In January 1932, the Catholic University student newspaper, The Tower, first noted the expectation of a new spring sport on campus, rugby. However, there are no subsequent indications that a team managed to get off the ground in the thirties. Fast forward three and a half decades, and rugby again appears on campus but with a bit more staying power. In the fall of 1969 CUA students helped organize the “Turkey Thicket” rugby club. The club was named after a field just off campus (now on the other side of the metro tracks) that the University used for decades as an intramurals, club and varsity sport field.
Over those years, the team was considered the school rugby club and regularly faced off with other universities such as American, George Mason, Clemson, Villanova, Frostburg, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Georgetown and UMD. The school newspaper, The Tower, consistently covered games, the club held organizational meetings and social events on campus, and the team heavily recruited from the student population. The Turkey Thicket team even petitioned for and periodically received student government funding, but was also denied funding at least once for a lack of undergraduate representation within the organization. Essentially, the Turkey Thicket rugby club served as the de facto Catholic U rugby club throughout the seventies. However, the club was not formally affiliated with the university and included local players, as well as a mix of undergraduate and graduate students.
1980s
Eventually the Turkey Thicket club faltered and shortly thereafter a small group of Catholic University students decided to start a formally recognized school team. From the fall of 1978 into the fall of 1979, various recruiting or organizational meetings for rugby were announced in The Tower. Usually held in dormitory spaces like the first floor lounge in Spalding, there is nothing to suggest much traction until the spring of 1980 when The Catholic University of America Men’s rugby club was founded by Dave Muirhead, Chris Kneisler, Pat Connor, and Jim Shine.
On February 4th, 1980 at 7:30pm, in the basement of Gibbons, the “Rugby Club at CU'' hosted a meeting informing the community a men’s and women’s team had been established. Chris Kneisler was appointed as the player-coach for the team. Following that meeting, there was a bit more recruiting around campus and the first official match was on February 27th, 1980 against cross-town rival Georgetown University. The spring also included a memorable game against the touring English club Southhall, and a first win, 7-3, over George Washington University on April 4th.
The group also helped launch the Catholic University Women’s Rugby team at the same time. Pat Connor decided to take on the coaching of the inaugural women’s squad. Unfortunately, the women’s team struggled to get consistent participation and only lasted a few seasons.
In the early years, the team mostly played local universities, Towson, Georgetown, GWU, Loyola, American and the University of Maryland, as well as local men’s clubs and the occasional traveling team. A turning point came in 1983 when Tom Walsh signed on as head coach. He would spend more than a decade building a strong, vibrant collegiate rugby team at Catholic University. During those first few seasons Catholic played in the spring only and the team was often buoyed by football players looking for off-season activity. In 1985, CUA played its first fall season in the Potomac Rugby Union (PRU) and finished with a respectable 3-3-1 record. The club continued to progress forward the next fall and the roster continued to grow. Former football players, soccer players, wrestlers, and other interested student athletes looking for a new outlet combined with a sprinkling of high school rugby players to create a potent blend. Playing both a fall and spring season helped all the players rapidly develop their rugby skills and knowledge
The spring of ‘86 was notable for a loosely organized spring break trip to Florida and two games in the sunshine state. The team also had its second straight victory over cross-town rival Georgetown. The following school year, 1987-88, was a landmark year for the club. The team finished the fall with a 9-2 record, including victories over visiting Yale and St. John’s University as well as Georgetown. The spring was equally successful, finishing 8-3, including an undefeated trip to Southern California. On the first formal tour as a team, Catholic pounded out three wins over the University of San Diego, USC and Loyola Marymount and found the time to visit Disneyland, Mexico and the local beaches among other activities. Combined with local victories over strong JMU, George Mason and University of Maryland squads, the Catholic University Rugby team had planted its flag on the national map. The following fall the team claimed its first ever PRU Championship with an undefeated season.
1990s
Over the next several years the club continued to grow in strength and reputation by regularly facing larger schools and ranked programs. The growth of the game regionally prompted the Potomac Conference to split into two divisions. School size and some mixed results against bigger programs placed CUA into the second division. However, Catholic quickly won back-to-back Division Two Potomac championships in 1991 and 1992 while also playing a very tough non-conference schedule. In the spring of 1992, scrumhalf Paul Sica (1993) was named a USARugby All-American, an unusual accolade for a Division Two player, and Catholic’s first collegiate rugby All-American. During the same period, in 1990, the “Capital Cup Tournament” became a formal, signature event at the end of the school year for all four Washington DC university rugby teams - Georgetown, American, George Washington and CUA. Notably, between the years of 1992 and 1997 Catholic won six straight Capital Cups.
CUA moved into Division One in the 1993-94 school year and would regularly face some of the strongest programs in the country, including Navy, UMD and Penn State, as conference foes. A few seasons later, in the fall of ‘96 the team reached the Division One Mid-Atlantic regional playoff. The squad defeated a higher ranked VA Tech team, 10-8, and secured a spot in the round of 16 of the USARugby Division 1 national playoffs. As preparation for the national playoffs Catholic embarked on its second tour to California, playing matches against western powerhouses San Diego State and BYU. At the national playoffs, the team was eliminated by #3 Stanford in the round of 16, but still claimed a piece of history as one of the smallest schools to ever reach the USARugby Division One national collegiate playoffs. Catholic University Rugby finished the school year ranked 14th in the country by Rugby Magazine. After fourteen years as head coach and arguably one of the most successful seasons ever for Catholic Rugby, head coach Tom Walsh stepped away from the team in the spring of 1997. The Tom Walsh era saw a growth of the club from its infancy as a small, part-time team into an East coast powerhouse and nationally ranked program.
2000s
The team finished the 90s on a down note with the club dropping down from division one back into the second division after successive losing seasons. As might be expected, turnover in the coaching staff hurt continuity and player development. In the mid-2000s, the club regained its footing and began playing more competitive rugby. Catholic would deliver a special season in the fall of 2006. The team finished undefeated in the regular season, at 8-0, and atop the Potomac Division Two Conference. Their only loss that fall came in the conference championship game to Salisbury University (who would go onto the Div 2 national semi-finals) and CU finished the fall with a 9-1 record. Before the end of the decade, the club would move into the nascent National Small College Conference (NSCRO), along with the other area Division Two clubs but the team continued to produce inconsistent results.
2010s
In 2009, a key step forward was taken when the club secured the services of current Head Coach John Solomon. Coach “Solly” went to work on steadying the program over the next few years, increasing the competitiveness and the overall level of play. In the fall of 2014, the team was rewarded when they reached the Potomac NSCRO Championship, but fell to Mount St. Mary’s in the final. The following spring, Catholic won the Capital Cup for the first time in over 15 years, defeating rival Georgetown in the final. The team reached the Potomac Conference finals again in the fall of 2015, but again lost to Mount St. Mary’s, the NSCRO National Champion that year.
In 2016 the team produced another strong season finishing in second place in the Potomac Conference with an 8-1 record. Catholic defeated Bucknell in the regional playoffs to advance into the national round of 16. The club finished ranked 6th nationally in NSCRO that year. The next fall (2017) Catholic finished undefeated in the Potomac Conference at 7-0, and took home its first Potomac NSCRO championship. The Cardinals also welcomed back alumnus Tom Lyons ('88) who joined John Solomon on the coaching staff. The team did well in the national playoffs, landed another top ten ranking. After defeating Elon in the round of 16, the Cardinals were eliminated in the national quarterfinals. It was an epic, bruising overtime game with conference rival Loyola-Maryland in which neither team could assert dominance, but Loyola edged ahead when playing up a man late in the overtime period. In 2018 Catholic registered back-to-back undefeated league seasons, including an away victory over Loyola for the inaugural “Birddog” Cup. Again the team would go deep into the national playoffs, but Catholic lost a tough match to Christendom College in the national quarterfinals and just missed another chance at the national final four.
Having lost a number of veterans from the past two campaigns, the team had plenty of new faces in the first fifteen for the fall campaign in 2019. However, they were relishing the challenge of another tough season and a chance to prove themselves as CUA rugby players. Catholic finished the regular season with a 4-2 record including a very tight, last minute 24-22 loss to nationally ranked Loyola. The club posted a convincing playoff victory in a rematch with GWU but subsequently lost in the regional playoffs to a strong Susquehanna University squad.
2020s
After a pause in competition for the COVID pandemic, Catholic Rugby returned to the field in the fall of 2021. The team also returned to the very top level of Division 3 rugby. The 2021 squad won back the Birddog Cup from Loyola and finished the fall regular season undefeated in the small school division and posted wins over 2 (Towson, UMBC) of 3 division two opponents, the only loss to a resurgent Georgetown program (who would go onto the national quarterfinals in division two.). The Cardinals notched wins in the regional playoff (Widener University) and the round of sixteen (Sewanee University of the South) but were stopped in the national quarterfinals by eventual national champion Christendom College. In 2021-22 Catholic also had its second player named as a Collegiate All-American by National Collegiate Rugby, the team captain, Trevor Phelps (second row).
In the fall of 2022, after losing 12 seniors in the spring, Catholic University Men's Rugby put together a historic season. The team went undefeated through the fall, including an away victory of Loyola Maryland to retain the "Birddog" cup. The playoffs would include rematches with Widener (W 34-26) in the regional, and a round of 16 game against Sewanee, again. A tough, seesaw match, Catholic eventually pulled away 34-25 and nabbed a spot in the national quarterfinals for the fourth time in the last five seasons. The quarterfinal was against a very strong Susquehanna team. The game was a tug-of-war for the entire eighty minutes. Catholic jumped out ahead early, but Susquehanna clawed their way back and it was a 1 point game at half. Late in the second half, CUA moved out to a two-score lead with less than 10 minutes to play, but Susquehanna narrowed that gap in the final minutes. However, Catholic locked down possession and the clock, holding the ball for the final three minutes and closing the door on the River Hawks, 34-32. The victory placed Catholic University Men's Rugby into a national semi-final playoff for the first time in program history. Catholic lost to a talented Wayne State in the semi-finals but finished the year ranked in the top 5 teams in the country.
The team would put its shoulder right back to the grindstone in the fall of 2023. After starting the season with big wins over Gettysburg, GWU and Widner, Catholic headed into the second half of the season riding high. Catholic posted a solid win away at Susquehanna and followed up with a critical victory over Loyola at home, staying undefeated and retained the "Birddog Cup" for another season. Especially notable at the Loyola game was a visit from former coach Tom Walsh, who was the first non-player coach and was with the team from 1983 until 1997. Catholic fell to American 24-22 in the final game of the season but had won the conference for the third straight year and earned a seed into the national playoffs for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. In the round of sixteen, Catholic defeated Christendom and ground out a victory in a very hard fought quarterfinal game with Southeastern Louisiana to earn back-to-back berths in national semifinals. However, the run would end in Houston again in 2023 as Catholic was knocked out in the semifinals by eventual national champs Babson College. It was the second year in a row the team reached a national semi-final, and the fifth time in the last six seasons Catholic has reached the national quarterfinals. The team finished the season ranked fifth in the NCR coaches poll.
The 2024 season would see Catholic sweep the Mid-Atlantic Conference, including retaining the Birddog cup with an away victory over Loyola. After losing some critical leadership and talent in the class of 2024, the team was further challenged with injuries and featured a very young side. However, the Cardinals stormed right back into the national playoffs in a NCR regional playoff against VMI. The Keydets got out to a quick start, applied pressure and landed two early tries, pulling ahead 12-0 in the first ten minutes. Your Cardinals responded with two tries of their own, bringing the score to 12-12. VMI landed a PK later in the half and the first frame ended with Catholic trailing 15-12. Catholic opened the scoring 1 minute into the 2nd frame and never looked back. The Cardinals attacking prowess was on full display and pushed ahead 40-21. VMI would not go quietly into the night, and added a try at the death, to finish the game at 40-28 CUA.
Catholic University Men's rugby had reached the national round of 16 for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. Catholic squared off against College of Charleston and started where they left off against VMI, scoring in a variety of way and running away to a 55-14 victory. Meanwhile, Susquehanna fell to Duke University on the other side of the bracket. Duke, having just dropped down from Division 2, were making immediate waves in the D3 playoffs. It was a classic, hard fought game between two quality teams. Duke got out to an early lead and Catholic battled back into it, but still trailed at half. The second half saw the two teams trading blows and tries throughout the period. However, the Cardinals fell just short 51-45, attacking up until the final whistle. Catholic would finish the season again ranked in the top 5 teams in the nation.
In recent years, the team has welcomed exceptional talent such as former high school All-Americans, overseas age grade players, and committed, varsity rugby athletes from across the country. However, the program continues to welcome and needs student athletes who are brand new to the game. The regular infusion of experienced players along with other student athletes, combined with a stable and knowledgeable coaching staff, has enabled Catholic University to sustain a highly competitive and meaningful rugby program. Over the last decade Catholic University Men's rugby has consistently reaffirmed its place among nationally recognized collegiate rugby teams, striving for excellence and regularly going deep into the playoffs.
Past Head Coaches:
2009-Present John Solomon
2008 Peter Baggetta
2006-2008 Bill Kiniry
2002-2006 Gus Ventura
1999-2002 Pete McCall
1997-1998 Craig Burns
1983-1997 Tom Walsh
1980-1982 Player Coached