Ivan Jackson: The Origins of Penn State Rugby
“I’m proud of it. I mean, it’s as simple as that. It’s something I did. There was nothing there. These were young guys who had nothing to do sports-wise… and we gave them a chance.”
The first interview in the Penn State Rugby Legacy Series features Ivan Jackson, co-founder of the Penn State Rugby Football Club. He turned 90 in December 2025 and spoke with Jay Mathias (’14) from his home in New Zealand.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Ivan recounts his unlikely journey to the United States and to Penn State in 1960. He reflects on his early years as a swimmer, surfer, and rugby player, as well as his path through mining engineering into information technology.
Ivan shares how his experiences working in mines and leading volunteer organizations prepared him to connect with American students searching for community and competition.
He describes the moment that helped spark Penn State Rugby in 1962. Ivan posted photos and his phone number in dormitories and received 28 calls in a single day from students eager to try a sport they knew almost nothing about.
Starting with a team of about 30 players, Ivan and Co-founder Pat Denny taught the game from the ground up, from tackling and passing to basic rules of the game. Many of the players were former high school athletes with no opportunity to continue competing. Rugby gave them a new outlet, a team, and a sense of belonging.
Ivan also reflects on balancing academics, marriage, and emerging interests in computing. This eventually led him to step away from playing rugby while continuing his professional career. Looking back more than six decades later, Ivan reflects on the impact of bringing rugby to Penn State.
Watch this clip of Jay Mathias' (’14) interview with Ivan Jackson as part of the Penn State Rugby Legacy Series. After six decades, Ivan reflects on the early days of Penn State Rugby and the chance it gave for students to belong.
Early Leadership in the Lifesaving Club
In the interview, Ivan shared his early advocacy for women in New Zealand in the 1950s. As a teenager, he challenged resistance within a lifesaving club to help women gain membership.
“During the (Second World) War, the women patrolled the beaches, and at the end of the war, when the men came back, they kicked the women out and there were no women in the (Lifesaving) Club. Some women approached me and said, ‘Why can’t we join?’ So I undertook to help them do that. I had to make presentations to the Club Committee, and there was a lot of resistance. Eventually, I got it through, and I was elected Club Captain at the age of 17.”
Ivan published a book in 2006 called Sand Between My Toes: The Story of Surf Lifesaving in New Zealand. It chronicles and illustrates over 100 years of surf lifesaving history, a sport that has engaged Kiwis for decades.
From Two Students to a Lasting Legacy
In the fall of 1962, two international graduate students at Penn State felt inspired to create a rugby club. Pat Denny from England, and Ivan Jackson (MS Min Sci ‘61, PhD Engineering ‘65) from New Zealand, missed the sport that was so established in their home countries. So, the two teaching assistants founded the Penn State Rugby Football Club.
By word of mouth and notice boards, they advertised the club’s formation and got a surprisingly enthusiastic turnout. Jackson, voted the first team captain, played flanker and coached the forwards. Denny, the first team president, played inside center and coached the backs.
The first rugby pitch at Penn State was a west-campus intramural field adjacent to the university golf course along N. Atherton St. The new team was given a set of old American football jerseys that became the first rugby jerseys, worn for the first home match against Villanova on October 13, 1962. Penn State lost the first effort 39-3, but the team won two of their next four matches. The team would grow to become one of the nation’s top rugby programs.
Jackson and Denny stopped their rugby participation at Penn State in the mid-60s upon graduation. They left behind them a legacy of excellence and decades of championships.
Ivan pictured with Penn State Women’s Rugby alumni in New Zealand.