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Ramblers Rugby Club History

In 1932 Edmond St. John Martin Hoogewerf (yes, that’s really one person’s name) arrived in St. Louis from Great Britain to become a history professor at St. Louis University. At some point following his arrival he crossed paths with Harry Langenberg who in 1928 had been in Princeton, New Jersey for the founding of the Princeton University rugby club. The meeting of these two men gave rise to the St. Louis Rambler Rugby Club and rugby in the city of St. Louis. This year we are celebrating this historic meeting by celebrating seventy-five years of Rambler rugby – St. Louis’ finest rugby tradition.

The St. Louis Rambler Rugby Club is proud of its history. The Ramblers are St. Louis’ oldest and the nation’s second oldest active men’s rugby club. Only the New York Athletic Club can claim to have a longer run than the Ramblers. There are too many players to count who have taken the field for the Ramblers, but each one has lent a part of himself to the club. And it is the sum of those parts that shape the club today. The club has seen great seasons winning championships and tournaments, and the club has seen lean seasons where competing every weekend was enough reward. No matter the outcome there was always the tradition.

One of our most visible traditions is our distinctive green and white hoop jersey. In 1933 players merely wore an undershirt, shorts and boots, but our records show that sometime between 1947 and 1950 the Ramblers started to take the field in green and white. For over fifty-five years we have maintained our colors, and the players of today wear them proudly.

In seventy-five years there is a lot of time for travel, and rugby has provided the members of the Ramblers a ticket to the world. Ramblers have played on six of the seven continents. Some were local or domestic Ramblers while others were only Ramblers for a season or two while visiting our city, but they were Ramblers nonetheless. We’ve toured Europe and Ramblers have played in Asia, South America, Africa, and on the Australian continent. The Rambler green and white has seen over twenty countries in the spirit of game, and we’ve share a 12 oz., pint or liter with rugby players around the globe. In celebration of our seventy-fifth year we will be hitting the road again. The Ramblers will be traveling to Las Vegas to celebrate in a way distinctly American. Rugby is an English game, but we’ve made it an American tradition.

As we mark seventy-five years of Rambler rugby we look forward to the next twenty-five years when we will mark our centennial. We look forward to all the players who will join us and remember the ones who have left us. We look forward to the competition and the camaraderie we’ll share. In the end it continues to build our tradition

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