Full name Asociación Alumni President Agustín Lamarca 2016 9° of Top 14 Ground Tortuguitas | Union URBA Coach(es) Diego Wade
Mario Botta League Torneo de la URBA Founded 1951 | |
Location Tortuguitas,
Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||
Carlos di masi asociaci n alumni
Asociación Alumni, usually just Alumni, is a rugby union club located in Tortuguitas, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina. The senior squad currently competes at Grupo I, the first division of Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires league system.
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The club has ties with former association football club Alumni because both were established by Buenos Aires English High School students.
Background
The first club with the name "Alumni" played association football, having been found in 1898 by students of Buenos Aires English High School (BAEHS) along with director Alexander Watson Hutton. Originally under the name "English High School A.C.", the team would be later obliged by the Association to change its name, therefore "Alumni" was chosen, following a proposal by Carlos Bowers, a former student of the school.
Alumni was the most successful team during the first years of Argentine football, winning 10 of 14 league championships contested. Alumni is still considered the first great football team in the country. Alumni was reorganised in 1908, "in order to encourage people to practise all kind of sports, specially football". This was the last try to develop itself as a sports club rather than just a football team, such as Lomas, Belgrano and Quilmes had successfully done in the past, but the efforts were not enough. Alumni played its last game in 1911 and was definitely dissolved on April 24, 1913.
Rebirth through rugby
In 1951 a group of BAEHS students asked school's alumni for permission to re-establish the name "Alumni" for a rugby union team. This request was immediately approved in a meeting presided by Carlos Bowers, who had proposed the name "Alumni" to the original football team 50 years before.
The team achieved good results and in 1960 the club presented a team that won the third division of the Buenos Aires league, reaching the second division. Since then, Alumni has played at the highest level of Argentine rugby and its rivalry with Belgrano Athletic Club is one of the fiercest local derbies in Buenos Aires. Alumni would later climb up to first division winning 5 titles: 4 consecutive between 1989 and 1992, and the other in 2001.
In 2002, Alumni won its first Nacional de Clubes title, defeating Jockey Club de Rosario 23-21 in the final.