The foundation of the modern rugby club
Cricket
Initially cricket was played at the school with records of matches with the various Dublin clubs including Dublin University, Clontarf, Phoenix and Leinster, Rathmines. The college fielded teams comprising past and present pupils of the school.
Rugby Football
Transition from School Rugby to Foundation of the Club
As clubs became more established and the game more organised at school level, The senior club/school games declined. The first Leinster Senior Schools Cup was contested in 1887.
The club was originally called Bective College (past and present pupils) and as Bective F.C. from the 1870’s, hence we are F.C. and not R.F.C. as the club has origins older than the I.R.F.U. i.e. Following the merger of the Irish Football Union and the Northern Football Union of Ireland. It is recorded amongst the list of the founding members of the I.R.F.U. in 1879 the club is listed as follows: Bective College C/O the Hon. Sec. 15 Rutland Square East.
As sport at that time was not highly organized, with associations and unions yet to fully establish themselves, the distinctions between school and club teams were somewhat blurred which would explain the clubs matches with Wesley College and Kings Hospital in 1881, Williamstown Castle (Blackrock College) in 1883 and Clongowes Wood College in 1891.
In 1891 Rathmines School won the schools Leinster Senior Cup defeating Wesley College. George Walmsley, captain of Rathmines, joined the Rangers, and not long afterwards he would play for Ireland. The early Clongowes connection proved fruitful with many former pupils joining including the Magee brothers. Fellow Clongownian, James Joyce mentions Bective in his writings such as Ulysess, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Finnegan’s Wake.
Bective Rangers, the Veritable Melting Pot
Over time the number of members with no Bective College connection increased as the club grew. It was deemed appropriate to amend the club’s name from Bective College F.C to the new style of Bective Rangers F.C. as even then the club was a veritable melting pot with members from different parts of Ireland and Britain and of different creeds. The club was open and not exclusive to the alumni of the college. This open policy is clearly evident with surnames in the archives such as: Tabuteau, Magee, Tuke, Du Cros, O’Conor (The O’Conor Don), Cullen and Mooney.
To this day the club is the same melting pot and is all the stronger for the diversity and variety within the membership. The kindred spirits of loyalty to the club, one’s team and the enthusiasm for rugby binds the membership together.