The 60s: Context
The 1960s was a well documented time of student unrest. This unrest had a huge effect on the creation of rugby clubs in college campuses, as discussed in the book “Making the Rugby World: Race, Gender, Commerce”. As students became unhappy with their schools, so did athletes. During this era of free expression and rebellion against authority, student athletes became fed up with the authoritarian style of sports coaching. Rugby clubs were almost exclusively student run clubs, which aligns with the unrest and dissatisfaction with institutions of the time. It could not be summed up more concisely than the way the book itself states “Playing rugby meant that they did no have to submit themselves to the control of a coach and an institution, because rugby was only a student-controlled club sport and not an administration-controlled intercollegiate sport. If there was a rugby coach at all, that coach was a student appointment, often a graduate student.”