History

UCLA Club Sports

History

UCLA Rugby Est. 1934 - Present

Since 1934, the UCLA Rugby Union Team has earned a reputation as a top level program in California, North America and around the world having successfully competed against the finest Universities, Clubs and International Teams in the rugby world.

James Schaeffer introduced the original team in 1934 which was eventually revived post-WWII through Norm Padgett and his tireless hustling and fraternity walks. Padgett's former Captain, Ged Gardner, assumed the Coaching role from 1958-65 and built membership, interest and skill to which Coach Dennis Storer added his own unique style. Storer remained Head Coach from 1966 - 1982, when the program operated as a Varsity Sport and subsequently resumed the role from 1987-89 after the program had returned to Club Status. During his tenure, Storer guided the program to 2 Monterey National Championship Titles, numerous Southern California Titles and produced 14 US Eagles with himself being named the first ever USA Eagles Coach. Future Bruin Coaches included Tommy Smith, Chip Howard, Wayne Young, Darren Maloney, Andrew Warne, Mike Basket and Jake Pike.

In the summer of 2003, a dedicated Alumni group headed by Coach Storer, launched an effort to return Bruin Rugby to its former prowess as the program had not reached the National Playoffs since the 1980's, was relegated to Club Status and suffered from a lack of experienced and committed leadership. This resulted in the hiring Head Coach Scott Stewart, a former Canadian International with 64 caps and 5 World Cup appearances. Since that time, the Bruins have progressed rapidly and have become a consistently top-ranked program in both XV's and 7's rugby and always a contender to win a National Championship in either code. Scott was replaced in 2020 by Dave Clancy. Dave coached around the world with professional teams such as Munster Rugby, International teams such as Samoa, Cayman Islands and US Representative teams along with domestic experience building a club program with the Chicago Lions. Due to certain circumstances and the struggles of the pandemic, Dave left the program in mid 2021.

After a rigorous seach for a new head coach, we are pleased to announce Harry Bennett as the new head coach of UCLA Rugby. Combining an impressive playing career, familiarity with the Los Angeles rugby community, and a strong coaching pedigree, Coach Bennett quickly became the clear choice among the scores of excellent applicants for the head coach position. Coach Bennett hails from Scone, New South Wales, Australia. He has played flyhalf or fullback for teams across the rugby landscape both internationally and in the US. Most recently he was a senior player for Rugby United New York (RUNY) in the MLR. While in New York he also served as the Director of Rugby/Head Coach at Fordham Prep for five years. In his most recent rugby season with RUNY, Harry earned 31 caps and was awarded MLR team of the week honors twice. He originally joined RUNY in 2018 in their inaugural season. While in NY he also played for the prestigious New York Athletic Club in the ARP league. Harry's stop in Westwood will be his second stint in Los Angeles. It was the first place he landed from Australia in 2015, when he began playing for Santa Monica. He won Pacific Rugby Premiership Rookie of the Year honors that year. In 2016 he played for the Sacramento Express in the PRO Rugby Competition during its inaugural and only year as the first professional competition in the US

Currently, the Bruins compete in all of the Major National Domestic competitions including the PAC Rugby Conference (XV's & 7's), USAR Collegiate National Championships, Varsity Cup National Championship and Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championships (7's). Recently, the Bruins have reached the 1/4 Final of the Varsity Cup (2011-17), the Collegiate Rugby Championships Final (2016 & 18), Semi-final (2013 & 14) Quarter-Final (2017) and were Plate winners in 2015. The Bruins have also won the El Nino 7's 2015, UCLA 7's 2016 and the West Coast 7's title at San Luis Obispo in 2013 & 2014 by defeating California in the Championship on each occasion (the only team in the country to defeat California in 7's rugby over that time period).

Our Summer Camps, Alumni Hall of Fame Dinner and Dennis Storer Classic "All Cal" Tournament help us to raise much needed funding, expose UCLA Rugby to new recruits and allow us to engage our Alumni and legions of fans in very meaningful ways. In recent years, the program has gained Varsity Club status and the monetization of all of our events, matches, merchandising and dinners have gone hand in hand with our traditional fundraising campaigns which overall to date have contributed well over $5,000,000 in additional revenues to UCLA Rugby to meet our operating budget, facility development and begin creating our scholarship strategy. In 2020 the UCLA Rugby Alumni Association was formed to support the program and actively engage the long history of Bruin rugby players, to date their efforts have been tremendous both in findraising and engaging Bruins from all generations. Visit their website (https://www.uclarugbyalumni.com/) for more background on their organization.

With the growth of our sport in the USA on the rise, UCLA Rugby looks to compete for National Championships every year and continue to produce players that will compete for Men's National Teams all while developing men of character who will become leaders in their own communities in the future!
Go Bruins!