Background & History

The Colorado Raptors were one of MLR’s founding clubs. They competed in MLR from the league’s inaugural season in 2018, until 2020. They were Runners-up in 2018. They were the first MLR team to withdraw from the competition and the only one to date to withdraw and continue operations.

Founded as an amateur club in 2006 as the Glendale Raptors, they were accepted as a founding member of Major League Rugby in 2017 ahead of the league’s inaugural season in 2018. The Raptors finished the 2018 season top of the standings, but fell in the Championship Final to the Seattle Seawolves, 19-23. They finished with a .500 record in 2019 (7-2-7) and missed the post-season in 6th place. Their 2020 season got off to a middling 2-3 start before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the season after only 5 rounds. This would prove to be the Raptors’ final season in Major League Rugby.

On April 9th, 2020 the Raptors announced that they were withdrawing from Major League Rugby. The Raptors stated that they felt MLR was not doing enough to develop domestic players by saying that “our greater responsibility lies in the development of American players who can win the World Cup for the United States.” When asked to explain how the withdrawal of the Raptors would help the development of domestic players, Glendale City Manager Linda Cassaday explained that the league had expanded so quickly that there were not enough domestic players to fill the rosters of all the teams and the number of international players per matchday roster had increased due to this, from 3 in 2018 to 10 in 2020.

Since withdrawing from Major League Rugby, the club has rebranded as the American Raptors and focused on crossover athletes with the aim of creating new US Eagles. In 2023 the Raptors joined the Super Rugby Americas competition in South America. That same season they announced a partnership with Columbian club Cafeteros Pro and the Federación Colombiana de Rugby (FCR). This partnership seemed to contradict the Raptors’ reasons for leaving MLR (partnerships with the Columbian Rugby Federation will not help to generate domestic players in the US), leading some to question whether the reasons given by the Raptors for leaving MLR are true, or if it was in fact because they could not win a Shield.

The Raptors have competed in Super Rugby Americas (SRA) for 2 seasons as of 2024, finishing 6th of 7 both seasons, with a 2-10 & 3-9 records respectively.

Records & Record Holders

All Time:

Top Scorer: Will Magie (130pts)
Top Playoff Scorer: Zach Fenoglio (15pts)
Top Try Scorer: John Ryberg (16)
Most Appearances: Luke White (31)
Most Starts: Luke White & Harley Davidson (25)
Top Tackler: Luke White (277)
Top Meter Eater: John Ryberg (1999m)

Single Season

Top Scorer: Robbie Petzer (85pts) – 2019
Top Try Scorer: John Ryberg (13) – 2019
Top Tackler: Luke White (158) – 2019
Top Meter Eater: John Ryberg (1,440m) – 2019

Historical Performances

2018: 7-0-1 (+84) – 34pts: 1st (Runner-Up)
2019: 7-2-7 (-7) – 43pts: 6th
2020: 2-0-3 (-32) – 9pts: 3rd in Western Conference

Overall Regular Season Record: 16-2-11
Overall Championship Series Record: 1-1
Championship Series Appearances: 1 (2018)

Head coach & captain

Head Coach:

• David Williams (2018-2019)
• Peter Borlase (2019-2020)

Captain:

• Shaun Davies (2018-2019)
• Luke White (2019-2020)

---

Logo & Jersey

For their time in MLR, the Raptors wore a combination of Black & blue for home jerseys, and yellow for away. They used a black jersey with dark blue feathers design over the top and a primarily yellow away in 2018. The home jersey did not change in 2019 but the away featured black lines across it to stand out. For the short 2020 season and name change to the Colorado Raptors, their home jersey was primarily dark blue with a red ‘speed blur’ affect, and featured the ‘C’ logo of Colorado front and centre.

The Raptors logo remained generally the same for their 3 years in MLR, but saw a slight re-colour before the 2020 season that would prove to be their last in the competition. The logo featured a 3-headed eagle (a raptor), with a shield at it’s centre and ‘Glendale’ (2018-2019) or ‘Colorado’  (2020) above a large ‘Raptors’. A banner below the moniker reads ‘Rugby Football Club’ for the Glendale logo and changes to just ‘Rugby’ for the Colorado logo, and features a rough version of the seal of the city of Glendale (2018-2019), or the ‘C’ from the state flag of Colorado (2020)

VenuE

The team played all 3 of their Major League Rugby seasons out of the 5,000 seater Infinity Park in Glendale, CO, the first rugby-specific, municipally-owned stadium in the United States. The Raptors continue to play out of Infinity Park despite their withdrawal from MLR, as the Colorado XOs and eventually the American Raptors in the Super Rugby Americas competition.

---