San Diego State Aztecs Rugby Club is the rugby union club that represents San Diego State University. The men's team competes in Division 1-A in the California Conference and the women's team competes in Division II in the Pacific Desert Conference. The club plays its home games at ENS 700 Field.
The men's team won the 1987 National Collegiate Rugby Championship.
Since the inception of the club in 1958, men's rugby has been both a popular and successful sport on campus at SDSU, so much so that Aztec alumni went on to set-up the rugby team of Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) in 1966[6] and also to found San Diego Old Aztecs RFC in 1978.[7] In addition to the 1987 National Championship, the Aztecs have won numerous SCRFU Collegiate Conference titles to progress to the national playoffs, including 1996,[8] 2007,[9] 2008 (quarterfinalists),[10] 2009 (semifinalists), 2010 (quarterfinalists) and 2012 (semifinalists).[11] San Diego State men's teams have also excelled at the short-form of the game; finishing second at the 2010 Collegiate Rugby Championship (broadcast live on NBC)[12] and qualifying to play in the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships in 2011 (quarterfinalists), 2012 and 2015 (quarterfinalists).
Women first represented San Diego State at rugby in 1975[13] and, like the men, had an astonishingly successful introduction, finishing the season second in the nation after losing the inaugural Women's Collegiate National Championship to the University of Colorado.[14] The team played successfully for eleven seasons, even going on an undefeated four-match tour of New Zealand in 1981.[15] In 1986 the Aztecs combined[16] with a local club team the Rio Grande Surfers. The Surfers, now known as the San Diego Surfers,[17] play in the Women's Premier League, the highest level of women's rugby in the United States. The Aztec women's team has recently been re-established on campus and they were progressing through the 2020 season until it was cut-short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Aztec Rugby Club, in its first season, took first place in the Southern California Rugby Association ... it appears that rugby will have a very favorable future on Montezuma Mesa.[18]
sic: read Southern California Rugby Football Union[19]
Del Sudoeste p.214, 1958
The first record of anyone having an interest in playing rugby at San Diego State College (as it was then) is an advertisement in the school newspaper, The Daily Aztec, at the end of the fall semester of 1957 asking for Men interested in forming a rugby team to attend a meeting.[20] More than 45 people turned up[21] so a season schedule was put together along with a timetable of practices to be held over the winter break and Mr. Fred Quiett of the university's Engineering Department agreed to become the club's first faculty representative.[22]
The team played its first competitive matches in the spring semester at the Southern California Rugby Football Union[19] Carnival in Santa Ana on Sunday February 9, 1958, defeating Pomona-Claremont 8–0 and losing to the Pepperdine College Waves 3–8.[23] The first of seven league matches that season was played against El Centro in El Centro on Saturday February 15, the Aztecs won 15–0.[24] Their next match was their first at home, it was played in the Aztec Bowl (now the site of the Viejas Arena) against Ontario and was won by the Aztecs 20–14.[23]
Winning ways continued that first Cinderella season with a further three victories before suffering their first league defeat to Eagle Rock Athletic Club. This set-up their final match with Santa Ana College on the next weekend as a championship decider, the Aztecs won the match and thus they also clinched the league in their inaugural season.[25] Four of the team were named on the Southern California All star team (Bob Johnston, Ernie Trumper, Jim Hansen and Ian Richardson), two to the All-star second team (Bob Shank and Jim Hastings) and one honorable-mention (Ray Fackrell).[26]
The Aztecs won the US National Men's Collegiate Rugby Championship in 1987, overcoming Dartmouth College rugby club 22–6 in the semifinals and beating the United States Air Force Academy rugby club 10–9 in the final. The 1987 men's rugby team was inducted into the San Diego State University Aztec Hall of Fame in 2005.[32]
Alumni of San Diego State who have played international rugby union
Sean Allen[33] Scott Bracken –– also current U20 men's 15's head coach [34][35]
Derrick Broussard [36] Dan Dorsey –– Best known at SDSU in the mid 1990s as a nose tackle on the Aztec football team [37][38]
Ante Drazina[39][40] Dennis Gonzalez[41] Chris Harju –– 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup winner inducted, with her teammates, into US Rugby Hall of Fame in 2017 [42][43][44][45] Duncan Kelm Chris Lippert –– US Rugby Hall of Fame inductee 2020 [46][47] Craig Levine –– Maccabi USA Rugby Hall of Fame inductee 2017 [48][49] Chris O'Brien –– Kicker on Aztec football team while All American rugby player at SDSU; later Eagles specialist kicking coach. Inducted into the US Rugby Hall of Fame in 2023 [50][51][52][53][54] Mike Saunders –– US Rugby Hall of Fame inductee 2018 [55] Brian Vizard –– US Rugby Hall of Fame inductee 2016 [56] Scott Yungling[57][58]Alumni of San Diego State who have played professional rugby union
Alumni of San Diego State who have played international rugby sevens
Derrick Broussard[36] Dennis Gonzalez Duncan Kelm Mike Saunders –– US Rugby Hall of Fame inductee 2018 [55] Stephen Tomasin –– All-American (7s and 15s), Bronze medalist at 2015 Pan American Games and participant at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens[68] Brian Vizard –– US Rugby Hall of Fame inductee 2016 [56]Students and alumni of San Diego State who have been awarded All-American honors for rugby, played for the US Junior All Americans (U20s), the US Collegiate All Americans (U23s) or who have played international rugby at