Co4nPgMk/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Patch Rugby Challenge 2' title='Patch Rugby Challenge 2' />Welcome U. S. Rugby Foundation. Dick Smiths first exposure to rugby was on a famous football field Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Although the Trials series has always had racing at its core, there are also clear puzzle elements to many of the courses. Trials Fusion formalises this by adding. Rugby Union Our grand finalists have been found for Super Rugby 2017 with the Lions hosting the Crusaders next weekend at Emirates Airlines Park in. Member Roster Six mountains. Four patches. Are you up for the Saranac Lake 6er challenge Theres an adventurous spirit in all of us. In Saranac Lake, you can. The Lions sensationally pulled off a 1515 draw with the All Blacks last Saturday to equal up the Test series. Patch Rugby Challenge 2' title='Patch Rugby Challenge 2' />It was March, 1. Chicago Tribune sports section, inviting interested parties to check out the then unfamiliar sport of rugby, Smith, a 2. Saturday at a rugby match. It was to be the first of many. Born in 1. 93. 9 in Jersey City, NJ, Smith grew up in humble circumstances on the New Jersey shore. His father, Big Ed, was an ironworker, his mother Rita, a homemaker Dick was the eldest of three siblings. Possessed of all American good looks, he was poster boy for the Ocean County Boy Scouts, as well as a fine athlete who excelled in multiple sports in high school, including football and track. A graduate at 1. Batley 1213 Dewsbury. Batley Bulldogs succumbed to a 1312 defeat at the hands of Dewsbury Rams who completed a league double in the Heavy Woolen Derby. Hall of Fame Mission Statement. The mission of the US Rugby Hall of Fame and Museum is to celebrate the history, honor the heroes, inspire the youth and preserve the. United States Marine Corps by the time he had served his three year commitment, he was husband to Madalenne, and father to a baby girl named Kim. Ford Escort Cosworth Motorsport Edition on this page. After four years commuting two hours each way to Wall Street during the week, and running his light hauling business every weekend, Smith moved the family to Chicago, where he would work on La. Salle Street for the next fourteen years. A second daughter, Paige, was born in 1. As Paige likes to tell it, two legends were born that year. After that first fateful rugby match, during which he was pressed into service at halftime with the sage advice to Follow that big guy, and tackle anyone with the ball, Smith was smitten. The speed, the fluidity, the controlled violence, and the post game cameraderie made rugby the ideal sport for him, and he would spend the next decade building one of the great clubs in American rugby, the Chicago Lions. As one of the founders of the club, and as PlayerPresident for seven years, Smith led the Lions to a dominant position in Midwest rugby. Many others would build on this foundation, most notably Tyke Nollman, Ed Kane, and Keith Brown, guiding the Lions to their current position as one of the premier clubs in the country, but no one loomed larger in the early history of the Chicago Lions than Dick Smith. Whether lining the fields, playing on the first XV, hosting their first international tourists, Richmond RFC, or winging their way to Europe for their own first tour, he was a driving force, always working to make the Lions a first class organization. In 1. 97. 0, he was the first recipient of the Clubs Lowry Lion, awarded annually to the team member selected by the Club as having made the greatest contribution both on and off the playing field. During his tenure as Lions President, Smith also made time to help organize the second Special Olympics, held in Chicago in 1. Needless to say, many Lions were pressed into service for the event. Both the Lowry Lion, and a letter from Special Olympics founder, Eunice Shriver, thanking him for his service on behalf of Special Olympians, remain treasured posessions. When his only son, Richard, was born in 1. Dick at Durkins Tavern to celebrate the occasion. Rumor has it that a future president of the club arrived to the party wearing a diaper and little else, but no photographic evidence has been presented to support this admittedly delightful tale. Smith served two terms as President of the Midwest Union and, in that capacity, facilitated the formation of the United States Rugby Football Union USARFU, now known as USA Rugby, proudly affixing his signature to the Unions Charter on June 7th, 1. A year later, he served as Manager for the second international played by the Eagles, against France, devoting countless hours to the planning and organization of the match. So many hours, in fact, that it became necessary to find new employment when all was said and done. A small price to pay for a first class test match, most ruggers would agree. Ten years later, he managed the Eagles 7s team that won the Plate in the 1. Hong Kong Sevens the best showing by a North American team to that date. After relocating to Seattle in 1. Smith served two terms as President of the Old Puget Sound Beach RFC he also helped form the Pacific Northwest Union, and was a selector for their representative side, the Loggers. As the glory days of his playing career faded into memory, he put together a touring side of old boys, the USA Owls the team played social matches while supporting the US Eagles on their international tours. The first Owls tour, to London in 7. Jon Prusmack was captain of that Owls team, and several members of the squad made international news by rescuing a handful of Londoners from a restaurant fire. When the Owls played domestically, they called themselves the Olde Peculiars, a name that was perhaps more apt than one might imagine. In 1. 98. 5, Dick married Carolie, and became a father for a fourth time, welcoming daughter Callan in 1. She would one day, quite fittingly, work for the USRFF, proving that the love of rugby runs deep in the Smith family. As a US rugby supporter, few can rival Smiths mileage and passport stamps. Be it the old Inter Territorial Tournaments, Golden Oldies, Rugby World Cup, Hong Kong Sevens, USA Sevens, or the World Rugby Classic in Bermuda, he was, and is, a constant presence at the sports preeminent events. But time and energy were not the only things he contributed to the sport he has made significant financial investments as well. A longtime sponsor of Team America now the Classic Eagles, Smith also provided much of the seed money for the development of the IRB sanctioned pitch in Seattle. He continues to contribute financially to both the Chicago Lions and SeattleOPSB to assist in their continued growth and success, as well as to USA Rugby and the USRFF. He has personally hosted countless itinerant rugby players, providing food, shelter, employment, and the occasional libation. While seemingly all rugby, all the time, Smith has, in fact, spent over fifty years in the securities industry, starting on Wall Street in 1. He opened his own firm, R. W. Smith Associates, in 1. He currently serves as Chairman of the company now known simply as RW Smith. Dick also has four grandchildren who bring him almost as much joy as rugby. As is the case with so many of his co inductees, this profile barely scratches the surface of his influence on US rugby. Suffice it to say that to peruse the list of Dick Smiths accomplishments is to know the story of US rugby in the latter half of the 2. Rugby has been the great joy and passion of his life the friendships formed and the memories made over a lifetime in the sport are his true rewards. As he is inducted into the Hall of Fame, he takes with him every one of those mates, souls, as Tennyson wrote, That ever with a frolic welcome took the thunder and the sunshine, whose fierceness on the pitch, and bonhomie off, made these last fifty years the best of times.