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The first coach to win back-to-back CRC titles, and the first coach inducted into the CRC Hall of Fame. Before winning the 2011 and 2012 CRC titles coaching his alma mater, he debuted for the 7s national team as a player his senior year at Dartmouth. He’d play in a 7s World Cup and earn 8 caps in XVs. On the back of consecutive CRC victories, Magleby was named head coach of the 7s national team in 2013, leading the Eagles to what was then their best-ever finish on the World Rugby 7s Series. In 2014, he moved into managing the 7s national teams, leading them to the 2016 Rio Olympics as General Manager. In 2018, he co-founded the New England Free Jacks, which made their Major League Rugby debut in 2020. With Magleby as CEO, the Free Jacks won MLR titles in 2023 and 2024.
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The Davis, CA native reached rugby fame before ever stepping foot on campus. At 19, he was selected to Team USA for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, at the time becoming the youngest player in World Cup history. Palamo played professionally in the French Top 14 with Biarritz before enrolling at Utah in 2009. His freshman year, he led the Utes to the title of the first-ever Collegiate Rugby Championship in 2019, scoring two tries in the overtime win over Cal in the final. Palamo finished his intercollegiate athletic career as a scholarship member of the football team, before returning to international rugby upon graduation. Palamo represented his country in both 7s and 15s and played professionally in France, England, Wales and domestically in Major League Rugby.
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Each of AnnaKaren Pedraza’s first three years at Lindenwood, the Lions finished second at the CRC – twice to Life and once to Penn State. Her senior year, the Redlands, CA native delivered an MVP performance to lead Lindenwood past both the Running Eagles and Nittany Lions en route to the program’s first-ever CRC championship. Lindenwood would go on to win four-straight CRCs, while Pedraza would go on to play for the United States national team in XVs, making her international debut at scrumhalf in 2017 against Canada in Chula Vista, CA. She earned her first start against the Canadians just four days later. In 2022, Pedraza won the inaugural Premier Rugby 7s championship with the Headliners, ending the first-ever season of professional women’s rugby in America with a title.
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Before captaining Life to its first CRC championship in 2016, Nicole Strasko was setting the single-game rebound record as a forward on Central College’s basketball team. She picked up rugby while studying chiropractic at Life, breaking out as a star with bone-crunching tackles at the 2015 CRC. A year later, she scored two tries in the final to help Life win the Collegiate Rugby Championship. The Iowa native went on to play for both the 7s and 15s national teams. In 2022, Strasko won the inaugural Premier Rugby 7s championship with the Headliners, ending the first-ever season of professional women’s rugby in America with a title.
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10 years after rising to stardom in the Small College (D3) division of the CRC, the former New Mexico Highlands wide receiver captained Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Williams amassed nearly a thousand receiving yards for the Cowboys in his final season of football in 2012, picking up the sport in which he’d become a two-time Olympian the next semester. He led NMHU to a second-place finish at the 2014 CRC, earning him RugbyToday.com’s College 7s Player of the Year honors, before winning back-to-back national championships in 2015 and 2016. Williams debuted for the 7s national team at the 2016 Dubai 7s, won back-to-back Cup titles at the USA 7s in Las Vegas, represented his country at the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7s in San Francisco, played in both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, while appearing in more than 50 tournaments on the 7s World Series.
A High School All-American in rugby, Meya Bizer started her collegiate career playing soccer and kicking on the football team at the University of St. Thomas before transferring to play rugby at Penn State, becoming a four-time All American, a four-time national champion in 15s, and a three-time CRC champion, leading the Nittany Lions to consecutive titles from 2013-2016. She debuted for the 15s national team in 2012 in France, and for the 7s Eagles in 2013 in China. After two World Cup appearances, Bizer is now playing professionally for the Ealing Trailfinders in the Women’s Premiership in England.
Before lifting three Lombardi trophies with the New England Patriots and becoming the first player in NFL history to win a Super Bowl and compete in the Olympics in the same year, Nate Ebner established himself as a household name in the rugby community first as an age grade national team star, playing in three Junior World Cups, and later as the darling of the Collegiate Rugby Championship. Nate famously played rugby in high school in lieu of rugby, walking onto the football team at Ohio State. He returned to rugby to play for the hometown Buckeyes at the inaugural CRC in 2010 in Columbus, OH and 2011 in Philadelphia, PA, respectively, earning selection to both all-tournament teams.
With blazing speed, Rocco Mauer rose to stardom at the inaugural CRC in 2010 in Columbus, OH. He led the tournament in tries with 11, pacing Bowling Green to the Bowl (consolation) Championship. An unknown before the CRC, Mauer’s performance on the new, big stage acted as a springboard to higher honors. He was named an All American in 2011, the same year he debuted with the 7s national team, winning bronze at the 2011 Pan American Games. Mauer was one of the first athletes offered a full time training contract with the 7s Eagles in the modern Olympic era.
In 2010, Jon Prusmack founded the Collegiate Rugby Championship, creating the first ever 7s national championship and putting the sport on national television for the first time, which he would continue to do for a decade. Jon also founded what would later become RUGBY Magazine in 1968, published the first American book on rugby coaching, and moved the USA Sevens to Las Vegas and built it into a massive success before losing a long battle with cancer in 2018. Under Prusmack’s leadership, the CRC created the platform from which both generations of collegiate rugby athletes and the sport itself would realize immense opportunity.
Before she stood shoulder to shoulder building a rugby empire with Jon in stadium suites and press boxes, Patti Prusmack first watched her husband play, coach, and eventually referee grassroots rugby for decades. She was an early photographer for his “Scrumdown” and “RUGBY” magazines, which were first printed in 1968 and last published in 2011, serving as American rugby’s publication of record for 50 years. Patti still owns and operates Rhino Rugby USA, a proud partner in the Collegiate Rugby Championship, which couldn’t possibly carry on celebrating Jon’s legacy today without her vision.
The explosive tackling and running of KB Slaughter helped the Life Running Eagles to back-to-back CRC titles in 2016 and 2017. She was a three-time All American at Life, debuting with 15s national team against New Zealand in 2018. Slaughter helped the Experts win the Premier Rugby Sevens United Championship in 2023, and in 15s was named MVP of the Women’s Premier League. She is the first women’s rugby player to be inducted into the Life Athletics Hall of Fame.
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