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UEA Pirates

The UEA Pirates were formed in 1987 by Stewart Croucher. Starting off as an un-kitted team, the Pirates began with a record of 2 wins, 3 losses and a tie.

In 1989, Croucher invited Norwich Devils standout Warren Smart to lead the team through its transition to a fully kitted squad. 1989 saw the Pirates consolidate with a 4-4 record, before making a run at the national title in 1991, with a 7-1 record, Southern Conference crown, before falling to the Teesside Demons at College Bowl V.

In 1992 the Pirates recruited former Chelmsford Cherokee coach Robin Burton to become Head Coach. Coach Burton led the club to two record breaking seasons in 1995-6 and 1996-7. In 1995-6, Coach Burton steered Andy Ennis to a then record 22 touchdown passes in a 5-3 season, where 3 WRs were in the national Top 10 for receiving. Ennis followed that up with a 7-1 season and a Southeastern Divisional title and a famous victory against arch-rival Cambridge Pythons. A play-off defeat at the hands of Bath ended a College Bowl run.

Coach Burton also oversaw the beginnings of the preseason Old Boys game, started by a group of former players to provide the Pirates with a preseason tune-up.

Coach Burton returned to the USA in 2000, leaving Offensive Coordinator Neil Morgan to fill the void. Morgan led a return to the playoffs in 2000-01 and narrowly missed out on a playoff berth again in 2002-3. Coach Morgan stepped aside for Chris Hailstone.

Coach Hailstone led the team in 2003-4 to a narrow playoff defeat before becoming the first Pirates coach to lead them to back-to-back playoff berths. Coach Hailstone left midway through the 2005 season allowing Martyn Doust to complete the season with a 3-5 record. Coach Doust led the Pirates to a 5-3 record in BUAFL’s inaugural season.

UEA admitted its first students in 1963 in temporary accommodation in Earlham Hall, on the western edge of the city of Norwich about 3 miles from the city centre, while a prefabricated ’University Village’ was built nearby and used until the early 1980s.

The university is a member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities. The University was ranked 20th in the Times Good University Guide 2008, and joint first for student satisfaction among mainstream universities in the 2006 National Student Survey. The University was also ranked 57th in Europe, and one of the top 200 universities in the world, by the 2007 World University Rankings published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

There are over 20,000 students, both undergraduate and postgraduate.

In the mid-1970s, extraction of gravel in the valley of the River Yare, which runs to the south of the campus, resulted in the university acquiring its own ‘Norfolk Broad’ or lake (known as simply ‘The Broad’). At more or less the same time, a bequest of tribal art and 20th century painting and sculpture, from the Sainsbury supermarket family resulted in the construction of the striking Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the western end of the main teaching wall, one of the first major works of architect Norman Foster.

In 2001 the campus gained an extensive new sports facility called the Sportspark, built thanks to a £14.5 million grant from Sport England.

Notable alumni include the author Ian McEwan, Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, John Rhys Davies, Greg James and Matt Tong.