coach of SBU Rugby. Financially we were on our own and hoped for some funding in semesters to come. The University had had a few bad experiences in funding programs that had died on the vine and decided to wait and see what developed. Seems like it really made a difference, right? I have some additional information I’ll be happy to share with all of you that can help the current program. We ended up with about 30 players and paid all of our own expenses and were accepted as a club sport.

THE FIRST GAME: With four weeks of serious practice under our belts we were uncertain of where we stood. We were soundly defeated (28-0) against Brockport State “B’s”, on the road, but played tough in our first game. Worst of all we lost the “third half”, as we didn’t have much experience there either. OUCH!! The good thing was that the only place for us to go was forward. According to a quote attributed to the Brockport Club President “They (Bonaventure) better not come back here next semester because they’ll blow us out.” We were an athletic, physical bunch that could hit and tackle hard but we had a lot to learn on the offensive side of the ball. 

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT: Good question! I spoke with several of my life long SBU Rugger friends, Nick Benvenuto ’77, Bill Sherwood ’80, and Rand Farnsworth and here is what we could best come up with. Please Note: a very special “Thank You” to Lorraine Welsh, Archives Supervisor, “The Bona Venture” for forwarding some old articles to us so that I had some facts to work from. Don’t hold us to any of this, OK? Frank Dooley didn’t return for his sophomore year. So Tim Burke, Bob Hodge (still can’t remember who he is for sure, but believe he was our “hooker”), and I decided to try and carry on as best we could. We were looking to schedule a few games for the fall and book a complete Spring season. We had about 6-8 players return so we basically were starting over. We got a sponsor to donate kegs for our home games so that we could bribe our fellow students to come out and cheer us on. It worked, and we soon had a very strong student following, isn’t beer wonderful! We then won our first game against the Genesee County Creamers; the ice had been broken.

A NEW COACH AND OUTLOOK: We were very fortunate to have been graced with the presence of our new full-time coach Al Silliker. Al had great experience and with the addition of experienced “off-campus” players Randy Farnsworth and Roy Doty we were primed to make a better showing. We all had agreed that we needed to be the “most fit” team on the pitch to make up for our lack of experience. We began winning games, became members of the Upstate Union and almost stole our inaugural Tournament, finishing as runner-ups. This propelled us to being a force within the Upstate Union for years to come. We ruled the Little Three. Niagara ended up putting a bounty on my head if someone could knock me out of a game.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE MEMORIES: Our pitch on McGraw-Jennings was considered off-campus by most! Good thing we served beer! I plowed down the corn stalks in my Landcruiser on my way to making a grand entrance to the games, coming from the river side, jumped out, drink a beer and was ready to have at it. As co-captain during my junior and senior year with Bob Bellairs we had great fun, won our fair share of games, AND never lost a third half, something we were all very proud of. I’m certain that many of you have special memories of your playing days and have developed friendships that continue today. 

My most memorable game was at Buff State during my junior year. Being from the Buffalo area I had lots of family in attendance (they all told me later that they didn’t have a clue as to what was going on). I was constantly being held in the line-outs and after complaining to the official and warning the opposition I did a really bad thing and rang his chops with a fore-arm shiver that could be heard by those around, right Nick! On the next line out I was left untouched, ran past the guy with the sore chin, blocked a kick and scored a try. 

I was also extremely impressed with the social and gentlemanly aspect of the game, trying to hit someone as hard as possible, run them over or rake them with your spikes, only to then shake hands and drink with them like they were your long lost brother. This happened to be a blessing in disguise as I was with some fellow SBU students at an Octoberfest celebration in Canada. We hooked up with some local Ruggers and struck up a kinship. We even quaffed a couple of cold one’s together, imagine that. They later came to our assistance. The odds here were real ugly, as some locals decided that they didn’t appreciate us “Yanks” speaking (wink, wink) with the local woman. I would probably still be in the Canadian prison system or six feet under if they hadn’t intervened. 

One evening after having a few dozen beers, Randy Farnsworth and Roy Doty explained to me that all western schools and most eastern schools had sister teams. The lights came on and from there our woman’s team was launched. We took turns coaching them based on whose injuries were the worst. I often wondered if some of us were really hurt that badly. 

I could probably go on for pages but this has to get to the press. I’ve been looking forward to seeing my old teammates and meeting as many of you as possible. My goal is to meet everyone and enjoy another round of beers with you in the future. To you younger lads please help and protect us old guys during the games. We’ll need all the help we can get! To those playing against us, remember that you’ll be older some day too so please take it easy on these old bones and muscles. 

Sincerely;

Tom “Whaleman” Ren ‘78

P.S. Just so you know, I was a business major. At times like this I wish I had taken a journalism class or two! Thanks for bearing with me. May all your dreams turn to goals and your goals turn to reality.

Here's More of the Story from Kevin Niblo, Class of 1979:

Tom Ren touched upon some things in the early history of Bona Rugby. Tom was also the beer bong champion as well so you can just imagine the things he missed. The founder of our club was correctly noted as being Frank Dooley in the fall of 1975, my freshman year.

1970s & Early 80s

Bona Rugby in Iraq