OUR HISTORY
West Potomac Rugby Football Club is a cherished part of the Washington D.C. rugby football scene. Many locals claim that the team was founded in 1963 but the actual date may be significantly earlier…
As the chronicles, passed down in oral tradition, tell it, West Potomac Rugby Football Club (WPRFC) originated in 1963 when a group of bed-wetting British Naval officers with Cockney accents were enrolled in a year-long course in International Diplomacy at the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies (SAIS is on Massachusetts Ave in N.W. DC, not in Baltimore).
One day while cruising about the provinces, observing the daily habits and activities of the Colonials, they espied a Rugby match between Washington Rugby Club (then comprised of a bunch of bed-wetters with Cockney accents from various British Commonwealth Embassies) and Club de Sudamericano (also, despite the name, comprised of a bunch of bed-wetters with Cockney accents from various British Commonwealth Embassies). After the initial shock of seeing Rugby being played in America, they quickly came to the conclusion:
Bloody Hell! We could beat that lot!”
And so they formed a team, called it SAIS RFC, had one practice, and there being only abut three Rugby clubs in Washington at that time, quickly scheduled matches and DID beat Washington and SUD.
And over the next year or so, they beat them again and again. During this period, as a matter of course, they recruited some USMC officers also taking (and no doubt in need of) courses in International Diplomacy and various SAIS students to the team. In due time, the Brits finished their course of study and sailed back to Merry Old England. Almost immediately the wheels began to come off the cart!