Sponsorship Opportunities:

• 2 Tents: $300 each (1: Matt Lewis)
• Trophies: $100 (Zach and Ashley Oliphant)
• Match Ball: $100 (Prime Lending)
• Food: $500 (The Oliphant Family)
• Water/Gatorade: $200
• T-shirts: $250

In a little over one month, we’ll all converge on Waco for the 2011 Alumni Festival. Spread the word, bring your family and friends. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Here is the t-shirt design for this year:

Also, Friday night schedule is up in the air because of the TCU-Baylor football game. There will be tailgating, so the “dinner” might just be held over at Floyd Casey and the alumni association meeting pushed to later in the evening. We’ll be updating you here and on Facebook as soon as we have more details.

It’s that time of year again, fellas. And this one’s a biggie! It’s the 10th anniversary of the National Championship. About this time 10 years ago, we were on our way to Virginia Beach to take on Arkansas State. And, as they say, the rest is history.

Help us celebrate in grand fashion by coming out en masse to this year’s festival. We’ve had great success in years past raising money and bridging the gaps between the classes. We need to step it up a notch this year, so dig out that old address book, hit up your Facebook friends, and find all the Baylor Rugby Alumni you can.

Labor Day weekend is September 2-4 this year. We’ll be doing the usual:

Friday

• Tailgating prior to football game (contact Connally McKay)

Saturday

• 11:00am Alumni match kickoff
• 11:00am-2:00pm BBQ Lunch for all attendees, family, friends and fans
• 8:00pm-?? Milk and Cookies and Alumni/Officers/Coaches meeting.

Friday night is the big TCU vs. Baylor football game in Waco, which will be nationally televised. If you’re going to the game, plan on meeting us at the Association & Officer meeting. If you’re not going to the game, plan to join us for dinner.

Also, because of this game, we HIGHLY recommend you book your hotel now. Rooms are filling up fast. We do not have a block of rooms, but most of us are staying at the Hilton.

We’ll have more info about locations and other events, as well as some additional details about the 10-year anniversary celebration, soon.

If you have any stories photos or video (PG, please) from the 2000-2001 season, please contact Brian Dusablon.

Special guest: Dr. John Blakeman, one of our coaches during the 2001 National Championship season, will ref our match.

The Southwest Collegiate Rugby Conference would like to announce that it has formally been accepted by USA Rugby as a Division I Conference. Todd Bell, the USA Rugby Collegiate Coordinator informed the Conference commissioner, Baylor Head Coach Clayton Jewett, of the committee’s decision on Wednesday. The charter members of the SWCRC include Baylor, Rice, University of Houston, Texas State, Sam Houston State, TCU, and University of North Texas. The Board of Directors of the SWCRC voted to accept the University of Texas into the conference as well. The move to Division I is a big step for over half of the teams in the SWCRC with 5 of the 8 teams playing in Division II or Division III last year.

Originally there was an effort to form a Big 12 Conference. While this certainly would have been marketable, it was not feasible for numerous reasons. Rugby teams are club sports and therefore do not have the financial support for travel that varsity sports do. Forming a Big 12 Conference would have meant a great deal of travel for clubs that simply cannot afford that. In addition, a Big 12 Conference would have left out all of the schools in the SWCRC except for Baylor. As such, Baylor broke off talks with the Big 12 schools to form the SWCRC. Will there be a move in the near future to expand the conference to include other teams such at Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin, and possibly New Mexico? We do not know, we will take things one season at a time. As it stands, the SWCRC believes that it has formed a quality conference; one that will provide each team with competitive matches that will benefit not only our individual programs, but also the sport as a whole in Texas. We are excited about the future of rugby in Texas and the USA and are concentrating on having a stable conference that will compete on the national level in Division I collegiate rugby.