In the mid- 60’s there were only two loose knit rugby groups in Colorado, Colorado School of Mines  and University of Colorado . Some Lacrosse players from the Denver Lacrosse Club got together a group of guys several times in 1966 or early 1967 to play Rugby against the Mines and CU groups.  They never had enough players and always had to recruit heavily from the opposition, but some games were played.  In the Fall of 1967, the Lacrosse Club players found some more guys that actually knew a little about rugby, plus they recruited some non-students who were playing for CU and they almost had a full team.  This group of people decided to call themselves the Denver Barbarians as a takeoff on the English Barbarians, which is a select club side. The rest is history.

A meeting was held and Al Braunwarth was elected President,  Jim Mountain was elected General Manager, and Tony Keyser was elected Captain.  Green was chosen as the color of the jersey in honor of Joanie Braunwarth’s heritage, and solid color jerseys were cheaper than striped ones.  The Name Barbarians was ratified and the club was off and running.  Some of the early players were Al Braunwarth, Jim Mountain, Tony Keyser, Greg Gibson, Nathan Coursey, Larry St. Amman, Jim Van Zandt, John Chase, Rene Rider, Harry Reich, Harry Neuman, Andy Jelonkiewicz,  Tom DeMarino, Dave Hayes, Joe Harper, Terry Fleener, Jim Nelon, Jim Cooke, Pat Murphy, Mark Elliot, Paul Hoskins Sr. and many others.

There were three more teams by the spring of 1968 and even more in the fall of that year.  In December of 1967 the Eastern Rockies RFU was formed to organize a league for play and rugby became a fixture in the Colorado Lifestyle.