History

The Portland Lumberjacks Rugby Club started in a gay bar.

Lumberjacks Founder Dan Bund was moving back from London and was troubled to see that ever since the Portland Avalanche had folded in 2008, there was no International Gay Rugby team in Portland. After connecting with former Avalanche player Brian Gardes, he decided to see if the city was ready to give it another try.

Early one evening in the fall of 2015, twenty future ruggers gathered at a local gay bar. Some were returning Avalanche players who were itching to get back on the pitch. Some had never played rugby at all and were interested to see what inclusive rugby looked like. Many had played sports before, many had not, but all were welcomed to help begin what would become Portland’s longest standing Inclusive Rugby team. That night, they selected a preliminary Board of Directors, settled on a name (a close win over the Steelheads), and chose former avalanche players Albert Gapasin and Jo Anderson-Bussiere as their captains. The fledgling group decided the Cascadia colors of Blue, Green, and White would represent them.

A few tax-filings and 501c3 applications later, the Lumberjacks had officially been formed.

But how does one start a rugby team? Fortunately there was an established IGR team just to the North that was willing to help! For several weekends, the men of the Seattle Quake rugby club traveled to Portland to join the newly fledged Lumberjacks and help get the team off the ground (following a few debacherous pub crawls through the streets of downtown; the Lumberjacks are nothing if not gracious hosts). After a few more training sessions - and maybe a few more tours around the town - the Lumberjacks were ready for their first match!

Just as their Avalanche predecessors before them, the Lumberjacks played their very first match against the Seattle Quake. It was a success! One of the Lumberjacks first Team Captains scored the very first try against the Quake and the Lumberjacks continued on to win the match!

By the fall of 2016, the team had gained both players, experience, and a deep love for both the game and the team itself.

Tournament Time

Rugby tournaments are special places, any rugger will tell you, and by the Spring of 2017, the Lumberjacks were hungry for their first one. And what tournament was there to be had other than the IGR sponsored Rocky Mountain Ruckus, in the beautiful mountains of Colorado! The team trained hard and fundraised harder, gaining ground and critical dollars to get them all the way to Denver. Rugby players from teams across the country gathered to do battle for the Ruckus Cup - the Chicago Dragons, San Francisco Fog, Seattle Quake, Dallas Diablos, and of course their hosts, the Colorado Rush … all welcomed the Lumberjacks for their tournament debut!

The Lumberjacks head to the International Stage …

The Rocky Mountain Ruckus was just the beginning. By 2018, the Lumberjacks had come into their own and were ready to try their hand in the largest amateur rugby tournament in the world - the Bingham Cup. Every two years, International Gay Rugby holds a tournament in honor of Mark Bingham, a gay hero and San Francisco Fog player who fought the terrorists who hijacked his plane during 9-11, helping to crash it into into the ground instead of it’s intended target: The White House.

After fundraising, training, and more fundraising, the team headed to Amsterdam for the competition! After three straight days of tournament matches, thousands of IGR players, and so many socials, the Lumberjacks came home victorious with the Bingham Challenger Spoon! The city of Portland was proud to see representation in such a diverse group of teams from all over the world.

IGR North America West - The Stumptown Scrumdown

Drawing inspiration from the Rocky Mountain Ruckus and flying high on their wins in Amsterdam, the Lumberjacks decided to put on their very own IGR tournament - the Stumptown Scrumdown. In May of 2019, six teams from around the country came to participate. The gays had gathered once again. The Seattle Quake came out on top and secured First Place, followed closely by the San Francisco Fog in Second, and the Chicago Dragons in Third! A great time was had by all.

By the Spring of 2019, the lumberjacks were on a roll. With almost enough players for two full sides, the sky was the limit!

…and then March of 2020 happened. Covid-19 had hit the world. Mid-season and preparing for their second trip to Bingham, the team was told two weeks, it would only be two weeks before they could get back to their League matches. But Covid did not disappear in two weeks. In spite of the strange new world they existed in, the team stayed tight and stayed together, shifting to backpacking and biking instead of socials, anxiously waiting for the all-clear to be issued.

By 2021, the world was reawakening. It was the summertime and many hadn’t seen gatherings of more than a handful of people in over a year! With the covid restrictions lifted, a call was put out and the Lumberjacks decided to try something they had never done before: Sevens rugby. Sevens is a wild version of rugby where there are only seven players on the field instead of 15 and matches are 14 minutes instead of 80. It’s cardio, switch plays, and fast action. After a full year with no rugby, it was great to get back to the game!

Today, you can catch the Lumberjacks continuing on the tradition of Gay and Inclusive rugby in Portland, Oregon

The Avalanche

Before the Portland Lumberjacks came to be, the Portland Avalanche were Portland’s IGR team, active from 2004 until 2008. They attended the IGR Bingham Cup in 2006.

Many players came out of retirement to play for the Portland Lumberjacks.