But doing justice to half a century of history matters most.

"It's a really important day for the club and an important occasion for everyone involved," CSU coach Travis Cohalan said.

"It doesn't necessarily mean more pressure on. It's a great opportunity for us and one that no-one else will ever have... getting to run out as the team that plays in front of the crowd on the 50^th reunion day.

"All I'll be asking of the boys is that they give 100 per cent effort. I ask for it every week but I suppose it's even more important this week."

The Bushpigs are celebrating their 50^th year of football since their formation in 1972 (as the Riverina College of Advanced Education). It's a remarkable achievement for a club built and maintained by student involvement.

"We had enthusiasm and commitment, we loved the code and we had the desire to play with our mates, and that's all we had," inaugural president Maurie Hogan said.

"I thought it would die somewhere along the line but it's just got stronger and stronger and the culture, and the song and the policies of the club have evolved and it's very pleasing to see it's still going.

"It's made all those hidings we received back in the '70s worthwhile."

Then a second-year teaching student who landed in the committee's hot seat, Hogan said they were lucky to be supported by college staff like Stan Flack, Bobby Lawrence, Bill Rollison, Ray Petts and Terry Hazlewood.

"Without those blokes we had no experience of how to run football clubs. They were invaluable. Without them, it wouldn't have happened," Hogan said.

Midfielder Wayde Archibald is set to return from an ankle injury but impressive young forward Jacob Collingridge goes out after requiring surgery on a broken nose, as the Bushpigs seek to string together two good performances after last week's win at Barellan.

"Obviously in round one we had a really good win on the road at Coleambally, then against a red-hot Marrar we didn't meet the expectations we had on ourselves... so it's really important after another good win last week that we come out in the first quarter with the intent to play the footy we know we can play," Cohalan said.

Inaugural coach Ivan Carroll would have loved the luxury of two wins in his first three weeks back in 1972.

"We were brand new, we never had much quality of players when we started off and we never really got any better," Carroll said.

Carroll was an accomplished footballer, a key defender who made his mark with Corowa in the Ovens and Murray League when just a teenager, and later played at Turvey Park and coached Junee.

"I was going to retire and Bert Schmidt - he was a very keen Aussie rules man - he said, look at all these young blokes coming in to the college, we need a team up there," he recalled.

He agreed to help. Next minute, retirement plans were on hold and he a playing coach. That gave him the distinguished honour of being the first to be challenged by headaches that would plague everyone who followed in his footsteps for the next 50 years.

"We had it pretty hard, we never had the numbers and when holidays came around, they'd want to go home to their mums and dads and I used to be borrowing blokes from the rugby and the soccer, give them an Aussie rules name and we'd carry on," Carroll says.

One of the highlights was a win over eventual premiers Marrar in the last round.

"They had their banquet the night before and they were all a bit crook. Well, we were having one of those days where everything was going our way," he said.

A couple of points up with a couple of minutes to play, Carroll stacked the backline and ensured they'd have a celebration of their own.

"We took six pound on the gate there that day," he said.

"Stan Flack and his mates, and myself, we put the six pound on the bar and we all dobbed in (some of their own money) and we had our banquet: fish and chips and beer!

"Good fun. Good days."

Remarkably, Carroll even made his academic debut, after being told by a campus heavyweight that a condition of him being on the premises was that he give one lecture a year.

"I said, I'm not an educated man. But he said you can give a lecture on football," Carroll said, who then thought he'd simply knock it over quietly one 'pie night' after training.

"Crouchy (Mark Crouch) got the chalk and Hoges got the blackboard and they got us set up in this great big room. I thought there'll be 10 or 15 people there, it won't take long. Well, I walked in to the hall and it was absolutely packed to the roof. I've never seen so many people in a room in all my life," he said.

"I thought, what the hell have I let myself in for?"

But he pressed on with a detailed account of each line of attack and defence and the roles of each position. It turned out to be just what the college was after.

"I gave them the full story, they listened and listened - there were lecturers and all there. At the end I asked if there were any questions and I think every hand in the hall went up! Anyway, we got through it. They thought it was great. I became an honorary teacher then."

Carroll retains a connection through son Michael, whose commitment to the club has earned him a life membership. He's one of 27 life members who'll attend the reunion on Saturday night along with 20 presidents and a dozen coaches, including premiership-winners Peter Ponting (1978) and Matt Carroll (2001).

Hogan is another life member. He says there are so many who helped create what the club is today, including some unlikely heroes way back at the start.

"We had six Aggies and back in the '70s, because of the union rivalry, the Aggies and college students didn't see eye to eye," Hogan said.

"So those poor six Ag guys copped a bit of stick out for playing with the 'Chalkies' in a game called Aussie rules. And we needed those guys to make up the 20 to have a side so I really admired their contribution."

There are more than 300 people booked for a dinner at the Murrumbidgee Turf Club on Saturday night, after the game against the Northern Jets. The reunion also includes a Friday night catch-up at the William Farrer Hotel, which will also host a Sunday recovery.

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