Asociación Alumni, usually just Alumni, is an Argentine

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club located in

Tortuguitas Tortuguitas is a city in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, located northwest of Buenos Aires. The city is located in Malvinas Argentinas Partido (county), and its population was 41,390 inhabitants as of the 2001 Census. Part of a vast estancia ...

, Greater Buenos Aires. The senior squad currently competes at Top 12, the first division of the

Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires The Buenos Aires Rugby Union ( es, "Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires"), usually referred as URBA, is the Argentine governing body that organises and controls the rugby union in the Buenos Aires Province (including the main district, Buenos Aires a ...

league system. The club has ties with former football club

Alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

because both were established by Buenos Aires English High School students.La historia de Alumni: un club que respira rugby y está unido a la primera leyenda del fútbol argentino
by Walter Raiño on ''Clarín'', 26 Nov 2018

History

Background

The first club with the name "Alumni" played

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, having been found in 1898 by students of Buenos Aires English High School (BAEHS) along with director

Alexander Watson Hutton Alexander Watson Hutton (10 June 1853 – 9 March 1936) was a Scottish teacher and sportsman who is considered "The Father of Argentine football". In 1893 he founded the "Argentine Association Football League" (current Argentine Football Ass ...

. Originally under the name "English High School A.C.", the team would be later obliged by the

Association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

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."En el nombre del fútbol"
'' Clarín'' newspaper, 2003-04-24 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 Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the south east of the Greater Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and it is the seat of the eponymous county. With a population of 230,810, it is located south of the ...

had successfully done in the past, but the efforts were not enough. Alumni played its last game in

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

and was definitely dissolved on April 24, 1913.

Rebirth through rugby

In 1951, two guards of the BAEHS, Daniel Ginhson (also a former player of Buenos Aires F.C.) and Guillermo Cubelli, supported by the school's alumni and fathers of the students, they decided to establish a club focused on rugby union exclusively. Former players still alive of Alumni football club and descendants of other players already dead gave their permission to use the name "Alumni". Alumni rugby infantil 1952

On December 13, in a meeting presided by Carlos Bowers himself (who had proposed the name "Alumni" to the original football team 50 years before),"Los comienzos de Alumni" - club's official website
(Archive, 8 Nov 2012) the club was officially established under the name "Asociación Juvenil Alumni", also adopting the same colors as its predecessor. 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 Belgrano Athletic Club is an Argentine amateur sports club from Belgrano, Buenos Aires. One of Argentina's oldest institutions still in existence, Belgrano was one of the four clubs that founded the Argentine Rugby Union in 1899. The senior ...

is one of the fiercest local derbies in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. 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 The Torneo Nacional de Clubes is a club rugby union competition in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR). The Nacional de Clubes is the main club competition in Argentine rugby, being contested by a total of 16 teams, 8 from Bue ...

title, defeating

Jockey Club de Rosario Jockey Club de Rosario is an Argentine sports and social club from Rosario, Santa Fe. One of the richest clubs in the country, Jockey Club possesses its own racetrack, hara, golf course, tennis courts and swimming pools. Counting more than 1,500 ...

23–21 in the final.

Players

Current roster

As of January 2018: * Federico Lucca * Gaspar Baldunciel * Guido Cambareri * Iñaki Etchegaray * Bernardo Quaranta * Tobias Moyano * Mariano Romanini * Santiago Montagner * Tomas Passerotti * Lucas Frana * Luca Sabato * Franco Batezzatti * Franco Sabato * Rafael Desanto * Nito Provenzano * Tomas Bivort * Juan.P Ceraso * Santiago Alduncin * Juan.P Anderson * Lucas Magnasco * Joaquin Diaz Luzzi * Felipe Martignone * Tomas Corneille

Honours

(1): 2002 *

Torneo de la URBA The URBA Top 13 (formerly "Torneo de la URBA", named "Top 13" since the 2022 season)Rugby clubs established in 1951 A 1951 establishments in Argentina