Northeastern University Rugby Club

The Northeastern University Rugby Football Club (or NURFC or Maddogs) is a college rugby union team representing Northeastern University. The club competes in the Liberty Conference of Division 1-A Rugby and is governed by USA Rugby.

Northeastern Rugby Club
Full nameNortheastern University Rugby Football Club
UnionLiberty Rugby Conference
Nickname(s)Maddogs
Founded1984
Ground(s)Parsons Field
Brookline, Massachusetts (Capacity: 4,000)
Coach(es)Edward Tubridy, Alex Miccio, Bob Carroll
League(s)Collegiate Division 1-A Rugby
Team kit
2nd kit
3rd kit
Official website
www.northeastern.edu/nurugby

The Northeastern Maddogs has approximately 70 members from all over the United States, and from countries all over the world, including South Africa, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, China and Japan. The Maddogs field a competitive team every year, and have been nationally ranked.[1][2]

History

Founding

The club was founded by a Northeastern University student and rugby enthusiast named Bob Hubbard in 1984. He, along with 14 other students were the first team ever fielded by the Northeastern University Rugby Club. This first incarnation was not affiliated with Northeastern University, its only connection to the school was its players being students. The team's practices were held on a small triangle of dirt on Huntington Avenue across from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which is now the Wentworth Institute of Technology athletic complex.

In 1985, the club became more organized as another key leader named Tony Kalaijakis emerged. Kalaijakis turned the rag-tag group into a team, under him the club drafted a constitution and elected leaders yearly. The team lobbied for school recognition, hoping to become an official Northeastern club, but was denied. Disappointed by the university's decision, but wishing to maintain a connection with the school, the team chose as its mascot, the MadDog; instead of the traditional mascot of Northeastern University, the Husky.

NERFU (1987-2010)

In spring of 1987, aided by Northeastern University Professor Peter Eastman, the team became an official club of Northeastern. The club then hired its first coach, Jay Dacey of the Mystic River Rugby Club. Competing in its first Beast of the East Tournament, the Maddogs went undefeated and won the 1987 tournament. The following fall the Maddogs joined NERFU Division I and made the play-offs in their inaugural year.[3]

The NURFC competed in New England Rugby Football Union College Division I from 1987 to 2010, playing against teams such as Army and Boston College. Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale competed in NERFU until fall 2009, leaving to join the new Ivy League Conference.[4] In the years since its creation, Northeastern Rugby often competed in the Beast of the East rugby tournament, winning it multiple times in recent years including in 2005 with a 21-0 win over Buffalo in the tournament final.

ECRC (2011-2016)

In 2011 Northeastern along with Boston College, UMass Amherst, University of Connecticut, Middlebury College, UAlbany, and Southern Connecticut State University joined to form the East Coast Rugby Conference. In their inaugural season, Northeastern went undefeated scoring an average of 37 points and allowing an average of 4 points per game. Their undefeated season led them to the National Championship Round of 16, where they lost to Stony Brook University 24-22.[5] Northeastern's fall 2012 season resulted in a 5-2 record, with losses to Boston College and Middlebury, to finish 3rd in the conference.

Northeastern, as the winner of the 2012 ECRC Sevens Tournament, qualified for the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships, in College Station, Texas. Assigned to Pool A with Life University, Colorado State, and Wisconsin, Northeastern went 2-1 with their only loss coming from the reigning champion Life University, to advance to the bowl bracket.[6] Northeastern was eventually knocked out of the tournament by Cal Poly.[7] After their strong showing at the National Sevens Championships, Northeastern received an invitation to the 2013 Collegiate Rugby Championship tournament at PPL Park in Philadelphia, broadcast live on NBC. Northeastern finished as winners of the bowl in their first appearance at the CRC's. In 2014, Northeastern finished as a runner up for the plate at the CRC's which represented an improvement on the year prior.

After 2014 the club lost many of its talented players and went into a rebuilding stage. Head coach Edward Tubridy was hired to lead the maddogs. In 2016, the maddogs accepted an invitation to play in the Las Vegas Invitational rugby sevens tournament. The Maddogs played against teams from across the country and posted a 2-3 record on the week. In the year following they returned to Las Vegas and posted a 3-2 record beating Wheeling Jesuit University, Utah Valley University and Montana State University. After this tournament the Maddogs continued to build in confidence and reached the final of the Armory Sevens at American International College beating University of New Hampshire, University of Connecticut and University of Massachusetts Amherst. They missed out on a bid to the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships by losing to American International College in the final. Northeastern finished the season 21-7-3.

Liberty Conference (2017-present)

In 2017, Northeastern were invited to join the Liberty Conference; a new competitive league of Division 1-A Rugby teams. The conference includes 18 different Universities from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. The conference itself has 3 sub-conference divisions; Empire, New England and I-95. Northeastern compete in the New England division against University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Connecticut, Tufts University, University of Rhode Island and Fairfield University. Northeastern stepped up and produced one of their best records in program history. The Maddogs finished 5-0 in conference play winning the Liberty Conference New England Division. Outside of conference play, Northeastern beat Boston College by 3 points in a very close match and came out on top against the University of New Hampshire by 61 points. To end the season, Northeastern faced SUNY Cortland in the Liberty Conference Challenge. SUNY Cortland had just won the Liberty Empire division and proved to be a tough opponent to the Maddogs. However, Northeastern had an impressive performance which saw them win the game by 32 points. The Maddogs took home the bowl trophy to cap off an impressive season which saw them finish with a record of 8-0 and a national ranking of 32.

Season by season records

Past seasons
YearConferenceDivGPWLDPFPAPDConf Ranking 2018 - 2019D1ALiberty New England8620231104943
2017-2018Liberty New EnglandD1-A88003501042461
2016-2017ECRCD1-AA8620133195-622
2015-2016ECRCD1-AA8440194297-1034
2014-2015ECRCD1-AA716072198-1266
2013-2014ECRCD1-AA633015014284
2012-2013ECRCD1-AA7520211121903
2011-2012ECRCD1-AA6600226271991
2010-2011NERFUD16510151106451
2009-2010NERFUD1--------
2008-2009NERFUD17070----
2007-2008NERFUD1--------
2006-2007NERFUD1743021511897-
2005-2006NERFUD17340120142-22-
2004-2005NERFUD17430121124-3-
2003-2004NERFUD1761016111051-
1989-1990NERFUD155008946432

Team accomplishments

Divisional championships

Tournament championships

Individual player accomplishments

Collegiate All-Americans
Player NameClass7s or XVsYearTeamReference
Dimitri Efthimiou20127s2013Honorable Mention[12]
Chris Frazier20147s20141st Team[13]
Sean McElhinney201915s20171st team all D1A

All-Conference / Regional selections
Player NameClassConferenceYear(s)Team(s)Reference
Nino Balduzzi2001NRU1997, 1998, 1999, 2000First Team XVs
Mike Bruce2011NERFU2010First Team XVs[14]
Tom Budravich1989NERFU1988First Team XVs
George Chacharone2005NRU2004First Team XVs[15]
Paul Coste2016ECRC2014Second Team XVs[16]
Ryan Crowe2018Liberty Conference2017Liberty Conference All Stars
Tim Cummings1990NERFU1989First Team XVs
Gil Danaher-NRU2004First Team XVs[15]
Chris Frazier2014ECRC2013, 2014First Team XVs, First Team 7s[17][18]
Josiah Herbert2005NRU2004First Team XVs[15]
Franco Liebenburg2016ECRC2014Second Team 7s[18]
Rudy Machacek1989NERFU1988First Team XVs
Diego Maquieira2014ECRC2013, 2014First Team XVs, First Team 7s[17][18]
Bob McCarthy1989NERFU1988First Team XVs[19]
Dave McDermott-NRU2005First Team XVs[20]
Greg McInerney2013ECRC2013First Team XVs[17]
Mark Phillips1989NERFU1988First Team XVs[19]
Aaron Reich2014ECRC2014Second Team 7s[18]
Mike Schoelch2007NRU2005First Team XVs[20]
Scott Sivak2004NRU2004First Team XVs[15]
Nick Smit2011NERFU2010First Team XV[14]
Aaron Smith2015ECRC2014Second Team 7s[18]
Michael Strouch1990NERFU1989First Team XVs
Ty Taylor2013ECRC2013First Team XVs[17]
Alex Throssel2011NERFU2010First Team XVs[14]
David Tobias2013ECRC2013First Team XVs[17]
Sebastien Voigt2013ECRC2013First Team XVs[17]
Luke Wallin2006NRU2005First Team XVs[20]

Professional Representation
Player NameClassClubPositionCapsDebutLeagueReference
Diego Maquieira2014Houston SaberCatsHooker101/06/18Major League Rugby
Nick DiTomaso2014Pelham PoleDancersGross Smelly Hooker101/06/18Major League Rugby

National representation
Player NameClassCountryCapsDebutDateReference
Dimitri Efthimiou2012 United States (7s)1*2010–11 IRB Sevens World Series21 January 2010[21]
Mikhael Shammas2009 Lebanon (Rugby League)2Lebanon v British Armed Forces XIIIs3 July 2006
Kyle Winter1999 Indonesia3Indonesia v Guam1 July 2009[22]

(*) denotes tournament appearances

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References
  1. "DI Rankings: New #1". Americanrugbynews.com. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  2. "College Men 7s Rankings Oct 10 2012 - P". www.rugbytoday.com. October 10, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  3. "The Maddogs". Maddogs.neu.edu. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  4. "Ivy League teams split from NERFU". Americanrugbynews.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-01-26. Retrieved 2013-02-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6565-predictions-how-we-did.html
  7. http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6573-mens-7s-nationals-brackets-updated.html
  8. "The Northeastern Voice - 5 Spaulding docs team with NU - 6-7 Club sports take off - 12 Co-op in La" (PDF). Northeastern.edu. July 23, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 23, 2011. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  9. "2007 Brackets with Scores" (PDF). Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  10. "2010 Final Brackets" (PDF). Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2013-03-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. RugbyMag Staff (August 10, 2015). "USA Rugby Names Men 7s All Americans". www.rugbytoday.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  13. Reed, Curtis (August 11, 2014). "All-Americans, Hawks, Falcons Name Serevi RugbyTown Sevens Rosters". www.thisisamericanrugby.com. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  14. "College: NERFU All-Stars". Americanrugbynews.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  15. Hamlin, Drew (June 3, 2004). "Northeastern Maddogs send four members to All-American selections". www.maddogs.neu.edu. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
  16. https://eastcoastrugbyconference.com/awards-2/
  17. http://www.rugbymag.com/men's-di-college/6934-east-coast-all-conference-teams.html
  18. Clifton, Pat (June 17, 2014). "ECRC All Conference 7s Team". www.rugbytoday.com. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  19. Lee, Jennie M. (1989). Cauldron 1989 (PDF). www.archive.org. LXIX. Boston: Northeastern University. p. 100. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  20. Goff, Alex. "2005 College NASC Rosters - Northeast". www.erugbynews.com. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  21. "U.S. Men's National Sevens Team Begins". www.teamusa.org. January 18, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
  22. "Rhinos Pick 42-Man Squad ahead of 5 Nations Tourney". Jakarta Globe. May 13, 2009. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
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