Schuylkill River Exiles Rugby Club was founded in 1995 and is the only Men´s Division I club that trains and plays in Philadelphia. Since its inception in 1995, the club’s accomplishments are a source of pride and the foundation on which it builds its future.

The legacy began in 1999, with the club securing the EPRU Division III championship and advancing to the final 8 in the Division III national playoffs.

In the fall of 2000, the club’s first season in Division II, the club won the EPRU Division II Championship, and once again advanced to National play-offs, getting as far as the Division II Sweet 16.

This sequence of back to back Divisional Championships, gave Schuylkill a unique status in USA Rugby, as one of the few teams to advance from Division III to Division I in a two year span.

2001 saw Schuylkill competing in the Division I Championship Division and surprising many by earning a second place finish. The following spring of 2002, Schuylkill focused on competing with primarily Division I clubs. The clubs strong showing and fierce competitive spirit sent the message that the club was for real and intending to stay in Division I. An unfortunate one-point loss in MARFU play-offs stopped the club from advancing to Nationals for three consecutive years, in three different divisions.

Fall 2002 introduced Schuylkill to a tougher Division I comprised of MARFU Division I & Rugby Super League clubs. Since that time, the club has aspired to compete at the highest levels of domestic rugby, and has an ongoing goal of returning to the National Championship playoffs.

Recent years have seen extensive turnover in the club, with players moving on to pursue family, career or personal goals. As such, the current membership is young, hungry and willing to commit to hard practice and play.

The glory days of the club’s first decade are now the memories of those players who built the legacy. The current membership is charged to honor the past and the commitment that built it, and use the club’s history as the foundation for a re-birth of attitude and desire.

“PROUD TO BE AN EXILE”