Barbarians celebrate 45th anniversary

The Brandon Barbarians marked their 45th anniversary Saturday with a strong belief that many good years still lay ahead.

The club was formed in 1981, filling a 75-year absence after a Brandon team emerged and then disappeared in 1906.

“It’s surprising really,” said Doug Filipchuk, who was one of the club’s four founders in the 1980s. “With rugby, it’s hard to keep people together. For these people to keep the game alive and keep the spirit going, it’s fantastic. “Especially in the early years, we had to travel a lot just to stay alive as a team. That was difficult to keep people involved so to see this is fantastic.”

Guy McKim, a veteran rugby player who had recently transferred to Brandon and also formed the club, said it was nice to celebrate the milestone.

“It’s absolutely gratifying,” McKim said. “When we started it and got the ball rolling, we never talked about the history of it but we never talked about a finality to it either … We envisioned the game growing so there would be more clubs.”

In the late 1970s, a Manitoba Rugby Union representative came out hoping to get the game going in Westman, but the momentum disappeared not long after he left.

By coincidence, Filipchuk eventually met McKim and told him how the previous effort to get rugby going had failed.

They put an ad in The Brandon Sun announcing a first practice, which was held at Green Acres School in September 1981. Filipchuk and McKim threw a ball around with John Reilly — who the Barbarians’ field is named after — and one other fellow, who couldn’t commit because of work.

They were soon joined by John Keogh, who was born in South Wales, while Reilly’s wife Iris became a key organizer over the years.

A group of high school students fleshed out the roster and rugby was reborn in Brandon.

Bryce Colquhoun is one of the driving forces in the sport in the city now, coaching the men’s team after also coaching the women’s team too in previous years.

He said today’s players can get caught up in their current games, and it’s nice to look back.

“We have to remember how great our rugby family is with the people we have now but looking at days like today,” Colquhoun said. “Hearing some of the stories from everyone playing before is a great reminder that it isn’t just the 2026 Barbs, we’re going all the way back. It’s so many years running of the same culture being built up.”

The organization held its 40 plus-one celebration in August 2022, after the 40th was delayed due to the pandemic.

On Saturday, after some brief speeches and a game of touch rugby at Green Acres School, the Barbs held a gathering at Iris Reilly’s home.

Kevin Chambers, who helped organize the anniversary event, was part of the influx of high school players in 1982.

“It’s just amazing,” Chambers said. “From a little seed of a newspaper ad to that. If you do it, it will pay off.”

HISTORY

There are rumours that during one of the World Wars that English soldiers who were training in Brandon played some games, but McKim hasn’t found conclusive proof it happened.

In the early days of the sport’s rebirth in Brandon, the team was comprised of a mix of ex-pats and local high school students.

“John Reilly was so passionate about the sport, as Guy McKim is,” Filipchuk said. “Just having that involvement and then getting a few of the younger boys and just having that group, we managed to keep it alive. The interest was always there.”

McKim agreed that John and Iris Reilly deserve a lot of the credit. John Reilly died in 2009, but Iris remains involved.

“This club wouldn’t have existed if John Reilly wasn’t part of it,” McKim said. “Doug and I both ended up going back to Winnipeg and John Keogh passed away (in 1988), but John Reilly and Iris kept rolling up their sleeves to get the jobs done that had to be done. He was so passionate, and with his background in New Zealand, he understood what a club was.

“It’s not just a bunch of guys show up on Saturday, drink beer and they’re done. It’s culture, it’s a lifestyle.”

The Barbs won the men’s second division championships in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2010, while the Lady Barbarians earned the provincial senior women’s trophy in 2011, 2014 and 2015.

HOW DID IT HAPPEN?

The famous old line goes that “Rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen. Soccer is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans.”

McKim said that’s the real appeal of the sport. When he played in England, after the game, the host team fed the visitors a simple meal of something like bangers and beans and the two clubs would spend time together.

McKim read an autobiography by one of the former members of the All Blacks, New Zealand’s legendary national men’s rugby team, and took from it the philosophy that has shaped his involvement in sport.

“When he was presented with his first All Blacks jersey, the presenter said to him, ‘Wear this jersey knowing that you are wearing it in respect for all of those who wore it before you, and in honour of all those who are going to wear it after you. This is yours to honour as long as you wear it.’”

He noted the organization doesn’t have a clubhouse — plans to retrofit a building near John Reilly Field have been abandoned — so there are fewer opportunities for the current team and alumni to get together.

The good news is how high schools have fuelled interest in the sport. A group of local teachers, including Brian Yon and Nancy Pitcairn, have been strong rugby builders. Last year, Westman High School Rugby had five girls teams and five boys teams.

Chambers, who also coached for many years, said their impact has been massive.

“The secret sauce is that we’ve had kids who graduated from playing rugby, who went into education and became teachers and landed in schools in our area and just recruited kids from within schools to become a feeder system for the Barbarians and for the Dauphin Mavericks and a lot of other programs around,” Chambers said. “We’ve had energetic, motivated rugby coaches in high schools that have recruited kids to come play our game, and it’s a natural step to come play for the senior teams.”

The expansion of the game into other communities, the introduction of a mini rugby program for youth and the building of John Reilly Field have also been important.

“We would probably look like a lot of other clubs in Manitoba that did well for a while, expanded a bit but because of the lack of ground feeders, have a glory day and that’s it,” Chambers said. “Look at us now. We go from generation to generation. Four-and-a-half decades.”

Chambers added the success of the Canadian national women’s rugby team that includes Emily Tuttosi of Souris has had the same sort of effect that a National Basketball Association title for the Toronto Raptors had on basketball in the country.

Baseball organizers say the Toronto Blue Jays trip to the 2025 World Series had a similar impact.

Even so, every organization needs key volunteers to do the heavy lifting, but that’s magnified in smaller sports that don’t have the infrastructure and high profile of hockey or baseball.

Many communities have had brief dalliances with various sports, but after that key volunteer left, the interest quickly died away. That makes it incumbent on sports organizations to train and develop the people who will come in next, which is a whole lot easier said than done.

Filipchuk added that having people like Chambers lead was important, but added the sport magnifies the values of leadership.

“With the game of rugby, it just grows on you and everybody becomes that person,” Filipchuk said. “They encourage each other. It doesn’t take just one or two.”

McKim is fundamentally suspicious of anyone who wants to be in charge — “They do become dictatorial, potentially” — but they do need someone who will keep pushing and inspire those around him.

“I think you have to find right persons, not a right person, to take that role,” McKim said. “That’s why we were fortunate here when Flipper put his hand up said OK and John Keogh showed up and John Reilly showed up at that meeting. John Reilly has his sleeves rolled up and he was ready to go already.”

FUTURE

When Colquhoun started in the sport, he did it with a group of friends who wanted to play the sport and have fun. He sees that as the key to rugby staying alive in the city, while drawing on the knowledge of the “old boys” is also important.

“We need that same big push of another group of girls or boys who are coming up who are friends and all want to play together and they all want that family connection and start taking the reins,” Colquhoun said. “Having people like me, like Skippy (Chambers), like Guy, all of us can help show them the way. This is how you do all the things you need to do, this is how we build it.’

“If we don’t have those committed individuals coming in, then we’re going to stay as we are.”

Colquhoun, who had his playing career ended due to concussions, had still been involved in the sport for 16 years. Along with the competitive side of things, he made friends and even met his partner through rugby.

For a time, the Barbarians had two men’s sides and a junior team. Now they have a women’s team of about 30 and a men’s team of about 40, although that doesn’t mean nearly that many can come out to a given game or practice.

While things are different, that doesn’t mean they’re worse. Chambers is confident the club will carry on.

“We’ll still be here,” Chambers said. “I feel that in my bones. We’ll still be here if we can manage to recruit kids to play a great game. It’s low cost, it’s all hands on deck and everyone gets time to play.

“It’s not limited to how much money your parents have to how much ice time you get. It’s absolutely available for kids to play, but having said that, we have to have the right people in place to help generate that love, and that happens at the school.”

Colquhoun was nodding as he listened to Chambers on the back deck of the Reiily home. He wasn’t optimistic as the sport took a dramatic downturn in numbers coming out of COVID.

“We were in a time where so many people quit sports for those two years and it was like pulling teeth trying to get kids and adults to come back and join the sport,” Colquhoun said. “Every year since then, we’ve started our season with indoor rugby and I’m seeing more and more and more people at the start.”

He put the word out in a group chat about the sessions and was expecting 15 or 20 responses. Instead, he had almost 40 and Colquhoun had to scramble to make it work.

“The new guys and new girls who have come in are dedicated, they love the sport, they’re telling everyone they can find about it,” Colquhoun said. “I have never felt as good about the future of our rugby team as I did this year.

“I can’t imagine it disappearing anymore, and there were times.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com