Cal Rugby becomes an endowed sport

Rugby joins Men's and Women's Golf as endowed Cal Olympic sport programs; three more may soon follow

Winning the D1A Rugby 15s Collegiate Championship might have become the second thing that the Cal Rugby family will remember about the year 2025. On Wednesday afternoon, Cal Athletics announced that Rugby has become the 3rd endowed sport at Cal.

This is a significant milestone for the Cal Athletic program with the most national championships (34: 29 in XVs and 5 in sevens). By raising over $40 million from several thousand donors, Cal Rugby will have its annual operating budget covered from the return of that endowment. Rugby will also look to make upgrades to its home, the Witter Rugby Field, in the near future with the addition of new grandstands for spectators and office and hospitality buildings. It should be noted that Cal Rugby is a non-scholarship sport.

"This remarkable accomplishment wonderfully advances our strategy to get as many of our Olympic sports as possible endowed," Chancellor Rich Lyons said. "We began this academic year without a single endowed team. Rugby brings us to three! The generosity, dedication, and devotion of Cal Rugby's many supporters is a big reason why rugby's performance over the decades is unmatched. Thanks, Cal Rugby, for helping us launch a whole new era of excellence for Cal Athletics."

"We are incredibly grateful for the thousands of supporters who have helped us reach this milestone," Cal Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton said. "Cal Rugby, with the leadership of Jack Clark, serves as a model program in so many ways, and its endowment will allow the team to continue to thrive for decades to come."

Cal Rugby’s history on campus dates back to 1882. The long history and success of its alumni made this fundraising possible. However, due to how men’s rugby is not a sport governed by the NCAA nor its results counted in the Division I Learfield Directors’ Cup Standings, Cal Rugby’s place on campus has been challenged before. Back in 2010, Rugby was on the chopping block to be demoted from its Cal Athletics sponsored status. The decision to demote Rugby and cut Baseball, Women’s Gymnastics, Men’s Gymnastics, and Lacrosse was ultimately reversed due to the negative response from the Cal donor base.

With the collegiate landscape changing (and still very unsettled), Cal’s Olympic sports, AKA non-revenue sports, all need to be endowed sooner than later for their long-term survival. A major donation last fall allowed both Cal men’s and women’s golf (both with brand new head coaches this past season) to be endowed. Earlier this year, Chancellor Rich Lyons had mentioned that he was expecting four more programs to reach the endowment status. Cal Rugby is surely one of those four programs.

"Campus development and the Cal Athletics Fund have been great partners in our goal to permanently fund Cal rugby," Clark said. "However, the ultimate credit and gratitude must go to our former players, who continue to pay it forward, assuring that future generations of Cal rugby have the same opportunities and experiences they were granted."

The phrase "it takes a village" has never been truer for Golden Bear rugby. The team has always been entirely financially supported by families, friends and alumni of the program. Old stories of Cal rugby paint a picture of former head coach Miles "Doc" Hudson using word-of-mouth to raise funds from his fellow alumni and passing a hat to collect donations around his squad to scrape together enough money to send the players on international tours in 1965 and 1971. This grassroots campaign to fund the program was the advent of what would eventually turn into one of the most successful donor-backed athletic programs on UC Berkeley's campus.

"Rugby has always paid its own way, based on the example that Doc, and even the coaches before Doc, set," current head coach Jack Clark said. "Fundraising has been a significant aspect of the head coaching responsibilities over my time here. It has always been clear to us that it was our job to ensure the permanence of Cal rugby. We've never had a sense of entitlement."

With this weight of responsibility in mind, talks about long-term funding for Cal rugby turned serious in 1985 when Bear alumnus Tom Witter approached Clark with the idea of creating an endowment. It is impossible to recount the history of giving to Cal rugby without mentioning the Witter family. Fourteen Witters – fathers, sons, grandchildren, uncles and cousins – have all played rugby for the Bears, and Tom Witter was the first to lead the family's philanthropic efforts.

Tom Witter established The Witter Rugby Endowment, which is the largest of Cal's 29 rugby-specific endowments by far. While playing rugby at Cal is a right of passage for Witters, the endowment itself is also a family affair, with Tom Witter eventually passing the baton to his cousin Bob Witter, who then passed down the leadership to his son, Robert Witter Jr.

Bob Witter drove the growth of the Witter Rugby Endowment for decades and served as chairman of the California Rugby Advisory Board (CRAB) beginning in the early 1990's – but that only scratches the surface of his involvement in the program's operation. He mentored players on their post-graduate professional aspirations and even served as an assistant team manager, driving vans and washing grass-stained competition jerseys. No job was too small for Bob Witter, and his steadfast devotion to Cal rugby was an integral part of the success of the program right up until his passing in 2008.

After his father's passing, Robert Witter Jr. took over leadership responsibilities and remains the head of his family's philanthropy to this day. Robert Witter, in addition to personally gifting a tremendous amount to the program, has continued the rich legacy of the Witter Rugby Endowment and grown it exponentially, helping it become undoubtedly the most impactful rugby-specific endowment at Cal.

In addition to the Witter Rugby Endowment, 28 other endowments have been established for rugby's use by various alumni of the program. It has been a collective effort of the Golden Bear rugby community through these gifts and the three different major fundraising campaigns over the years – Cal Rugby Forever, Every Man Pledges and The Next 100 Years – which have continuously ensured that Cal rugby has a permanent home on UC Berkeley's campus.

Congratulations to Cal Rugby for achieving this fundraising goal!

Photo Credit: John Warren Bloom Photography (via CalBears.com)

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Even though men’s rugby is not governed by the NCAA (with its notorious issues), the competing governing bodies of college rugby are not without their problems. After competing in the breakaway Varsity Cup for several years (2013-17), Cal Rugby has returned to the D1A National Championships to make that tournament the undisputed national title in Rugby XVs.

The collegiate rugby scene has experienced a growth in the past 10-15 years with notably increased parity in the sport over the last 5-10 years. More schools (generally ones without football) have opted to sponsor rugby in their athletic department, but Olympic sports programs across the country are all being threatened by the still-changing laws. Cal Rugby should be in a good place to remain as the premier program in US collegiate rugby going forward.

I would stay cautiously optimistic that the operating cost will remain within the expected range despite potential changes from the NCAA house settlement. Title IX has required Cal to have the same number of female student-athletes as male. My understanding is that this endowment does not cover (yet) the operating cost of the multiple women’s sports needed to offset rugby. Cal Rugby donors had been responsible in the past for raising enough money to fund big chunks of several women’s sports.

Who knows if Cal Women’s Rugby, a club team that finished as national runner-ups this past season, would ever be promoted to be a 31st Cal Athletics-sponsored program. There could certainly be more cost sharing by having a women’s rugby (an NCAA emerging sport) than other programs, but it is also nearly impossible to cut a women’s sport to stay compliant to Title IX.

Until all of the Cal Olympic sports are endowed and most likely also needing to make sure that Cal Football has a seat at the big table when the conference realignment (Super League) musical chair is over, the future outlook of Cal Athletics in its current 30-sports form remains murky.