Tigers win inaugural NJ tournament

LaDainian Tomlinson. Drew Brees. Peyton Manning. These names are familiar to anyone interested in American sports. These men are famous, wildly rich and adored because they excel at football — the new national pastime. There are thousands of men and boys who dream of reaching the status these men have achieved, and this dream has created a pool of young football players large enough to accommodate thousands of high school teams and hundreds of collegiate squads.

But why is football so alluring to Americans, while rugby, a sport that shares many of football's characteristics, remains far less popular? The relative rugby inexperience of Princeton's New Jersey neighbors was evident at the inaugural Rickerson Cup, the first New Jersey collegiate state rugby tournament, hosted by the Tigers this past weekend at West Windsor Field. The men's club rugby team steamrolled Seton Hall, Montclair State and The College of New Jersey on its way to a tournament win.

The semifinal matchup between the Tigers and Montclair State was an exhibition of both Princeton's longstanding rugby heritage and rugby's anonymity among the majority of Americans.

Princeton emerged with a 38-0 victory, but after the game one player was heard saying, "[Montclair] had the muscle; they just didn't have the experience we did."

The statement spoke to the potential rugby has in this country: Many athletes have the physical skills to play at a high level, but they lack the experience. The same could have been said of the players from Seton Hall, whom the Tigers topped 60-3 in the final match.

Rugby's relative anonymity is ironic, considering that rugby players organized the first football games in 1869. Its anonymity in New Jersey is even more ironic, considering that the players who organized the first football game were from Princeton and Rutgers.

Between the semifinal and the championship match, Stuart Rickerson '71, the man for whom the tournament is named, commented on the effect the Cup would have on rugby in New Jersey.

"Princeton has been one of the leaders in New Jersey rugby, having been playing for 76 consecutive years," Rickerson said. "An event like this tournament helps to promote rugby in this area."

Rickerson, a football player and rugby star at Princeton who went on to become a successful lawyer and businessman, now devotes much of his time to promoting rugby in New Jersey. He is a member of the Princeton Rugby Alumni Association and chair of the Princeton Rugby endowment.

His love of the game partly stems from aspects of rugby that are less notable in other sports.

"Rugby players have a camaraderie that lasts for life," Rickerson said. "I remember going to a mini rugby reunion and seeing one player from the Class of 2007 and another one from the Class of 1957. It's remarkable how rugby players from 50, 60 years back still love the game enough to come to these reunions."

That same sense of camaraderie was quite evident during the tournament. Between matches, opposing players chatted and demonstrated a rapport and respect for one another that seemed to stem from their mutual love of the sport. This was the case even after the championship match, in which Princeton overwhelmed Seton Hall by 57 points.

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"So much of the sport is about camaraderie and friendship that anything we can do at Princeton to encourage the development of the sport in New Jersey would help everybody," head coach Richard Lopacki said.

Lopacki also laid out plans for the Rickerson Cup next year, when he hopes to invite women's teams and high school all-star teams from the area.

"We'd like to make this more of a community event," Lopacki said.

Both Lopacki and Rickerson are ambassadors of the game of rugby, seeking to popularize a sport that they feel will greatly benefit the American sporting landscape.