Kern County Rugby Football Club

IN MEMORY OF JOHNNY PURCELL, Channel 17 will be HONORING HIS RUGBY LEGACY IN KERN COUNTY AND SAN DIEGO Tonight, July 28 during the 6:00 pm news cast. If you can watch it please do.

Johnny Purcell's Celebration of Life For more info please go to http://johnnypurcell.com/ JOHNNY PURCELL - RUGBY BIO... Johnny Purcell is from Bakersfield, California, where he attended Garces Memorial Catholic High School and played football. After graduating high school in 1976, he played for the D-1 Club Level Kern County RFC, which was a powerhouse in the late 70's. Johnny also played at linebacker for the Bakersfield College football team for two years, including a National Championship winning season. Johnny moved to San Diego to attend USD and play Football for the Toreros in 1979. While attending and playing football for USD, Johnny also played rugby for San Diego State (University Division I) under NZ Coach Gary Howat, since USD had no rugby team. Seeing the desire and need for a rugby team at USD, in the spring of 1980 Johnny and his roommate convinced USD and the Southern California Rugby Union that a rugby team at USD was a good idea, and USD RFC was born in the fall of 1980. Johnny coached the back line at USD during the first two seasons. USD RFC did not lose a game to any College level team, except Loyola in its second year in a controversial Division Final. In its second year, USD RFC also won the University Division of the prestigious OMBAC SD Tournament. In its third year, USD RFC moved up to the University Division where it had a winning season and placed third in the Tucson Tournament. In rugby, while in San Diego, Johnny earned spots on Representative teams, including San Diego under 23's Representative Side. Later he earned spots on other Representative Teams including the Tri Counties Representative Rugby Side (Santa Barbara, San Luis, and Kern Counties). Johnny had an exceptional rugby career after USD, both as a player and as a coach. He played 1st Team for three of the top four D-1 Club Level teams in the country during his era - OMBAC, Santa Monica, and a short stint with the New York Old Blues. After he retired in his early 30's from rugby competition due to an injury, he formed a High School Rugby Program in Kern County for his sons that went undefeated in its first year of existence. In the early 1990’s Johnny formed and coached a D-1 Club Level 7’s Rugby Program in Kern County that resulted in some impressive tournament and national qualifier wins. Most recently, Johnny helped in the development of a Youth Flag Rugby Program in Kern County, which recently evolved into a full contact youth program. Johnny was inducted into the Kern County Rugby Hall of Fame in 2015; and he was inducted into the University of San Diego Rugby Hall of fame in 2019.

July 1st Opening Day!!! Hours are 12 Noon to 11pm July 2nd and 3rd from 9 am to 11 pm July 4th 9 am to 12 Midnight Get your Fireworks from Us... Thank you for supporting KCRA / KCRFC See more

Fireworks Booth Opens on July 1st only 5 more days!! Come out and support the Kern County Rugby Football Club! All proceeds support the 2021 Season. We will be taking all percautions to protect everyone: Social Distancing, Masks and Sanitizer.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!! KCRA / KCRFC ANNUAL 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS BOOTH FUNDRAISER SALES START ON JULY 1ST........BOOTH WILL BE IN THE SAME PLACE AS LAST YEAR, ACE HARDWARE LARGE PARKING LOT. COME OUT AND SUPPORT KERN COUNTY RUGBY! GOOGLE MAPS LOCATION:... https://www.google.com//data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80ea439e

Rugby is for EVERYONE!

PLEASE TUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM LIVE!

Re edits for Kern Rugby Club web page...Back Bay 2/25/17

Re edits - KC at Santa Barbara 2/1/14