The last few minutes of the game couldn’t count down quickly enough. With Iowa State having played an extremely tough, extremely long game, I just wanted the game to end already. The Cyclones had played sub-par that first day of November, maybe the poorest I had ever seen. But for some reason, I couldn’t stop watching.

I couldn’t stop because, as you might be surprised to hear, I was not watching Iowa State’s football team get annihilated yet again in a 59-17 loss to Oklahoma State that caused me to wonder how in the world they are in the same division as the Heisman-candidate-holding teams of Texas, Texas Tech and Missouri.

Instead, I was watching Iowa State’s women’s rugby team do all that they could to preserve a narrow, one-possession 19-17 lead. Their opponent, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, was repetitively pushing the Cyclones deep into their own territory, to within a few yards of the tri-line at one point, and it seemed that the game might slip away with no time left for a comeback.

Every Cyclone on the field looked so tired — in the interest of full disclosure, I am dating one — that I wondered if maybe they had been out trick-or-treating into the first few hours of November. Somehow, however, they pulled it out.

Yet again, this team, playing its last game of the season against a well-funded foe — with enough money to travel to Ireland last January — was victorious. Yet again, they showed that, regardless of the little-to-no support Iowa State offers them — little more than a field to play on — they would win for State anyway.

But you likely don’t even know about this team. Maybe you have seen a few ISU Rugby hoodies around school, but the team isn’t listed on the university’s Web site, rarely has more than a dozen student-fans at their games, and very rarely receives recognition from the Daily. As Kate Teters, senior in chemistry, said, “It doesn’t seem like anyone knows there is a rugby team, not to mention how successful it’s been.” Just how successful isn’t completely clear, given the team’s absence on the ISU Web site, but they are definitely more successful than almost every other well-funded Cyclone team.

Aside from our annually dominant wrestling team, Cyclone athletics hasn’t had it very good over the last few years. The sport to which rugby is most akin, football, has a team that has gone 9-24 over the last two-and-counting years. Don’t get me wrong, the wins and losses are only a part of it — ISU tailgating definitely beats that of the perennial bowl game team from my neck of the woods, Navy — and I don’t want to bash the football team too harshly here, which notably played a tight game against Colorado this past weekend. Nor do I want to only compare these female athletes to men, or bash one women’s team that I have enjoyed watching this past season, the ISU women’s soccer team, which has an unfortunate record of 19-34 over the last three years. But consider these records and my point should be clear: If NCAA athletics is at least partially about fielding winning teams, why isn’t this one gaining some notice?

Sure, they might not be a varsity team — but it is not in spite of this fact, but rather because of it, that only makes what they are doing even more exceptional. In the spring of 2007, this club team won the championship. No, not the all-Iowa championship or the Midwest women’s championship; they won the D-II National Championship of women’s rugby. They flew to Florida to beat two teams over the weekend, came back to Ames for finals, then flew to California, where they beat UC-Santa Cruz to win the championship.

As Molly Nelson, senior in art and design, said, the university came up short in support even in this march to the championship. She recalled that, “Even after qualifying for nationals you think Iowa State would give some support and funding our way, but no … We paid for pretty much everything on our own and it was not a cheap trip by any means.” Upon checking the records, I found that GSB contributed a total of $7,304 to the total cost of the trip, $29,298 — the team paid the rest from fundraising and their own pockets.

But Iowa State has another chance this year. After a season in which they barely missed the playoffs last year, the women’s rugby club is well on its way to the championship again. The only difference is that if they do win the Midwest quarterfinals this coming spring, they will compete for the Division-I championship, competing against teams that, unlike them, are full of well-recruited — and well-funded — women.

So am I urging you to follow this team to the nationals — likely in the Steel City of Pittsburgh or the Magic Kingdom of Orlando — if they do qualify next spring? Nope. I am, however, urging this university, from students to the athletic department to “the administration,” to give this team the credit that it’s due.

No, this team isn’t going to suddenly become extinct if they continue to lack the recognition that they deserve, while it may be a question for some scholarship players on other ISU teams, these players love playing too much for that. They will keep raising money themselves and carpooling in order to compete and win. But with a full schedule of games to play next spring before the playoff journey begins, maybe we students — the only ones who really could cause the university to realize what this team is worth — should go to some games, watch some winners, and make something happen.

It’s not too crazy to think that the student body could really make a difference. USA Rugby is currently working with Big 12 universities on the possibility of bringing back men’s baseball and adding women’s rugby as a varsity sport in exchange. Teters said she would love to see this happen, regardless of the fact that this is her last year. But even if this doesn’t happen, Nelson sells the game pretty well, asking all of you potential fans “What’s not to enjoy? It’s football without pads … a little more exciting, I think.”

While perhaps not as exciting in your mind, she added one final reason: “We actually win.”

I will be out there next spring to see if this winning continues, I’d love to see more of you out there, too.