The club founder, Ban Kayama, reflects on that time as follows: “When I was in Daisan High School, I got into athletics. Because of holding scheduled athletic games with Daiichi High School, I joined the track and field team when I enrolled in the University of Tokyo in 1920. Back in those days, the university's sports festival was highly popular, so I became a member for an active event, an inter-department race, from the law school. I engaged only in athletics for one year. But in my second year, rugby elites such as Kenzo Nishimura, Noritsugu Omura, Naoto Iba, and Saichiro Fujita joined the university. So inviting Yukichi Sugihara and Hideo Kato who used to be on the track and field team of Daiichi High School, we planned to form a rugby team. About 30 members got together in the middle of November after the sports festival, started to practice rugby at a field located in Hongo, Tokyo, presently known as the Gotenshita Ground. I don't remember if it was at the end of November or the middle of December, but we had our first rugby match with YC&AC.” (Source: “Rugby Football”)
The preface of “The 60-Year History of Rugby at Kyoto University” says as follows: “Kyoto University Rugby Football Club was approved as one of the sports club for the alumni association of Kyoto Imperial University in 1922. Actually, however, the name of Kyoto University Rugby Football Club appeared in newspapers before the club was officially founded. This was because students based on Kyoto University, who experienced rugby at Kyoto Daiichi Junior High School and Daisan High School, played rugby in the name of “Tengu Club” which was accepted as the Kyoto University's rugby club in the public”.