Sydney University Rugby League Football Club
Australian rugby league club, based in Sydney, NSW
The Sydney University Rugby League Football Club (SURLFC) is a rugby league team currently playing in the Saturday Metro League competition. The University of Sydney was represented in the New South Wales Rugby Football League (premiership) (NSWRL) from 1920 to 1937 as University, and also in the NSWRL Second Division and Metropolitan League competitions from 1963 to 1976.
History
The inaugural by-laws of the NSWRL premiership in 1908 included provision for a SURLFC. However, it was not until 1919 that movements at the University of Sydney to be involved in the new game of rugby league began.
In February 1920 the NSWRL met with the rugby union aligned Sydney University Football Club (SUFC) hoping they would switch codes as the extent of support for club rugby union in Australia was now down to the SUFC and just five other cobbled together 1919 Sydney first grade teams, and there was a palpable rise in preference for rugby league among the SUFC's younger footballers. NSWRL officials James Joynton Smith, Fred Flowers and Horrie Miller held discussions with SUFC representatives retired Wallabies Herbert "Paddy" Moran and Hyram Marks along with Eric Mortley Fisher. When the SUFC subsequently decided to stay loyal to the NSW Rugby Union, elements within the SUFC took their own action.
As put by Herbert Vere Evatt (a final year law student and later a politician, jurist and president of the UN General Assembly) at the time the reasons were:
"Owing to the general dissatisfaction with the management of the Rugby Union during the 1919 football season, and the fact that University footballers were starting to realise that rugby league was a faster and cleaner game, several leading members of the football club, including seven 'blues' of the past season, took steps to introduce the league game into the University for the 1920 season. A special meeting of league supporters was held and decided to enter three teams, all members to play as strict amateurs."
The club wore the University sports colours of blue and gold in the same hooped jerseys playing strip of the SUFC. However, unlike the SUFC, the SURLFC maintained the Oxbridge universities' rugby traditions of confining teams to undergraduates only. Upon graduating, the rugby league players would move from SURLFC to another club or retire.
Anti-rugby league prejudice
From the very beginning of the SURLFC, the Students (or 'Varsity' as they were also known) struggled to gain acceptance by the University Sports Association who displayed great prejudice toward those who wished to play rugby league.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7660190. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 1937, 1963 and 1976.
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