1975 Sexist OSU Newsletter
The Old Man, the newsletter of the Ohio State University Men’s Rugby club announced the formation of the Ohio State women’s team. Note the graphic illustration of a female player.
1977 The Pitch
The Tube and the Pitch, two different Ohio State Women’s team newsletters from 1977 show the grassroots organizing, bawdy nature of women’s rugby at the time.
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When you contribute to the U.S. Women’s Rugby Foundation you become part of a movement to support girls and women involved in rugby.
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All donations made are tax deductible.
Support us today!
When you contribute to the U.S. Women’s Rugby Foundation you become part of a movement to support girls and women involved in rugby.
​
We are a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization.​
All donations made are tax deductible.
The founders of women’s rugby grew up in interesting times. The 1960s and 1970s were defined by social movements (the civil rights, the feminist, labor, and the gay rights movements). The Vietnam War was raging, university students led mass protests. The government responded by unleashing National Guard soldiers at Kent State and Jackson State, shooting students on their own campus. The facade of government integrity was further punctured by the Watergate scandal. Universities went from locus parentis (being the campus parent) to being ‘hands off’ with students. The result was a culture of young Americans who were wary of the government, valued personal independence, creativity and community.
"It was a new world for women. All of a sudden, it seemed like, ‘Yeah, we can do anything’. There was a popular song, ‘I Am Woman’—we were all singing that at the top of our lungs when we started the Tufts women’s team. We were very inspired by the Equal Rights Amendment, the 1978 March on Washington, and emerging women leaders like Gloria Steinem." ​(Mary Money, Tufts University, Beantown and an ‘original’ 1987 USWNT player)
The opportunity to play rugby came about by the passage of Title IX in 1972. Prior to Title IX women had very few opportunities to play team sports. For the most part team sports existed in schools - and schools had very little incentive to fund girls and women's sports. Many of the values of team sport (strength, aggression, perseverance, leadership) were values attributed to males, not females. Women were socialized to be compliant, dependent, and open to being on display for the male gaze and male judgement. The opening of sport to women was a revolution and when allowed to choose, many women chose the toughest sport available - rugby.
In the fall of 1972, on a cold, drizzly day, the first women’s rugby game in the U.S. was played between the University of Colorado (Boulder) and Colorado State University. The CU women wore the black and gold men’s jerseys, which had not been washed since the men’s last match. That first game is just a blur, recalls player Trudi Foreman. But I had the most amazing time. It was incredible to be on a field, tackling and playing a full-contact team sport.
The idea to start women’s teams at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and Colorado State
University (CSU) came about at the Aspen Ruggerfest in 1971. Trudi Foreman, a student at CU, was in the stands with a few other women watching a men’s match between CU and the Aspen Men. After the match someone had arranged a ‘Powder Puff’ rugby game. We were irritated by the Powder Puff match.​
It was an offensive display of bad rugby. So we started talking about women playing the game
correctly. (Trudi Foreman). The CU and CSU women in attendance that day watching the
Powder Puff game left Aspen with the intention of simultaneously starting women's rugby
teams at their schools. Both CU and CSU teams practiced throughout that spring of 1971. Trudi
recalls: We had a good number of people at the first few practices. The core group was very
organized. In the fall of 1972, in an ugly, drizzly day on a wet pitch, the first women’s rugby
game in the U.S. was played between the women of CU and CSU. The CU women wore the
black and gold men’s jerseys, which had not been washed since the men’s last match. “That
first game is just a blur,” Trudi recalls. “But I had the most amazing time. It was incredible to be
on a field, tackling and playing a full-contact team sport.’
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Later in 1973, another Colorado team—the Scarlet Harlots—organized, followed by the Denver
Blues. By 1974, there were approximately 29 women’s teams in the US. The vast majority had
no idea that the other teams existed
​1972 Colorado State University
1972 Julie Marley, UC Colorado
1977 Chicago Women versus Chicago Alewives. Women’s Committee founder, Elissa Augello is pictured behind the ball carrier.
First Women's Rugby Match in St. Louis
Pink Ramblers v. North St. Louis Women
Sunday April 22, 1973
April 22, 1973 the St Louis Pink Ramblers and the North St Louis Women played their first match.
Beyond Colorado, women’s rugby was organizing in other parts of the country. By 1975, just three years after the first game, there were fifty-eight teams in the U.S..
Something Different. A girls' match was a special attraction at yesterday's Easter Ruggerfest. - St. Louis Dispatch April, 1973.
Rugby Women
Founded in 1973 by Jeanie Salisbury, the Eleanors of Pasadena, CA are the first recorded team in California and among the first five teams in the country.
Rugby Women: 1978 Documentary on Northshore Women's Rugby: Directed by Eleanor Boyer with Terra Levin & Jeanne Meyers.
1975 University of Wisconsin Women
1975 University of San Diego Women
1976 Texas A&M University Women
1977 LSU Women
1975 Dallas Reds
1976 FSU Women
1977 Chicago Women
1977 Phoenix AZ Squash Blossoms
1977 Spodedoes of Colorado
1977 Dusty Lentils of Moscow Idaho
Furious - A Documentary about the DC Furies Women's Rugby Football Club - Directed by Liz Linstrom
DC Furies
1978 UCLA and Stanford
In 1977, Sally Ride joined the inaugural Stanford University Women’s Rugby Team. In 1982 she became the first American woman to fly in space as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 8, the first class of NASA astronauts to include women. She served as the ground-based capsule communicator for the second and third Space Shuttle flights, and helped develop the Space Shuttle's robotic arm. In June 1983, she flew in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Her second space flight was in 1984, also on board Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space.
1977 Beantown plays their first match.
3rd Annual Rocky Mountain Spring Classic
April 30 - May 1 1977 Denver, Colorado
11th Annual Santa Barbara Rugby Tournament
By 1977, there were one hundred and nine women’s teams in the U.S. Given that teams were geographically far apart, women's teams traveled a great deal. On Friday, players would cram into cars and drive hours to play multiple matches over a weekend, sometimes playing for multiple teams. They would sleep on floors sustained by junk food and beer - before climbing back into cars Sunday afternoon to drive long hours home. The result of all this travel was that players met one another, traded information, formed new clubs and grew the game. (Left) 1977 cover of the Rocky Mountain Women's Spring Classic. Ann Adams Wankner of CSU fights for the ball from Scarlet Harlots player Jill Leitner Jappe.
Wichita Women
Far Western U.S. Women's Rugby Classic
Bakersfield, California
February 19 - 20, 1977
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Official Program $1.00
(Left & Above)
1978 Women's Rugby Championships
February 18-19, 1978
Hosted by the Belmont Shore Rugby Clubs
Long Beach, California
(Photography by Tom Hoag)
1st Annual Pabst Women's Rugby Fest 1978
Milwaukee
1978 Ohio State
1978 Ohio State
Further Reading About Women's Rugby in the 1970s
1972 CSU-UC: Mother of Dragons Blog
1979 UCLA at Mardi Gras
Women in Rugby Journalism: Story of Rugby Mag
In 1978, the Chicago Women's Rugby Club organized the National Invitational Championship, inviting teams from the four territories with successful tournament records to Chicago for a championship event. Portland Maine, a team formed in 1977 won, defeating Wisconsin in the final. It’s hard to imagine we played four games in two days in those days. Chicago 3-0; Houston 18-0; Denver Blues 4-0 (tries were only worth 4), and the finals was 22-0 vs Madison WI. (Marybeth Mathews)
From 1978-1980, the Chicago Women’s Rugby Club hosted the National Classic Tournament. The Classic was the precursor to the National Club Championships. In 1981, the Chicago Women decided to drop the word ‘Classic’ and host the first Women's National Club Championship.
The early success of the Chicago-led National Championships was followed by the creation of the women’s territorial championships. ‘Territorials’ created a means for the best teams in each territory to play for a bid to the national championship. It also opened the door for territorial select side teams to become a venue for national team selections. Although, in those early days, the idea of a women’s national team seemed far-fetched.
Chicago Women's Rugby Football Club
Chicago National Winners Tournament
September 2 & 3, 1978
Chicago, Illinois
1978 Portland Maine, winners of the National Invitational Championship
Article covering the National Tournament
In the spring of 1979, Elissa ‘Jello’ Augello formed the first Women’s Committee, composed of representatives from the four territories (East, Pacific, Midwest and West). Soon after, ‘Jello’ published the first copy of In Support, the newsletter of the Women’s Committee. On the first cover of In Support, the Women's Committee is described as a subcommittee of the USA Rugby Football Union (USARFU) which, as former Women’s Committee Chair Jami Jordan notes, was inaccurate.
While the women’s committee was technically a part of USARFU, it was more like ‘in name only.’ We [the Women’s Committee] would make decisions and inform USAR after the fact. But at the time that’s how rugby did business; rugby in the US was more a collection of confederations and regional and local unions, operating often independently of USARFU.
While women paid dues to USARFU and local unions, they lacked representation at every level. It was up to the whims of male administrators whether women could join regional and local unions. While some unions were supportive, others refused to admit women. Many male administrators were deeply opposed to women’s rugby and others thought it was a passing fad. As one male administrator noted, we thought you’d just go away.
Women's Rugby Pioneer Kathy Korse was interviewed by Jennie Redner in 2022 about her experiences as a pioneer.
In their first few years, the Women’s Committee focused on organizing and communicating with women’s teams. Jennie Redner, founder of Michigan State Women’s Rugby and Women’s Committee Chair, created the first contact list of women’s teams in the U.S. The list, published via In Support, consisted of names, phone numbers, and mailing addresses of teams. Jennie’s list was a game changer, not only because it allowed teams to find one another but it also became a way of identifying women who were organizing at the local level. Many of these women expanded their roles and began to post results, share information, and organize regional and national events. More on early organizing
1977 Chicago Women versus Chicago Alewives. Women’s Committee founder, Elissa Augello is pictured behind the ball carrier.
While a number of male players and coaches were supportive of women’s rugby, others were deeply opposed to women’s rugby and spent considerable energy trying to ‘forbid’ women from playing. Some of these men held positions of power at regional and national levels and could make it very difficult for women. The rugby press at the time consisted of local and regional newsletters and Rugby Magazine, the only national newspaper covering rugby in the U.S. The early coverage of women’s rugby tended to focus on the novelty of women playing rugby as opposed to the growth of the game or results of matches.
Much of the early coverage of women’s rugby focused on the attractiveness and sexual availability of women. Articles also alluded to ‘raging feminists’ which was often a code word for queer women. There were a large number of lesbians playing rugby, the close community, camaraderie and active social atmosphere was attractive to young women who were coming out. Rugby was one of the very few places queer women could feel safe and find other queer women. Camaraderie was important not just to team cohesion but to player safety. Tournaments that combined men's and women’s teams could be dangerous for women, the heavy drinking, overwhelming numbers of men and macho attitudes of male players created an environment that was conducive to sexual assault and homophobic attacks.
Women were occasionally used in sexualized ads, as in this Gymphlex ad (left) featuring women playing sans shorts or in beer ads showing attractive female players in the arms of male players or as in the ad below, a woman player between the legs of a male player.
In 1978, Rugby Magazine began to devote a page or two per issue to the results of women’s rugby games under the title Women’s Rugby.
National and local newspapers occasionally ran articles on women’s rugby, these posts were rarely in the sports section - rather they were human interest stories- ‘how strange it was that women played rugby.’ Women’s Sports magazine occasionally covered women’s rugby matches and twice Sports Illustrated noted players in their Faces in the Crowd feature.
Los Angeles Times, April 1975
In 1977 The NEWTS (New England Women's Touring Side) and MARS (Mid-Atlantic Rugby Side)
toured Cardiff and England. MaryBeth Mathews recalls: We played each other three times, in a
town outside Cardiff, in Richmond, England, and in a town near Swindon Castle (where we
stayed for a few nights). The NEWTS won all three. In October of 1979 a well-organized
Midwest Women's Select Side toured Great Britain. Again, there were no women’s teams in
Great Britain to play, so the Midwest brought two sides and just played each other throughout
the tour. The fallout of these tours was a greater interest in women’s rugby in the U.K.
In 1985, WIVERN a National Invitation Side toured England and France and played a number of
university and club sides.
Many teams launched newsletters as a way to communicate. The communication in those days often relied on a typewriter and a mimeograph machine somewhere in the basement of a student life office. (Click Newsletters to Read)
By the end of 1979 there were 210 women’s teams in the U.S.
