MERALOMA RUGBY CLUB
Sponsors of amateur sport since 1923
THE CLUB
Our Clubhouse and home field are located at Connaught Park Kitsilano in the heart of Vancouver. The Meraloma Rugby club is a proud member of the British Columbia Rugby Union. The regular season runs from September to May every year, but we welcome new players at any time during the season. The club fields multiple teams at various skill levels including:
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Senior men’s programs (premier, division 1, division 2)
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Senior women’s programs (premier, division 1, division 2)
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The Rogues (Vancouver’s first openly gay and inclusive rugby team)
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Boys and girls junior program (U13, U14, U16, U18)
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Boys and girls mini program (U6 – U12)
The Meraloma Club welcomes all interested players at various skill and commitment levels. Whether you have been playing the sport for years or want to try something new, we encourage you to reach out and join a practice.
Meraloma Club History
The Meraloma Club is an amateur athletic organization founded in 1923 by Bill Edwards and eleven other swimmers from the local Kitsilano area of Vancouver, Canada. The founders originally named the club ‘The Mermaids’. As the club expanded to include a variety of sports other than swimming, Douglas Hand developed a new name that highlighted the spirit of the club. He took ‘Mer’ from the original Mermaids, added the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, ‘al’ from alpha and ‘om’ from omega and finally added ‘a’ from always to create Meraloma, Mermaids, first, last and always. Later, the club adopted the phrase "Once a Meraloma Always a Meraloma". For the past century the members of the club have embodied the spirit of what it is to be a Meraloma.
For several years in the late 1920's and early '30's women joined the Meraloma club in the form of a swim team. Unfortunately the team folded in the 1930’s, but women's sports returned to the club in 1973 after a 45 year absence. Women returned first in the form of field-hockey and eventually expanded to, soccer, basketball, volleyball and touch football and now rugby. The club currently 8 sport sections for all gender participants.
Eric Whitehead, former sportswriter for the Vancouver Province Newspaper wrote:
"Speaking from my experience ... I know of no other organization that so epitomizes the special spirit and character of a community that has produced a far greater pro-rata share of outstanding athletes of national and international caliber than any other area in the nation. Now, in these times of change, with all the swing back to participation sport at all age levels, the Meraloma Club stands as a time-tested model of all that is best in volunteer community sports establishments."
The Meraloma Clubhouse was built in1923 and is recognized as a Parks and Recreation vintage structure. A Heritage Award from the City of Vancouver was earned in 1979 for preserving architectural integrity during renovations. The Meraloma Club continues to maintain and renovate the building over 100 years later.
