The Terrey Hills Junior Rugby Union Club originally came into consideration during 1965. The reason for having a rugby club was to save parents transporting their young children to St Ives to play rugby union.
The main driving force behind the club was Mrs Betty McMahon, who was our first club secretary in 1967. The president of the club being Hal Mooney.
In 1967, Terrey Hills Junior Rugby Union Club first played in Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Rugby Competition.
The playing strip worn by the club was a sky blue jersey with a Waratah emblem, now the colours of our state side, and the shorts were white.
The strip was then superseded by a blue and white horizontally striped jersey.
Early member, John McMahon played with an associate club between 1962 to 1967 for the Terrey Hills region under the St Ives banner. It is believed he wore a yellow jersey marked with a Terrey Hills insignia.
The clubhouse was initially built by the council during the 1960’s, with the canteen and upper level being built by voluntary labour in 1973 – 1974.
The purpose of the extension was to provide additional storage for the three sporting bodies that utilised the clubhouse and playing fields.
The project was lead by Mr Rod Maroc and supported by Mr Frank Beckman who held a position on the Warringah Shire Council.
The voluntary labour on the project was primarily provided by Rod Maroc, John Stollery, Trevor Dean and Ross Currell and where necessary, additional help was acquired from contractors.
In addition to the above, there was voluntary labour provided by a number of helpers from the three sporting bodies, being the Rugby, Cricket and Soccer Club.
The club house was utilised for various functions beginning with a Monthly Table Tennis Night.
Friday Evening “Sessions” became the go and took over from the Table Tennis nights, leaving many men with wobbly boots, with John Stollery and Blair Gilbert giving long periods of service as club barmen. Friday night “selection meetings” continue to this day.
For many years the club held Chicken & Champagne Nights, Family BBQ’s, Gambling & Auction Nights and New Years Eve Functions at the clubhouse, which were well attended for many years.
Over these many years the club retained a large number of junior players, registering well over 100 junior and mini’s players. This inturn supported the ongoing family social functions described above.
End of season trips became an important fixture for the club with matches played as far away as Orange being provided for the players and supporters and an annual event was initiated with the Sylvania club.
It was during the mid 80’s that the end of season Father and Son Basin Trips began, with Ron Moane, Bob Boylan and David Hicks captaining various vessels across Pittwater.
The club began touring to Canberra during the late 80’s with two buses leaving Terrey Hills for many years to play in a weekend of 7-a-side rugby in the North’s 7’s.
The “Tearaways” exercise group started up in October 1991 and met on Monday and Wednesday nights from 7.30 – 8.30 pm and Friday mornings from 5.45 – 6.30 am and is still going today.
The Wednesday night session turned into a Touch Football night open to the community at large and is still well frequented today.
From this group of club members, our Golden Oldies Rugby side the “Stillbillies” was formed in 1993, and in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2004 has taken part in the World Golden Oldies events in
Christchurch, Adelaide, Brisbane and Limerick. They recently attended the 2006 event in Wellington.
On August 5th 1994, the club incorporated and was renamed “Terrey Hills Rugby Club Inc.” under the presidency of Mr Barry Killham.
During the year 1994, the club fielded its first Colts team in the New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union Competition (NSWSRU). This team won the U20’s Colts competition which lead to the club fielding its first senior team in 1995.
The introduction of the senior based teams was a major change to the generic makeup of the club.
This era created an affiliation with the Terrey Hills Tavern, with the sponsorship agreements continuing consecutively for thirteen (13) years to date.
The club introduced pre-season rugby competitions, held at our fields at Yulong Oval, which have been attended by four to six clubs each year. The era also established pre-season rugby 10-a-side trips to Cowra and end of season rugby trips at numerous locations around various outer Sydney towns.
During the year 1998, the junior ranks within the club diminished to a level that supported an affiliation with other local clubs Wakehurst and Forest Rugby Union Club, to enable the clubs to continue to provide rugby within the local area whilst increasing the rugby playing numbers involved. The affiliation was named Garigal and officially commenced in the year 1999.
The junior affiliation was soon to take a minor change, with Forest Rugby Club choosing to withdraw from the affiliation in 2000.
Only recently has the affiliation been terminated, with the Wakehurst Rugby Union Club nominating to cease playing under the affiliated name Garigal and play under the club, Wakehurst.
In 2002, the club was able to field a minis side again in the Under 7’s, lead by club members Paul and Victoria McKeown. This has continued to grow with our current season of 2006 hosting 2 teams in the minis competition, U6’s and 7’s, and re-entering the junior arena with an U10’s team.
The 2004 season saw our senior club increase to a 2 team division club in its 10th playing season, with the first grade side bowing out in the semi-finals. This was only short lived with a major change to the senior outfit and the club playing once again in the one team division in 2005.
During 2005 NSWRU initiated processes for an under 85kg category for its senior players, and through efforts from many within our club, the competition commenced in 2006 with Terrey Hills being the first club to put forward a team, play in the first game held within Australia, and complete the 9 week Wednesday night competition. The under 85 team coached by Paul McKeown and Managed by Chris Butler enjoyed many games against team regularly decked out with suburban district first grade players.
The 2006 senior season commenced later than usually with final numbers supported by a number of U85 kg team registrants, resulting in a season of fresh senior intake and a most enjoyable base setting rugby season.