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In 1976, a group of Edmonton women formed the city’s first female rugby club, the Edmonton Rockers. The Rockers were the first women’s team in Edmonton, participated in the first international rugby match with Missoula Better Side’s, and on September 22, 1995 the Rockers achieved another first with the groundbreaking of their new clubhouse, the first women’s rugby clubhouse in the world.[1] Rocker Laura Jackson became the world’s first female president of a branch of rugby union when lead the ERU in the 1980s. The Rockers were also instrumental in developing the high school women’s rugby programs in both Edmonton and Sherwood Park. All these firsts stand as a testament to the determination, strength, and aggression that these women possessed and brought to the sport.
From the team’s inception, the Rocker’s have been one of Alberta’s dominant rugby teams. To date the Rocker’s have earned 25 provincial titles, and, over the years, the team has continually contributed players to Alberta’s provincial team and Canada’s national team. The Rockers rugby club was the brainchild of several wives and girlfriends of the local Edmonton men’s rugby clubs, most notably the Pirates and Nor’Westers. Fond of the social and exciting atmosphere of rugby tournaments, in May of 1977 these women traveled with several men’s clubs to Missoula, Montana for the annual “Maggotfest” tournament.[2] Dating back to 1976, the Maggotfest is an invitational meet involving clubs from across Canada and the United States.[3] As was the case in the late 1970s, the Maggotfest was dominated by male teams. However, the tournament did involve the first women’s rugby team in northwestern America, the ‘Missoula Better Side’.[4] Formed in 1976, the Missoula Betterside faced a challenge that many early women rugby clubs faced in their formative years: finding competition. The Saskatoon ‘Happy Hookers’ woman’s rugby club was developing in the late 1970s, but otherwise relatively nearby rugby competition from Canada was yet to be established. The wives and girlfriends of the visiting Canadian’s men’s clubs provided a potential remedy. The Missoula Better Side’s encouraged the visiting Edmonton women to establish a rugby team back in Alberta, and the women agreed. From this meeting, The Rockers rugby club was born and the team’s first competition took place at Edmonton rugby’s premier event, Rugbyfest. . From the core group of women who were in Missoula for Maggotfest, the squad grew to between 15 and 18 women, including individuals foreign to Edmonton’s rugby community. The Rockers began an informal recruiting drive, gathering friends and fellow athletes from the Edmonton area. During the early years of the club, players ranged in age from 16 to 28 many were high-school students or students at NAIT and the University of Alberta. The athletic and aggressive nature of rugby was a large draw. Many Rockers enjoyed rugby “as an aggressive, exhilarating sport which involved fitness and skill.”[5] Laura Jackson, Susan Campbell, and Marilyn Scott were local track athletes that were recruited within the first month of the inception of the club and quickly immersed themselves in the newly discovered sport. The women’s sheer athleticism transferred well into rugby. Several early Rockers were sprinters, one participating in cross country, and founding member Shirley Bergland playing field-hockey at a provincially competitive level.[6] Still, not all early Rockers displayed such athletic skill. “[There were] some superb athletes and some that were really struggling and turned out to be not so bad athletes after some training.”[7]
The general consensus amongst early Rocker players was that the novelty of participating in a new sport was an attractive element of rugby. Despite the sports rapid growth in the 1970s, rugby itself was, and still is, a fringe sport in Edmonton. Participating in a new sport was exciting and many of the women were curious. This curiosity was largely fulfilled once the women began playing. The realization that veteran Rocker’s quickly came to was that the various aspects of playing rugby were fun. The practices, games and of course the partying was a large draw for many of the players.[8]
As early as 1981, the Rockers began practicing twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays at their current clubhouse location, the Argyll Velodrome.[9] The Rockers were guided through the basics by various Edmonton rugby players who operated as coaches, including Greg Ball, Stan Dillworth and Scotty Wright. The team was shown the basics and progressed from there, largely by their own motivation. Training, practice and determination allowed the Rockers to evolve into skilled rugby players. “We [were] all stubborn and determined people. The game brings that out; if you want something you have to work hard to get it.”[10] Individuals such as Shirley Bergland provided crucial motivation and drive for the team, tenaciously hounding players to come out and participate and providing encouragement.
As a result of a lack of competition in Edmonton, trips to neighboring cities soon became the norm for the young club. After the Rockers played their initial match against the Missoula Better Sides at Rugbyfest, the two teams met again in Lethbridge on the weekend of September 3rd at the city’s annual “Whoop-up Days” rugby tournament. Despite their short existence, the Rockers won two out of three games against Missoula.
The Rockers played squads wherever they could find them. In their first meeting with the Saskatoon team, the Rockers split the two games with the “Happy Hookers”, but, as a sign of their increasing skill, the Rockers dominated in their next match-up two months later with a commanding 40 – 0 win. Eager for competition, the Rockers also played a women’s netball team in Red Deer which was comprised mainly of English-born women.[11] Competition slowly appeared in Alberta, with the Red Deer Titanettes (later renamed Titan Fillies) and the Calgary Renegades arriving on the rugby scene in 1979 and 1980. The Rockers determination, relentless pursuit of competition, obvious love of the game and improving skill level helped contribute to a realization amongst Edmonton’s rugby community that the Rockers were a ‘legitimate’ rugby team worthy of respect and acknowledgement, and were an organization that was going to stay. By their own admission, the Rockers were originally a very inexperienced team that was not skilled in the high-contact sport of rugby. However, the team quickly developed through practice and an eagerness to embrace the sport. “You would go to practice, we would practice hard and afterwards you would sit down…and we could talk about [what we wanted] to work on, what we wanted to improve on. Then because we probably didn’t have a game, we would go and watch the men’s game and we would pick a position and ask ‘what is that person doing properly, what is that person doing correctly?’ We would hang-around and talk about rugby.”[12] Veteran rugby players in Edmonton recognized this interest and drive. As well, the Rockers willingness to travel to other cities in search of competition showed their determination to improve their team. This dedication and overt display of love of the game helped male critics realize that the women “took the game as seriously as they did.[13] Additionally, the Rockers success on the field only added creedance to their position as ‘legitimate’ rugby players. The Rockers were extremely competitive, and were continually the victors in women’s rugby, whether it be in local or inter-provincial play. Edmonton male rugby began to revel in the fact that the Rockers were talented athletes. The Rockers were winners, and the men enjoyed being attached to winners.
The organization and fundraising efforts of the Rockers club helped the team to tour abroad. The Rockers were drawn to overseas competition through their desire to travel and to seek-out competition. In the first 10 years of their time as a club, the Rockers traveled to San Diego, Boston, New Orleans, Vancouver, and on October 6, 1983 the Rockers began their extensive United Kingdom tour. The Rockers traveled throughout England and Wales, and shut-out every team they encountered. Whether it was the matches, the partying, or sight-seeing that accompanied the tours, the Rockers looked forward to touring. “It was a great way for the girls to come together.”[14]
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[1] Ed Hagerty, “Land and Clubhouse in Edmonton,” Rugby, 14 October, 1996.
[2] Patrick Lamb, “A History of Rugby Football in Edmonton” (Masters Thesis, University of Alberta, 1990). Kim Coupal, “The Ladies take the Field” (Rockers Clubhouse Records, 1980).
[3] Missoula’s Farside Women’s Rugby, http://www.maggots.org/Betterside/Farside.html (February 10, 2007)
[4] Ibid.
[5] Edmonton Rockers to Branching Out Magazine, “Letters” in Branching Out, 6:1 (1978)
[6] Interview, Shirley Bergland (telephone conversation, Monday, March 12)
[7] Interview, Marilyn Scott (telephone conversation, Tuesday, March 13)
[8] All Rockers interviewed.
[9] Scott, Women in Rugby.
[10] Interview, Shirley Bergland.
[11] Interview, Shirley Bergland.
[12] Interview, Marilyn Scott.
[13] Scott, Women in Rugby.
[14] Interview, Nancy Hulbert
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