Do you have fond memories of the days when training was held under car lights, the canteen was a XXXX Gold tent and the toilets could also be described as Pinus Radiata (pine tree)?
Or perhaps you recognise yourself or some old mates in the photo above?
If so, you should head down to the Bond University Rugby Club Past Players and Supportersâ Day on May 20.
Watch the Bull Sharks take on GPS at The Canal and swap war stories from the colourful early years of Bond rugby.
The Bond University Rugby Club was established in 1989 and fielded Under 19s, 3rd grade, 2nd grade and 1st grade sides in the Gold Coast Districts Rugby Union competition in 1990, winning a Colts premiership in their inaugural season.
Those days the club had a strong international student contingent, particularly players from Fiji, and the club quickly established a reputation for a fast and free-flowing style.
That exposure to international playing styles also included frequent matches against visiting Japanese corporate and university teams while a group of Bond players formed a composite side with a rival club for a tour of Fiji in May 1990.
The following year the university hosted its first exhibition ladiesâ match.
Right from the start the club was made up of visionaries, although it is fair to say it grew from humble beginnings.
Players would park around the sidelines and leave their headlights on so they could train, and a bathroom break meant a quick dash into the pine forest.
It wasnât long before Bond was considered a destination club and several representative stars such as Wallaby Peter Grigg and Irishman Frank Canavan pulled on the boots in the early 90s.
It was a big step forward in the luxury stakes in late 1990 when the club received a couple of dongas from Bond Corp and were also able to set up a hessian screen around some outdoor showers.
âWe were the envy of the entire Gold Coast when we purchased a Rhino scrum machine which was delivered by the Lawton brothers who then held a well-attended training session for the club,â recalled club stalwart John âWallyâ Massey.
Despite the early success, by the mid-1990s playing numbers had dwindled and the player group merged with a nearby local club and assumed the name of Bond Pirates.
They played as the Pirates in the Gold Coast competition until 1996 while students at the university continued to compete in inter-varsity competitions as Bond University.
It was around this time the most pivotal meeting in the history of Gold Coast Rugby occurred.
A group of influential business identities including Terry Jackman and Wallaby Greg Cornelsen had a plan to create a team on the Gold Coast to join the first grade competition in Brisbane, with the hopes it would allow the best local talent to stay on the Coast.
The Gold Coast Breakers were formed and entered the Brisbane competition in 1997. The Breakers steadily built their player stocks and became a major force, appearing in five grand finals between 2002 and 2007, winning the premiership in 2004 under the coaching of legendary scrum doctor Alec Evans.
Perhaps it was the success of the Breakers that sparked a renewed interest in rugby among the Bond student cohort and the re-formed club competed in the Gold Coast competition in the late 2000s, playing for the first time under the Bull Sharks banner.
Eventually financial pressures and the lack of a home they could call their own began to take a toll on the Breakers and in 2013 they entered into an agreement with Bond University. The club relocated to the University and played that season as the Bond University Breakers.
After a successful year of partnership, the Breakers club formally disbanded and the majority of the player group and coaches remained to compete as the Bond University Rugby Club in the 2014 Queensland Premier Rugby season.
In the following seasons the club continued to be a trailblazer as they embraced womenâs rugby. They were a foundation side in the National University Womenâs Sevens in 2017 and in 2022 created more history when Zoe Hanna became the first female recipient of a full rugby scholarship, the John Eales Rugby Excellence Scholarship.
By 2022 the Bull Sharks had established themselves as the most powerful womenâs program in the country. The side won the Womenâs National University 7s, the Queensland Premier Rugby premiership and in early 2023 they claimed the first Australian Club Championship with a victory in the final over Sydney premiers Gordon.