Next year, Ukrainian rugby will celebrate its 65th anniversary. This milestone is of particular significance to Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, as it was students of the institute who founded Ukraine’s first rugby team in 1962. The team was named Polytechnic.
A ceremony was held on September 25 in the University Academic Council Hall to honor the team’s first players and rugby veterans from across generations, as well as to celebrate the 85th birthdays of several founding figures who helped establish the sport at the university and in Ukraine as a whole.
It is worth noting that the premises now housing the University Academic Council Hall were renovated and restored in the late 1990s. When rugby was first taking root at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, however, the space served as a gymnasium where the team held its first training sessions. Almost every rugby veteran who took the podium recalled this history. Many attendees therefore saw a special symbolism in the fact that the first ceremonial event held in this landmark space for the university community following its renovation and refurbishment this year was dedicated to the athletes who brought glory to the university on sporting fields across Ukraine, the former Soviet Union, and other countries. These are not merely grand words: the Polytechnic Rugby Club has repeatedly won the Soviet Union championship and finished among its medalists. Before 1991, the team claimed the Ukrainian championship title four times; since Ukraine gained independence, it has won the national championship seven times. The club has also performed successfully in Rugby Sevens cup competitions and remains one of the leading teams in Ukraine’s youth rugby league, among other achievements. Yet the members of the Polytechnic Rugby Club have distinguished themselves in more than sporting competitions. As Yevhen Ihnatov, one of the team’s first players, its long-serving coach, and its chronicler, recalled, many rugby players are now defending Ukraine on the front lines, with most serving in frontline positions. Sadly, five of them have been killed. This year, a memorial plaque was unveiled in Building No. 19, where he studied, in honor of one of these fallen heroes: Andrii Hutsal, a 2001 graduate of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Hero of Ukraine.
“Nearly 200 graduates and members of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute community have already given their lives for Ukraine’s freedom. Rugby players are among them. Today’s event is therefore also a tribute to those who have been and continue to be members of our community. Those defending Ukraine on the front lines are among our finest compatriots,” said Mykhailo Bezuhlyi, First Vice-Rector of the university, in his welcoming address to the gathering. “Athletes defend our country’s honor in peacetime, too, and today they continue to do so on different sporting fields and in different countries. This is also very important to us…” He also noted that, despite the unprecedented attacks the enemy continues to launch against Ukraine’s infrastructure and public facilities of various kinds, the university’s sports complex remains operational and is recruiting new players for its rugby team. He expressed hope that the recruitment drive would be successful and that the new players would contribute to the development of Ukrainian sport.
A ceremony followed to honor rugby veterans from different generations. The organizers first invited members of the Polytechnic Rugby Club who had been there from the very beginning and celebrated their 85th birthdays this year. Mykhailo Bezuhlyi presented them with university awards. Next, Oleksandr Svertoka, Deputy Chair of the Board of the Polytechnic Rugby Club and a Master of Sport of the USSR in rugby, presented these founding members and younger veterans with commemorative diplomas, medals, certificates, and awards from the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Polytechnic Rugby Club. As one of the attendees recalled, Svertoka himself was once the youngest rugby Master of Sport in the entire country. As he called each recipient forward, Svertoka briefly recalled their sporting achievements. But their accomplishments extend far beyond the rugby field. Many of the veterans have built successful careers in science and industry, including doctors and candidates of sciences, manufacturing executives, and company leaders. The group also includes numerous professors and associate professors at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Oleksandr Svertoka was not the only participant in the awards ceremony. The rugby veterans were also congratulated by Serhii Stirenko, Vice-Rector for Research, and Vitalii Pasichnyk, Assistant to the Rector. Oleg Etnarovych, First Vice President of the Ukrainian Rugby Association, the country’s governing body for rugby development, presented several awards to the veterans on behalf of the association. The university’s faculties and institute also honored their rugby-playing alumni with certificates of recognition. The awards were presented by Olena Ivanenko, Dean of the Faculty of Automation, Industrial Engineering and Ecology; Ivan Dychka, Dean of the Faculty of Software Systems and Applied Mathematics; Vasyl Budko, Dean of the Faculty of Electric Power Engineering and Automatics; and Oleksandr Siryi, Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear and Thermal Energy.
Events like this are held only occasionally, and they often bring together people with extraordinary stories. On September 25, during the ceremony in the University Academic Council Hall, one of the athletes repeatedly mentioned by the veterans in their speeches was called forward to receive an award. They remembered him as the man who first brought a rugby ball to Kyiv—the distinctive, oval “rugby melon”—and proposed forming a rugby team at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. His name is Valentyn Khonin. In 1962, he was a second-year student in Group VT-4 at the Faculty of Automation and Instrumentation at the institute. He was an active athlete and achieved sprinting results that would have been impressive even by today’s standards. After the ceremony, a Kyiv Polytechnic correspondent spoke with Valentyn Khonin and asked where he had brought that first rugby ball from and how he had become a rugby player. Valentyn Mykolaiovych explained that he had first seen a rugby match while attending an athletics training camp outside Ukraine. Intrigued by the game, he accepted an invitation from one of the players to try it himself. The only problem was that no one explained the rules to him in any detail. Here is his account: “What am I supposed to do?” I asked. He replied, ‘They’ll be running with the ball. Grab whoever has it and don’t let him run. And if you get the ball, hold on to it.’ Then someone on the other side kicked the ball, and it landed near me. People started shouting, ‘Get the ball and run!’ So I ran. Since I was a sprinter, everyone else was left behind. I reached the goal area, and they shouted, ‘Go in! Get down!’ I ran in and lay down. A player from the opposing team came up to me, and I handed him the ball…” As it turned out, he had given it away for nothing. Not knowing the rules, he thought he had completed his task. Had he pressed the ball to the ground instead, his team would have scored three points.
Despite the players’ laughter and jokes, Valentyn Khonin became fascinated by this new sport and began attending rugby training sessions. He did not just watch from the sidelines—he played, too. His introduction to rugby was brief, however, lasting only about five sessions before the training camp came to an end. As a parting gift, the players gave him a rugby ball and two and a half pages of densely printed text explaining the rules of the game. It was the end of the summer holidays. Valentyn brought the ball and the rules back to the institute, told his friends about rugby, and together they posted a notice inviting students to join a rugby group. Five of his classmates were the first to respond. Seven more joined soon afterward, and the students then searched the institute’s corridors for three additional players to make up a full team of fifteen. The institute’s sports club and Department of Physical Education supported the initiative, but the team itself was established at the students’ own initiative. And that is how rugby began at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute… Valentyn Khonin later graduated from another university and completed postgraduate studies. He taught at several prestigious universities, yet never abandoned rugby. For a time, he even served as honorary president of the Rugby Federation of Ukraine.
Today, the university’s rugby community is large and exceptionally close-knit. The gathering was yet another testament to this unity: although the event was formal in nature, it was marked by a remarkably warm and friendly atmosphere.