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Reflections: Vassar Rugby
Have you visited the Memories section of the Vassar 150 website lately? If you haven’t, here’s a glimpse of what you’ve been missing:
Charles Williams ’80 writes about returning to the athletic field at the Vassar Farm for an alumni rugby match.
“It was a Friday evening as we descended upon the campus for the weekend and we drove as a group out to the Farm, before even entering Main Gate,” recalls Williams. “In the growing dusk from the viewpoint of the rugby pitch [we] saw [former coach Dennis Chanmugam '85] arrive, leaving his car. We watched from a distance as he slowly approached the chalked line nearest the road, knelt and touched it, before looking up and scanning the field from one set of posts to the other.”
“Five bucks says he’s crying,” said Chris DuMont ’84, according to Williams.
“No one would take that bet,” Williams writes. “We all were.”
Just what was it about Vassar and the college’s rugby program that brought tears to the eyes of these tough-as-nails alumni? Find out by reading the rest of Williams’ essay about the origins and early days of Vassar’s men’s rugby program.
Plus, read what your classmates and other Vassar alumnae and alumni are writing about their time at Vassar. Don’t forget to submit your own memory to the Sesquicentennial website! Share any aspect of your personal Vassar experience—recollections of your time on campus, inspiring faculty, friendships forged, how the college changed you, how you changed the college and the world.
Men's rugby at the Vassar Farm during the AAVC Athletic Weekend, October 1983. Photo © Vassar College / D. Wallentinsen.