The club
Barcelona Universitari Club , also known as BUC , is a historic Barcelona rugby club founded in 1929 . In 2002 until 2006 the club signed a collaboration agreement with the USAP of Perpignan .
In its beginnings it was a multidisciplinary sports society, where athletics, boxing, horse riding and tennis were practiced, among other sports.
History
It was in the year 1928 , towards the beginning of December, that a group of students, fans of the sport, decided to form a club, for the practice of rugby, completely separated from the discipline of all the clubs that then existed. . The name in those early days was the University Rugby Club , because those players had the vision that the club should be the future of university sports.
On Sunday 16 December of the same year, the team, with the name of Atlètic Club Universitari, made its debut in the field of the Sol de baix against what was the champion club of Catalonia, FCBarcelona which was presented with all its internationals, falling by only eight, with unanimous praise from the press for the new club.
The first players to defend the colors of the BUC (or rather the color, because at first they all wore white) were the following: Sabrás, Gubern (in the second half Pérez), Ferraz, Mongrell, Pedraja, Pascual, Aiximeno R ., Fernández (Felip), Vendrell, Aparicio (Manuel), Pardo, Barbat, Luque (Carles), Grande, Fernàndez (Alfred).
It was the day after this match, that in a meeting in the Bar Diana (the café of the "sprinter", as they called the owner of the same), of the street of Aribau corner Aragon, where the club was officially constituted, forming the statutes and electing the first board of directors that was formed as follows:
- President: Ramon Aixemeno
- Vice President: Josep Pascual
- Secretary: Jordi Valdés
- Deputy Secretary: Juli de la Pedraja
- Treasurer: David Faraudo
- Accountant: Marian Cugueró
- Vocal I: Ferran Sabràs
- Vocal II: J.Pardo
The first match they played under the name RCU (University Rugby Club) was played on December 25 of the same year against another Catalan rugby player , UE Santboiana, at the Sant Boi field, losing by 6 to 5. The first Club points were scored by Pedraja from a try, which Pascual took care to transform.
The team was: Sabrás, R. Aiximeno, Pérez, Mongrell, Pedraja, Pascual, Fernández (Alfred), Vendrell, Cugueró, Fernández (Manolo), Pardo, Barbat, Faraudo, Grande, Luque (Carles).
Just two months after founding the club, the leaders took care to give it that boost, in relation to the university sport, which was the guide of the first activities and which had such a brilliant continuity that it ended. to place the entity at the forefront of Catalan circles. The first organization was the preparation of the Catalan university rugby team for the match between the Universities of Madrid and Barcelona. There were a lot of training sessions for the team, and once the first university rugby team was played, they also played their first game against FCBarcelona, which they beat by 9 to 3, after a memorable match that showed the potential. student sports.
The following year, the team joined the Catalan Championship , and the players of the Mongrell club took part in the inauguration of the Montjuich Stadium on May 19, 1929, in the international rugby match between Italy and Spain. , Pedraja and Vendrell. Juli de la Pedraja, the best three-quarters winger of the time and the most stylish and safest scorer until then in Catalonia, took an active part in the victory of Spain, marking the second Spanish test.
Later, on June 9, the international match Spain-Germany was held in the field of Les Corts , which ended with the result of 24 to 15 in favor of the Germans. Our player and founder of the club Ferran Sabràs, who was one of the best men in the red team and who had the honor of scoring the first try of the afternoon, was selected to defend the Spanish colors.
In 1930 , most of the players from the Unió Esportiva d'Estudiants Catòlics joined the formation and the club changed its name to Barcelona Universitari Club . The club became a multidisciplinary sports society, where it was practiced from athletics to boxing, tennis, horse riding, etc. Of note is the figure of Anicet Císcar , who joined the Club in the 1930s
With the creation of the Autonomous Republican University of Barcelona in 1931 , the club became dependent on its Board of Trustees, with August Pi i Sunyer as president, then president of the Spanish Olympic Committee . During this period, several tours were organized abroad that gave the club prestige.
In 1933, a major university match was organized against the Paris Université Club, a representative of the University of Paris, and where a deserved draw was achieved that gave a splendid victory to the team's colors.
1934 marked the beginning of the club's golden age, which lasted until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War . The BUC became the Official Sports Body of the Autonomous University. The following year it became the representative body of university sport in Barcelona and, by extension, in Catalonia.
In December 1935 the Barcelona Universitari Club began publishing its Bulletin, which aims to be the exponent of the sports performance of the University of Barcelona and a liaison body with other universities and with different communities that promote the physical education of the youth all over the world. The editorial was signed by the then president of the Club, August Pi i Sunyer .
In Spanish, English, French, German, Italian and Hungarian it is written: " The Barcelona Universitari Club on behalf of the sports students of the University of Barcelona, effusively greets its comrades from the rest of Spain, hoping that this publication will serve as a link and be a reason for the intensification of our sports relations ".
It is also written: " Our aspirations are: to raise our BUC to the height of similar clubs abroad, to provide our students with sports and social facilities. In line with the category of our University and to ensure that our sports students achieve that sports category, which today has the students of the famous universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Bologna, Yale Award, etc. whose name is commented around the world for sports feats of his students ".
The bulletin explains the beginnings of the club as follows: " At the time of starting the life of our circle we had 22 members, contributing a fee of three pesetas each month, which not all paid, seeing us with difficulties to pay the 25 pesetas that constituted the rent of the social residence.How many times to collect the receipt of the month, we turned upside down the delinquent partner, and we dropped from his pocket to the ground, all the money he was carrying and that they didn't always reach three pesetas, and if luckily there was that amount, then we collected the receipt. But everything went well and it was funny, because of the close friendship between all the members that characterized the club in its first times . "
On the 19th of January 1936, on the seventh anniversary of the Club, a rugby match was held in Cornellà between a team made up of "old glories" and the team that was defending the BUC colors at that time in the Catalan Championship. It was the second time this Club's anniversary game had been played (the first the previous year), and on both occasions it was the "old glories" who took the win, proving to the present that the years they pass in vain.
Issue 2 of the BUC Bulletin, of January 1936, talks about the role of the team in the Catalan Championship: " We are already in the middle of the second round of the Catalan Championship (...). We are in fourth place There are three more teams left in the standings, and we (Ferran Sancho writes) were assigned a fifth place before we started, so we won one, which we can no longer lose and we can still improve. who has played our fifteen are considered the most beautiful that have been played in the whole championship, and this is due to the fact that our team is a team that builds game, plays to make rugby displays without being interested in points that can mark you ".
With the arrival of the month of July of 1936, the life of the Club is interrupted, by the events that during the following four years would end the sport life of the Barcelona Union Club.
After the bloody period of the war years, attempts were made to reorganize the BUC, but opposition from the fascist authorities, represented by the Frente de Juventudes and the Sindicato de Estudiantes Universitarios (the SEU), prevented this. possible. These entities absorbed all the sections of the club, as well as all the merits and their documentation. At the end of the following decade, the former founding players, led by Julio Zarraluqui and Anicet Ciscar, began the difficult task of rebuilding the club. Significant changes characterized this period: the BUC changed its name to Barcelona Unión Club, due to the impediment imposed by the powerful Falangist institutions of the Sindicato Español Universitario (S.E.U.) that at that time governed university sport. The traditional white uniform was changed to completely black uniforms (change due to the coincidence of colors with those of C.N.Barcelona. At this stage the club limited its actions to the rugby section, and the quarry of new players, in the same way as in previous times, it was the University, hence the name "Students" for when the Club was known during trips abroad Lawyers, doctors, architects, all full of an open mind. and sports, were the basis of that other mentality that characterized the behavior of the Club throughout the refoundation and the years that followed its consolidation.
In the period from the 1950s to the 1960s, the BUC, with Julio Zarraluqui as president, consolidated itself in both the institutional and sports aspects. Two sub-championships of the 2nd National Division were obtained, seasons 52-53 and 58-59. In the latter against U.D. Samboyana B, by 11 to 3. Finally, in the 1959-60 season, the Spanish Second Division Championship was won, in a match played against Universitario de Sevilla, by a score of 19 to 6.
The visits to Catalonia of foreign clubs were consolidated, as well as the participation of the entity in tours abroad, which surpassed those of any Spanish team of the time. They played all over Europe, including Eastern European countries. During this period the team of veterans of the club was created.
Once the season ended, in 1961, there was a major crisis that ended with the departure of some members, founding a new team, the C.D.Universitario. This situation did not cause any harm within the Club, which went ahead with the incorporation of new players from schools and the university.
The development of this whole process culminated in the achievement of the Spanish Second Division Championship, in 1962, in a memorable match won in the C.M. San Pablo Madrid, by 6 to 3, played in the Field of the Romareda of Saragossa.
All these triumphs, both nationally and internationally, made that decade the most expansive for the club, which led to the creation of a new entity in Badalona, called Tiburón Unión Club, so that they could play the components that came from that city. With the help of some B.U.C. veterans, they managed to keep the Club alive to this day, under the name Badalona R.C.
An important part of the consolidation of this decade of the 60's was the inauguration, around 1963, of the new social venue located on Passeig Colón no. 6, which became a regular meeting place for all players, members and supporters. In fact, it was said that B.U.C. there were fifteen friends who went out to play rugby on Sundays, giving it their all on the pitch, because they knew full well that after the game they would continue to enjoy their friendship together.
In 1971 a new stage in the life of the club began based on grassroots work with the intention of creating a roster that would nurture the senior teams in the near future and create the youth team. From this year the youth team is created, under the responsibility of Juan López Casas and G. García.
It was during these years that Julio Zarraluqui died and the presidency passed into the hands of Kepa Uriarte, who continued the work of his predecessor and teacher.
The 72-73 season is characterized by the relegation of the first team to the regional category, after a strange campaign where luck did not accompany the team at any time. However, the youth team gets a third place in the Championship of Catalonia and makes a commendable match against the champion of Spain in the category, Atlético San Sebastián, in the Mercè tournament, losing by the result of 9 to 7.
The 73-74 season marks a new stage, once again reinforcing the idea of creating the club's own quarry, based on the training of children from the age of eleven, so that they could play in the cadet and children's categories. where most of the players representing the Club at the time had come from, as well as other teams in the region. For the first team, this season meant a step of transition to future consolidation, as this year there is a renewal of the nursery, where youth was the most prominent feature in the team members.
In the 74-75 season, the first fruits of a well-planted crop began to be harvested, just two years ago, as the youth team won the Catalan sub-championship, under the guidance of its coach, Juan López Casas. Aquest triomf dona la oportunitat d'aconseguir un lloc pel campionat d'Espanya, on s'aconsegueix vèncer a l'Independiente, campió de Santander, als octaus de final, però quedant eliminats en quarts davant la Salle, l'altre representant català, after a proper match. For its part, the first team manages to rank among the top 5 in the Catalan regional.
The 75-76 season marks the first attempt to regain the national category, a frustrated attempt to lose against the Tatami of Valencia by a very small score. However, this fact was an incentive to be able to achieve success the following season, as it was shown that with one more year of experience in the young players, some of the years recently joined the first team, could get promoted to the coveted category.
The 76-77 season, once the half-decade is over, marks the success of the blacks, who, after being runners-up in the Catalan regional, are facing promotion to the second regional for the second year in a row, this time against the Zaragoza veterinarian. to which it is managed to win in the two parties of the phase and of the hand first of Lopez Houses and after the new trainer Alfonso Salvador, the club appears arranged to play in national category the following season.
77-78 represents the success of the work done years ago, as all the teams of the Club performed a sensational season in their respective categories. The first team achieves a season full of victories, where it achieves a commendable third place in the second national category, and thanks to the restructuring of the first and second divisions it manages to play in the first national category the following season. They also reach the semifinals of the F.E.R. Cup Championship, being eliminated by Hernani R.C.
During the Transition, the evolution of the BUC continued, in 1979 two new sections were created, the women's team, which had a short period of two years, and began to lay the foundations of what would become the School. of Rugby. With the country's consolidated political changes, the team Catalanized the name, soon to regain its original name, Barcelona Universitari Club.
In 1979, Javier Cortazar, President of the Spanish Rugby Federation, wrote in the fiftieth anniversary magazine: Sincere and heartfelt congratulations to the B.U.C., which for so many years has done such a fruitful and fruitful job in promoting rugby, here is its track record and track record. "
José Fabregat Masana, President of the Catalan Rugby Federation, also wrote: "As the 50th anniversary of the Barcelona Union Club begins, third in seniority in the history of Catalan Rugby, as President of the Catalan Federation, I feel immense satisfaction at this event that demonstrates the vitality, enthusiasm and love for our sport.The B.U.C., which began in the 1929-30 season, by the union of a few students from different Faculties, all of them lovers of Rugby, creating that Club, which with an unusual activity, organizing championships with university teams, creating tournaments such as La Merced, with the participation of foreign and national teams and making rugby tours of most European countries, has made the name of our city known, with a truly admirable sports spirit. In their representative teams, there have been names of players who would later be prominent figures in their respective factions. particular stages. Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Architects and people from all kinds of activities, many of whom have also dedicated a significant part of their time and effort to Rugby at both Club and Federation level. Their morale has never declined and thus we have seen season after season, presenting the largest number of teams registered in the Championships of the different categories, this being worthy of the greatest praise. I strongly hope that this Fiftieth Anniversary will be celebrated throughout the Rugby world, as a Club deserves, with such a brilliant history as the B.U.C."
Also comment on the paraules of the President de l'entita in those years, Kepa Uriarte "our B.U.C. follows the tradition of loyalty and nobility that involves the practice of rugby, and begins a new era, full of enthusiasm, to introduce new promotions in the virtues of our sport, in a constant progression always understanding that rugby is a way of making friends, and our adversary a fellow player, whom we have to overcome in strength, skill, intelligence and speed."
With the promotion to the Division of Honor, in 1987, a period of consolidation began in the highest category, where he remained for several seasons and won a Copa del Rey runner-up. The lower categories also won several Catalan Championships, and the women's section of the club was re-created.
With the signing, in 2002, of a collaboration agreement with the USAP of Perpignan, the club gained a new impetus and in 2005 achieved a new promotion to the Division of Honor. As a result of this agreement, the club took the name USAP-Barcelona and adopted the red and yellow colors of the northern Catalan club.
The 2009 season created the 13-a-side rugby section that participates in the Catalonia Rugby League Championship. He has won the 2009 and 2010 editions.
The BUC, as a pioneering rugby club, had a women's team in the mid-1970s. season. At the beginning of 2014, the team was reborn thanks to an important group of university players and several secondary schools in the city, in September of that year and the competition for Segona Catalana began.
In the 2012-2013 season, two new sections were created: the Touch section, run by some veterans of the club, and the Running section, with participation in various asphalt, mountain and triathlon races.
1929 - 1931 : Ramon Aiximeno
1931 - 1932 : Daniel García Tuñón
1933 - 1936 : August Pi i Sunyer
? - ? : Anicet Císcar Rius
195? - ? : Julio Zarraluqui
1979 - ? : Pedro "Kepa" Uriarte
MANIFEST BUC
Dear members.
The BUC joins the World Sports Manifesto against sexual harassment and abuse in the field of sport, and incorporates a guide and protocol against sexual violence in sport that will be governed by the document of the Secretariat General of Sport: Sexual violence in sport.
This guide aims to become a reference tool in the task of raising awareness, making visible and drawing up action plans that work towards the prevention, detection and approach of sexual violence in sports contexts, identifying the various forms in which what are the manifestations of sexual violence and propose actions that sports organizations, key players in these cases, can carry out both to prevent and detect cases of sexual violence in sport, and to address them.
In line with the recommendations of the General Sports Council, the BUC will also set up a support group (Punt Lila) which will aim to raise awareness among players and partners, prevent sexual and sexist aggression and take action against 'an aggression.
You can see the details of the Manifesto, Protocol and Support Group in the document attached on this page.
Best regards
BUC Board of Directors
