Rice Rugby had a successful period during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, winning multiple Texas championships and producing players such as Mike Glass ('87) and Brannan Smoot ('89) who went on to play for the U.S. national rugby team. Rice rugby has been supported since 1996 by the Rice Rugby Alumni Association, which established an endowment fund in 1999 and since then has provided financial support to the team. Rice Rugby advanced to the national playoffs in the spring of 1997 and again in the spring of 2000.