HISTORY OF UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB

The University of Queensland is the largest and most prestigious university in Queensland and the University of Queensland Rugby Football Club, for over 100 years, has had exclusive rights to run the game of Rugby Union at UQ. Over this time the Club has won the Brisbane Club Competition (Doherty Shield) and First Grade Premiership more times than any of its competitors.

In 2021, the Club beat GPS to win the First Grade Premiership to bring the overall total to 33.

2022 was another successful season both on and off the field, the Club secured the Doughty Shield Club Championship, which is awarded to the club securing the most points from all Grades, Colts and Women’s games across the season. 2022 saw 11 teams, 7 in the Final Series, 4 in Grand Finals and 1 Premiership (Colts 1).

The Club’s male and female players train and play on 3 magnificent grounds at UQ’s beautiful St Lucia campus.

The Club currently fields more Colts (U20) and Grade sides in the QRU competition than any of its competitors along with women’s 15’s and men and women’s 7 -a- side teams. During the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, the Club took 58 players to Japan to play 3 Japanese Universities.

Through its affiliation with Junior Club – Taylor Bridge – the Club’s brand covers Junior Rugby. Taylor Bridge leads into the Junior Heavies (U13-U16), providing a pathway for junior players to play club rugby at the home of UQ Rugby Club at St Lucia.

History of UQRFC

  

 

THE ORIGINS OF ‘HARPOON HARRY’S’ 50 YEARS AGO

Harpoon Harry’s was conceived for two reasons. The first was a decision by a group of influential old boys to seek approval from the University to build a clubhouse and the second was a concern that the club lacked a home base from which to socialise.
Jim Wilson and I resolved that we could not simply sit around and let old boys such as Leo Williams and Eric Anning get approval for a club house then wait and expect the players to suddenly support the idea.

Jim had special interest as 1 st Grade captain in 1974 of a team that struggled [the first since the war not to make the finals] and had organised Bob Templeton to coach 1 st Grade in 1975 so he wanted club spirit to be ramped up.
At the same time, clubland was different in 1975 with a vast majority of club games being player at Ballymore which meant post match drinks were held at the bar at Ballymore until closing at 6pm. Clubs such as GPS and Brothers went back to their clubhouses at Finsbury and the Green shed at Crosby.

Jim gives his basis for adopting the name ‘Harpoon Harry’s’ 
Harold and I flatted together in Indooroopilly at the time and sometimes with the benefit of drink I referred to him as “Harpoon Harry, out and about, in with a grin and out with a shout. He insisted the name be used for the bar.
 
With the input of Jon Broadley, Peter George, Charlie Miller, David Wood and Al Williamson we got to work to set it up Harpoon Harry’s.
Step 1 was to take over the rear dressing room occupied by the Athletics Club. Jim and Woody conned the Athletes with hollow promises and they moved all their gear to the change room we agreed to vacate. We had locks changed and were in the drivers seat for the Club to enter the Entertainment and Liquor – without any approvals or licences. 
 
The early signs were not good. In May 1975, we announced we would be having drinks at Harpoon Harrys after the Uni game at Ballymore. We bought 48 cans, a plastic rubbish bin and some ice and Jim, his now wife and I waited. No one turned up so we had a few beers and closed. Over the next few weeks momentum gathered and crowds of 20+ supporters arrived.
We decided we needed a commercial fridge so Jim and I went off to Quirks refrigeration and rented a glass door fridge. Quirks need personal guarantees so two law clerks on wages of about $25 a week signed on the dotted line.

As Jim recounted in the History of UQFC, there was the “Ballina Dash” 
“ In 1975, the XXXX brewery went on strike and there were no supplies of beer to be had in Brisbane. As we were playing Brothers next day, Harpoon Bill Ross and myself commandeer Bill’s father’s Holden Station wagon and headed south into NSW. We went to Tweed Heads where we called on the President of Seagulls Rugby League Club (who later was to become my father in law) but was told they couldn’t provision us; however there was a wholesaler in Ballina who could look after us. The President insisted on taking us to Seagulls for a beer and dinner in the boardroom from which we returned at 4.30am Saturday. So we had about an hours sleep and a quick breakfast before setting off to Ballina. We duly filled the Holden Wagon to the gunwales with Tooths KB Lager and DB Lager and drove back to Brisbane where we unloaded out precious cargo at Harpoons. 
 
Jim and Bill arrived at Crosby with 15 minutes to spare and Tempo was pissed off at their warmup as they were about to come up against Dunworth Freney and Handy. They won then slept for 3 days. One week later the strike ended – XXXX flowed again and we were left with selling unwanted southern beers.
The post Club dinner of 1975 was held in Harpoon Harrys with a crowd of over 100. The fridge was drained and refuelled a couple of times but eventually the beers probably had less than 10 minutes cooling in the fridge.
After the dinner, it suddenly occurred to us that we would have no income until February of the following year which would mean our fridge would be repossessed and the guarantees called in. The committed guarantors quickly formed a 6 team touch competition to play every Monday night through the offseason with such luminaries as Bruce Brown captaining a team. This was well before touch competitions were trendy.
 
We limped through and never looked back. We even acquired a band of female supporters led by Sally Loane who called themselves the “Harpoon Honey’s ‘ and had T-shirts to match.
Pleasingly, the clubhouse finally opened in December 1978 with Harpoon Harry’s players bar a fixture in the basement.