A Brief History of the RRFC by Maurice Smith
The Richmond Rugby club was born in August 1957 when a group of nine rugby enthusiasts met at Richmond City (then municipal) hall in resonse to a small notice in the Richmond Review. Ron Cameron, who was a Municipal Engineer and had played rugby in his native Ireland and more recently for Meralomas, pus the notice in the paper. The names of town planner Bill Kerr and Herb Douglas were also in the notice. I am not able to recall the names of all nine of those present but I think Mel Frith and Glen Beauchamp were there as well as myself. Mel retired in the early 90's from a management position in the city maintenance staff and Glen played for the old boys against our juniors as recently as 1992.
In the beginning there were only two divisions. Several of our players had played a year or two for a successful Richmond High School team. Ron Cameron pressed into service a few more athletic members of his engineering department. One had a very short rugby career, breaking his collar bone five minutes after play started. However, we did win, even with our numbers reduced to twelve. The game was played at Thomas Kidd school.
1958-1959 saw the RRFC with two teams in the VRU second division. 1959-1960 saw Richmond enter the VRU 1st division. Our first game was won 15-9 over Ex-Brit Lions at Steveston High School. That season saw Richmond play very good rugby including wins over the Rowing Club at Brockton Oval 5-0. Ed Lorenz scored the winning try from six yards out. He then proceeded to regurgitate his lunch on the field. Gerry his younger brother and teammate later, played for BC and Canada scoring a try against the NZ All Blacks.
Richmond remained competitive for several years but were forced to drop down to second division in 1963-64 after only being able to field one team. In this season the club made the finals for the league championship. Many notable players and people played for the club at this time. Bill Muir, Harvey Stern, and Bob McMath, whose father is the namesake of the high school of the same name, Roger Henniger, Mel Frith, Bill Anderson, and Ron O'Sullivan are a few. Ray Ruttan, Jack Gilmore, Jack Scollan and Jack Lasko are also prominent members of the Richmond community who played at this point in time. Abe Snidanko, of Cheech and Chong fame, a tough effective back and forward and member of the RCMP narcotics squad.
These times were very exciting for me. Besides playing and coaching, I was also at times club president, secretary, VRU club rep and VRU executive member. In 1965, I was awarded the Stoess award, given to the second division player wh personifies outstanding sportsmanship, leadership, and playing ability. Mel Frith won the award two years later.
Following are some interesting headlines from the 1960's and 1970's that involve rugby in Richmond.
1968 - "The Hugh McRoberts junior rugby team preserved their unbeaten streak to seven games thanks to a tie playing a hard fought game at Magee High School in Vancouver. The score was 3-3.
1971 - Senior club dues $10.00. Student playing dues $5.00.
1974 - Jim Donaldson #6 for BC in the Western Canada Inter-Provincial Rugby Championships.
Recent History
Since the dawn of the new millenium, Richmond has become a competitive entity in the re-vamped Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland leagues. Since making the playoffs in both divisions in 2004, the club has been near or at the top of the table. Culminating in winning the league in 2008, and winning a provincial division 2 championship in 2009, the club has been growing in stature and ablity for the past 15 years. In 2010, the club won two junior championships and in 2011, the men's division 1 lost in the Provincial Final in their first ever appearance in a top flight championship game. In 2011, the club welcomed back girl's rugby for the first time in 8 years, while off the field the club and city continues to place players on Regional, Provincial and National teams, not to mention the high number of Richmondites playing rugby at post-secondary institutions across the country.
The past was bright, the future looks brighter! Onwards and Upwards! The RRFC!
