The Northeastern University Rugby Football Club (or NURFC or Maddogs) is a college rugby union team representing Northeastern University. The club competes in the Liberty Conference of Division 1-A Rugby and is governed by USA Rugby.

The club was founded in 1984 by a couple of Northeastern students. In 1985, the club became more organized as another key leader named Tony Kalaijakis emerged. The team lobbied for school recognition, hoping to become an official Northeastern club, but was denied. Disappointed by the university’s decision, but wishing to maintain a connection with the school, the team chose as its mascot, the MadDog; instead of the traditional mascot of Northeastern University, the Husky.

Recent History has included different league successes and national recognition. In their inaugural season in the ECRC, NU went undefeated, scoring an average of 37 points and allowing an average of 4 points per game. Northeastern, as the winner of the 2012 ECRC Sevens Tournament, qualified for the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships, in College Station, Texas. Northeastern received an invitation to the 2013 Collegiate Rugby Championship tournament at PPL Park in Philadelphia, broadcast live on NBC. Northeastern finished as winners of the bowl in their first appearance at the CRC’s. In 2014, Northeastern finished as a runner up for the plate at the CRC’s which represented an improvement on the year prior.

Today the club is led by Edward Turbidy. The club has performed consistently in conference play and put up strong performances in sevens tournaments such as the Las Vegas invitational. In 2017, Northeastern joins the Liberty Conference, an 18 team league divided in 3 sub-conference divisions; Empire, New England and I-95.

The Club welcomes all newcomers and has a bottom up approach to team building. Our base of developing players is what enables us to compete at the top level with a competitive first XV. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you are interested in helping or joining the team in any way!