“Stella is Calling You Home” Event A Huge Success
The newly-formed Iowa Rugby Foundation held it first annual “Stella is Calling You Home” reunion event the weekend of October 4, 2025 in Iowa City. The goal of the weekend was to bring together rugby alumni, parents and friends to enjoy a weekend of camaraderie, memories, good rugby and an entertaining and motivational dinner on Saturday night.
The reunion kicked off Friday night with an informal gathering at Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City where parents and current University of Iowa Rugby Club members had a chance to meet alumni from every decade of the club’s existence, including Peter Francis, who was one of the founding fathers of the club in 1966. Other “seasoned” alumni in attendance included Brad Welter from the early 1970’s, and Ian Cullis and Joel Elgin from the mid-1970’s .
Saturday kicked off with a stirring rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on electric guitar by current rugby club member Clayton Brown prior to the University of Iowa Rugby top fifteen taking the field against in-state rival University of Northern Iowa Panthers, a perennial division II club contender from Cedar Fall, Iowa.
The noon kick-off saw temperatures in the 80’s with a high sun and light breezes. The raucous alumni crowd were treated to an offensive showcase as several Hawkeyes dotted down. The “Sir” for the game was alumnus Dennis Oliver who handled the on-field duties equitably and accurately. The Hawkeyes came off the pitch at the final whistle with a 50-19 tally to the good.
Saturday evening the reunion-goers gathered at The Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Iowa City for dinner and evening program. Peter Francis, who traveled from San Diego with wife Lorna to attend the event, kicked off the evening’s program with a retrospective of the formation of rugby in England as a segue to the founding of the club in 1966 which brought the audience to their feet. This was followed by a video from Gillian McRae of the University of Iowa women’s rugby club who was supported by the foundation on a recent tour to England with the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) High Performance Team.
Next up, current men’s club captain Ren Heimer and his dad Pete Heimer presented a short video on the impact of the foundation in their lives, followed by a stirring speech from current vice captain of the club Sam Zimmerman. The night’s feature speaker was 1980’s alum Jim Penosky whose talk entitled “A Fork in the Road” told the story of Jim finding rugby through his brother Mike, coming to Iowa and joining the club, graduating and moving to Atlanta where he played for Old White while maintaining ties with his Iowa teammates, and eventually combining many of his and Mike’s teammates on a RAGBRAI cycling team. This again brought the appreciative crowd to their feet. The night ended with former head coach of the Iowa men’s club Jim Lloyd giving a short speech in praise of Alistair Miller, Iowa’s current assistant coach.
Next up for the foundation is a winter board meeting in Chicago in preparation for our 60th anniversary in 2026. Stay tuned for details.
