OU rugby players are taking part in a national effort to broadcast rugby on ESPN basic cable channels.
An online petition created by Dan Kaplan, a member of the Cleveland State University Rugby Club, currently has 8,610 signatures from people across the United States.
Members of OU's rugby clubs said the desire to broadcast rugby games on cable TV is growing.
Tracy Curtis, coach of the OU Women's Rugby Club, said in Norman alone there is a large rugby community.
"There's a lot bigger crowd out there that wants [rugby on ESPN] than people know," she said.
Curtis said the team, nationally ranked and the oldest women's sport on campus, has grown since she played at OU more than 10 years ago.
"When I started in 1994, we didn't have spectators. No one knew we were around," Curtis said. "Today we have 200 to 500 people attending our games. We host youth camps and high school camps."
Kaplan said in an e-mail response that his goal is to meet or exceed 100,000 signatures before forwarding the petition to ESPN's programming department.
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