The Cyclone rugby club has to raise $1,300 to buy the equipment it needs, and on Saturday the club got some help.

Tim Marsh, who played rugby at Iowa State from 1972-1974, presented the rugby club with a check for $300 on behalf of a group of former Cyclone rugby players.

“It’s maybe not huge to you, but it’s big to us,” said Ben Harman, president and captain of the rugby club-team.

The donation will go toward buying the Cyclones’ new equipment. For the most part, they have to play with their own gear. They don’t have any that is owned by the team.

“Basically, we need equipment,” said Glenn Youngs, who coaches and plays for the Cyclones. “We’re going to need to get 10 tackle dummies…that’s what we’re after.”

Youngs said the team will need more money to get the things they need.

“We need a $1,000 more for the tackle dummies,” he said. “We’ll be getting more donations.”

Heather Beroy attends rugby matches to watch her boyfriend, Jose Vargas, who plays on the team. Beroy said she would like to see the rugby club get more money.

“It would give them a leg-up on getting new equipment,” she said.

Marsh said he got the idea to donate money to the club after he spoke with Youngs and Harman. After they told him the team needed equipment, Marsh met with former Cyclone rugby players at a reunion, and they all contributed toward the $300.

Harman said he wasn’t surprised that former rugby players would want to contribute to the current team. He said in the era that Marsh played, the rugby team was really well known at Iowa State, and the team had more than 100 players.

The Cyclones celebrated the news of their donation by pounding the Iowa Hawkeyes’ rugby team 41-7 on Saturday.

The Cyclones dominated early, scoring twice within the first minutes of the match.

Jason York led the Cyclones, scoring three times, and Vargas scored twice.

The Cyclones beat the Hawkeyes in front of a crowd of close to 100 rugby fans.

“Home games get pretty big, especially when it’s with an Iowa team,” Beroy said.

Harman said a win over the Hawkeyes was a good way to measure how good the Cyclones could be this year.

“Basically, if we beat Iowa, we could go anywhere,” he said.

The Cyclones beat the Hawkeyes for the second time in a row. Last season, Iowa State defeated the Hawkeyes for the first time in 15 years, and they beat the Northern Iowa Panthers for the first time in 20 years.

The Cyclones had success last season making it all the way to the Sweet 16. This year, Harman said they could go farther.