Wichita Rugby Union

Written By: Ty’drae Riley| Gordon Parks Academy

I’m very passionate about sports especially basketball. I started this blog because I wanted to tell all of you that all of the common sports that we watch or play aren’t the best. I’m eleven and like I said I LOVE sports and here’s my blog about it. Let’s get into it!

The Wichita Rugby Union was formed in 1973 by Air Force Captain Vern Francis. Everybody on that team did not know how to play. They were very unsuccessful at first. In 1975 Bryan Morrison from New Zealand offered to coach the rugby team. Under his coaching, they began to get dubs. In 1977 two Wichita players Dan Culbertson and Bruce Henderson were selected to be on the American International side.    

Unfortunately, Dan never made it off the bench but Bruce got off the bench. Canadians beat America 17-6. In 1977 another rugby club was made Old Yeller Rugby was made up by former KU and Washburn ruggers. A lot of the team was made up of lawyers who didn’t wanna play for Wichita. In 1979 they had started to win against the Wichita side. Wichita was having trouble getting new players and all of the veterans were retiring. In 1982 the two teams combined and made the Wichita Barbarians Rugby football club. They were a very strong rugby team and very competitive in Division 1 of the Heart of American Union.

David Farris, former Cornell, Kansas State University/Fort Riley member, and Topeka Wizards player, moved to Wichita in 1993. He had been club president in Topeka and had the knowledge. So he got in contact with some veterans to rebuild the team. By 1994 they had lots of sponsors and that helped them be even more competitive. In recent years the team has been unsuccessful. They’ve been doing good after that and they also within the years they’ve been claiming the five out of seven titles through 2015.

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