The Open University Rugby Team was founded on 6th October 1974 by Peter Price, Senior Assistant Secretary of the University. Its first match was against Milton Keynes RFC. Milton Keynes had just moved to their new ground which was not fully operational. The Open University recruited its players from staff and students spread all over the country who had never met before. In fact most of the side met for the first time in the dressing room, hence skipper Brian Blackwell’s tactical instructions to his team: ‘Don’t try to get the ball back lads. If the hooker binds, he’s too short to reach it and if he doesn’t, he falls flat on his face.’ Despite this unfortunate handicap, however, and six inches of water on parts of the new pitch, the OU managed to win 21-6 having had a strong team containing a dozen players with first-class experience at club or county level.
 
Thanks to Milton Keynes and the backing of their President, Jeff Butterfield, this match got the OU going firmly, and in the nine years following, 13 games were played, a further nine against Milton Keynes, three against the Public School Wanderers, and one against Budge Rogers International XV,
the latter at Bedford, the only game not at Greenleys.
 Michael Green, Author of The Art of Coarse Rugby and Open University Graduate 
 
 “When I was working at the Open University, I helped to organise a 25th anniversary celebration (in 1994), and one of the highlights was a men's and women's rugby match between an England selection and an OU team, which was played at Greenleys rugby club”.
Dominic Newbold