The Springfield Rifles Club History

It was the summer of 1969 when several young men met at Cathedral High School to form the Springfield Rugby Football Club, the Rifles. Some of the original group included: Tim Rabbit, Bill Cosgriff, Bob Crowley, John Del Negro, Dan Desesa, Paul Rieker and Phil and Joe Ward.

In the earlier days, the members of the team primarily came from Chicopee and Springfield. The team's first match was played against Schenectady, NY. At the time New England was divided into three divisions. Springfield played in the 3rd division. The team later played a number of times for the Division 3 Championship.

The team had a handful of experienced players. What they lacked in talent, they made up for in athleticism and hard play. "We were successful because we had great athletes who were very physical" said founding member Paul Rieker. "Typically teams like Albany and Boston had bigger and more experienced players. We were sometimes undermanned in the set piece, but often dominated the play by being extremely physical. Our aggressive defense frustrated teams often causing them to make mistakes that we would capitalize on." The team really had two watering holes, The City Line and St. Mikes in downtown Chicopee. While the social life at home was fun, the away games were an experience. "It was a long strange trip, the stories are outrageous" said Paul.

From Family2Remember.com:

"For me, it all started mid-late 1970's on Autumn weekends at Lincoln Park in Chicopee near St. Mike's. A bunch of us would get together for football games and a few brews on a semi-regular basis. Bob & Bill Regan, Bill Morris, Frank Ruelli, Chuck Momnie, Jake Claffey, Kevin Hogan, Dave Scaglarini, Frank Hurley, Bill Kerigan, John Robak, and many others I've surely forgotten (sorry guys, too many beers) were some of the guys that got together for football games. Some had been playing rugby for several years with the SRFC and they handled the ball pretty well with LOTS of lateraling of the ball. Thats how I became aware of the wonderful sport of Rugby. I think we really liked it cause it gave us a reason to party early in the morning with breakfast before road trips all over New England. There were some real good athletes playing for the SRFC and everyone had "heart". We wanted to win every game, but we never took ourselves so seriously that it affected our partying.....that was what the SRFC was really famous for! You don't think these touring British teams were coming to Springfield, MA because of the competitive international rugby we were playing! After joining the club I met many more friends that are pictured below (see website). Suffice it to say that I still count more of my life's friendships from this group of people than any single other life experience I have had...... The question is whether it was the beer or the rugby that pulled us together?"