UBC Old Boys Ravens
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| Full name | UBC Old Boys Ravens Rugby Football Club |
|---|---|
| Union | Vancouver Rugby Union |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Location | Jericho Beach, Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Ground(s) | Jericho Park |
| President | Frank Fekete |
| Captain(s) |
Tom McKeen (Prems), Benji Couling (Rippers) |
| League(s) | CDI Premier League |
| 2014-15 | 6th |
| Official website | |
| www |
|
Tom McKeen (Prems),
UBC Old Boys Ravens is a Canadian rugby union team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1974, The Ravens was formed by graduates from the University of British Columbia. The club currently competes in the British Columbia Premier Rugby League.
The UBC Old Boys Ravens came into being in 1974 when a group of graduates from the University of British Columbia, who had been coached by national coach Donn Spence and which included many young aspiring national and provincial players, decided to form their own team. They were interested in playing wide-open, entertaining, running rugby with an emphasis on letting the ball do the work. They also wished to maintain a close link with the university and their former coach Donn Spence.
In keeping with native folklore, the "Thunderbird" emblem of UBC became the "Raven" of the graduate team. The new team colours of red, white and blue represented the blue of U.B.C., the white of the British Columbia provincial team and the red, that of the Canadian National team.
In its inaugural year, 1974–75, the team played as an associate member of the Vancouver Rugby Union participating in 17 exhibition games, winning 12, losing 4 and drawing one. The Old Boys first game at Brockton Oval took place against the University of British Columbia with Donn Spence as the opposition coach. Played at a furious pace the Ravens ended victorious by a 22-17 margin. The next day both teams discovered that an arsonist had burned the wooden Brockton Grandstand to the ground. This prompted a couple of Old Boys (* actually a couple of Georgians – but we’ll let it lie) to quickly salvage a number of charred beams from the Oval grandstand, and the refurbished beams later became the structure and framework of the club’s present bar. The Ravens celebrated their first year by pumping in 72 tries, scoring 402 points and yielding only 196. The Old Boys hosted three touring teams during their inaugural year: the Calgary Irish, the Kings Scholars from Ireland and Wainuiomata from New Zealand. Not a bad start!
In the 1975 season the Ravens became official members of the Vancouver Rugby Union, and in order to expand the number of playing bodies, the Old Boys became an “open” club inviting players, other than U.B.C. graduates, to join their ranks. The club expanded to field both a first and a second side.
In 1977-78 the Ravens won their first Miller Cup, symbolic of Vancouver Rugby Union supremacy and proceeded to the Provincial Championship only to be turned back by the powerful James Bay club at MacDonald Park in Victoria.
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Wikipedia