\u201cAt that age, you\u2019re figuring out life\u2014meeting people, learning how to live on your own,\u201d Renfro says. \u201cRugby gives you a family to be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a family that has endured since 1964, when the late George Bunting, a Kansas City native and Dartmouth University graduate, arrived at KU for law school. Eager to keep playing rugby, which he\u2019d discovered at Dartmouth, Bunting was dismayed to learn there was no such club at KU. So he started one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bunting, l\u201967, placed a notice in The University Daily Kansan, and 13 students showed up for KU rugby\u2019s inaugural meeting. Some were experienced in the game, including foreign graduate students who had played overseas. Kansas Athletics supplied old football jerseys, and the University offered access to intramural fields. By the time Bunting graduated, the roster had grown to nearly 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Bunting\u2014an entrepreneurial businessman who died in 2018\u2014envisioned was not just a team, but something that could outlast him. Something that would renew itself year after year. More than 60 years later, it has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, men\u2019s rugby operates as an official club sport within KU Recreation Services, offering students a level of competition and connection perched between intramurals and varsity athletics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe try to find something for everybody on campus,\u201d says Jason Krone, director of KU Recreation Services. \u201cIntramurals works great for a lot of students, but some students want more\u2014more competition, more commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rugby provides that. But what makes it stick, Krone says, is what happens beyond the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou spend so much time together\u2014practicing, traveling, competing\u2014that you build a real sense of community,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s vital. That kind of connection brings students back year to year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among KU\u2019s many club sports, rugby stands apart for another reason: its alumni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generations of former players remain closely tied to the program, helping fund trips, building facilities and mentoring current athletes. That continuity has created something rare\u2014a club team that operates with the depth and memory of a much older institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former player Trevor Lister felt that the moment he arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lister, d\u201924, now a firefighter\/EMT with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, picked up rugby as a high school sophomore after his older brother suggested it. A star offensive lineman at Johnson County\u2019s Blue Valley High, he yearned to finally run with the ball and make tackles. What kept him invested in rugby, though, was something else entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat made me fall for it was that anybody can do it,\u201d Lister says. \u201cAny size, any position. There\u2019s a lot of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That freedom is central to rugby\u2019s appeal. Unlike football, where every movement is dictated, rugby demands constant decision-making. Play flows, possession shifts, and players must adapt in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much autonomy,\u201d Lister says. \u201cYou have to read the game and react.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time he reached KU, Lister was committed to rugby. He would go on to become a two-time All-American and, in Renfro\u2019s estimation, one of the best players in crimson-and-blue history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the accolades aren\u2019t what Lister remembers most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He remembers the immersion\u2014the way the team became a daily presence in his life. Teammates gathered before matches, after matches, at the clubhouse, at apartments and off-campus houses shared with other rugby players. Newcomers, if they displayed a commitment to the club and a willingness to learn the sport, were quickly absorbed into the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s what people are looking for,\u201d Lister says. \u201cA place where you belong. And if you buy into it, you\u2019re part of it fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Above Johnny\u2019s Tavern sits the KU rugby clubhouse, established in 1980 as a home for the program\u2019s history\u2014photos, jerseys, trophies and decades of accumulated stories. It\u2019s notable that the club\u2019s largest and most treasured prize is the OSVA Trophy\u2014Optimus Socius Viator Athleta<\/em>, outstanding social and victorious athlete\u2014awarded after international trips to the Jayhawk who best represented team unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For current players, the clubhouse is a reminder of what came before. For alumni, it\u2019s a place to return to, sometimes years later, often with spouses and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere, just south of town, sits the KU rugby complex, Westwick, so named as a cheeky nod to being west of Twickenham Stadium, the home of English rugby. The 35-acre complex features two first-class rugby pitches, a practice field, lights, locker rooms and training space. The site, nestled within 200 acres of club-owned land, came together \u201clike a church project,\u201d in Renfro\u2019s description, built over time through alumni donations and volunteer labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s as good as there is in the United States,\u201d Renfro says. \u201cThere\u2019s about 15 or 20 permanent facilities dedicated to rugby in the U.S. Most teams either use a city park that isn\u2019t taken care of properly, or a multisport campus field that\u2019s marked up for other sports and is difficult to schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then there\u2019s the world beyond Lawrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 1976, the Jayhawks have toured internationally every two years. This spring, the team traveled to Ireland, continuing a tradition that has taken the Jayhawks to England, Scotland, Wales, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s no other club in the United States\u2014or, hell, worldwide\u2014that tours as much or to as many different places as we do,\u201d Renfro says, adding with a laugh, \u201cThat\u2019s why we have Westwick. We saw these little clubhouses that these European clubs had and we said, \u2018We\u2019re from America. We can do way better than that!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many players, KU rugby tours are their first time leaving the country. For some, it\u2019s their first time on an airplane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re not just going to play rugby,\u201d Renfro says. \u201cThey\u2019re seeing how people live. They\u2019re meeting families, seeing the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In rugby-rich countries, that culture runs deep. Clubs are multigenerational, rooted in neighborhoods and families. Matches are followed by meals, speeches and shared time with opponents. The game is competitive, but the community is just as important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lister experienced that firsthand when he spent time playing in New Zealand during spring and summer of his junior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery little town has a rugby club,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019d play your match, then everyone would shower, put on a tie, sit down for a full meal, have a beer together. It\u2019s just part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That tradition\u2014competition paired with connection\u2014is something KU rugby has worked to replicate. After matches, it\u2019s not uncommon for teams to share a meal and a drink, either burgers and brats at Westwick or Johnny\u2019s legendary pizza at the clubhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou just don\u2019t see that in other sports,\u201d Lister says. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the coolest parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At KU, the camaraderie built by rugby extends across generations. Alumni games, annual banquets, winter golf tournaments at desert resorts, and a network of roughly 450 former players help sustain the program financially and culturally. When the club team made a run to American College Rugby\u2019s 2022 national championship, alumni support helped fund the trip to Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Jayhawks came up just short in a hard-fought final, but the moment reinforced something larger: KU men\u2019s rugby, the club sport for undergraduates, and its mother ship, the alumni- and community-based Kansas Jayhawks Rugby Football Club, endure because people keep investing their time, treasure and passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Krone, the recreation services director, that continuity enhances something already powerful: the opportunity to represent KU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s only one Jayhawk,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen our clubs go out and compete with a Jayhawk on their jersey, that means something to the athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Renfro, the meaning is transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeeing the kids go from 18-year-old knuckleheads to 22-year-old mature adults who will end up being successful in whatever endeavor they end up choosing,\u201d he says, \u201cis the greatest reward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lister is one of those stories. He credits rugby with preparing him physically and mentally for his career as a firefighter\/EMT in Lawrence\u2019s high-volume Station 5, directly south of Daisy Hill. The discipline, conditioning and resilience all carried forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs soon as I was done playing rugby, I started firefighting,\u201d Lister says, \u201cand there was zero drop-off. I was ready to go for whatever firefighting would bring me, and that\u2019s thanks to playing rugby. I\u2019m fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That success was, in a way, set in motion more than six decades ago, when Bunting created a club that could sustain itself, remain connected to the University and continue drawing in new players. He built the foundation. Others raised its lasting structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At KU, rugby is still being passed down\u2014player to player, class to class, generation to generation, raised glass to raised glass. And as with Renfro all those years ago, some never really leave it behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/Rick-Renfro-Johnnys.jpg\")
A club sport with a vast community<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Here, there, everywhere<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Lifelong buy-in<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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