ABOUT
The Strathcona Druids History
The Druids Rugby Club was founded at a rugby party in the fall of 1959, when Welshman Chris Battin.
The club was given the name Druids by Brian Jones the club’s first captain. Brian went on to become the Edmonton Rugby Unions first President and author of its first constitution and bylaws in 1965.
The Druids crest, designed by Lynn Davies, is a Canadian Maple Leaf with a Welsh Dragon embedded in the centre. The crest symbolizes both the Canadian and Welsh cultures involved in the formation of the Druids Rugby Club.
The 1966 Alberta final was played against the Calgary Saracens with the Druids defeating them by a score of 8-3 at the South Side Athletic Park (now known as Rollie Miles Park) in Edmonton. Brian Heffel, Gerry Halliday and John Franklin with Lynn Davies as captain, were members of that team
1966 -1968 were very successful for the Druids! The club was loaded with so many good hard rugby players like Ken Goodall, John Franklin, Bill Spaul, Len Harvey, Gary Wilsmore, Bill Yeomans, Hec MacLean and Mike Booth and Roger Cowper. The sixties were great years for the club!
The nineteen seventies brought more of the same successon the field
The 90’s also saw the merger of the Edmonton Druids RFC with the Strathcona Outlaws RFC a move which saw the acquisition of a 1st class rugby facility of a clubhouse, changing rooms and four playing fields. The facility has been used for University Championships , Western Canada Games, a training facility for international teams including, Canada, USA, France and England and hundreds of High School and club games. The facility is also made available to numerous community groups including Dog Shows, Ultimate Frisbee, Aussie Rules Football etc.
The 90’s also saw the development of a women’s rugby program at both the Junior and Senior level, winning the 2nd division Provincial Championship in 1990 and 1996 and the 1st division Provincial Championships in 1997 and 1998 and under 18’s city championships in 1998.
The club continued to tour overseas with the Senior women touring Venezuela in 2000 and U18 women to England in 2001 and U19 Men to Scotland in 2001.In 2002 the club took a developmental tour to the Cayman Islands and subsequently took a team to participate in the Cayman Island
7’s.The club completed their 50th anniversary year with a under 20’s tour to Yorkshire , UK.
In the 2000’s the club won Provincial championships in Men’s 1sts (2005), 3rds (2004, 2008), Women’s 2nds (2005) and Juniors (2001, 2002, 2005 & 2007)
In July 2010 the club celebrated their 50th anniversary with four days of reunions including games for seven of their teams and a huge banquet where over 300 participants (including six of the original 1960’s team) attended, shared stories and presentations in a huge tent on their site. That night the park was named the Lynn Davies Rugby Park in appreciation of the work Lynn had done in the acquisition and maintenance of the park. Also three members (Brian Jones. Roger Cowper and Barry Giffin) were inducted into the Edmonton Rugby Union Hall of Fame to join Lynn Davies who was already a member of both Edmonton and Alberta Rugby Halls of Fame.