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The Early Years of Rugby in Louisiana by Peter J. Maud
Pete Maud was one of the most influential people in the early development of rugby in Louisiana. He was the drivingforce behind the founding of both Tulane and the New Orleans Rugby Football Club. He also was instrumental in theforming of the first organization (union) of teams in the area. He kept detailed records of the early years of both Tulane and NORFC as well as the representative matches arranged by the early Union and has compiled the records into an 11 page report which is too large for us to post here.
The author was a member of the Tulane University Club from 1967 to 1970, of the New Orleans Club from its initial year of formation in 1973 to 1979, and the founding president of the Louisiana Rugby Union. In the Fall of 1979 he departed New Orleans due to professional advancement opportunities.
History of TulaneUniversityRugby Club – 1967 to 1970
The first games played by the Tulane Rugby Club team took place in the spring of 1967 against the BaylorMedicalCollege club and, as the majority of the Tulane team was from the medical school, the game was billed as “the battle of the young doctors”. Evidently Baylor was victorious. The Tulane club had primarily been founded by two medical students, Michael Keyes and Howard Goldberg, who had the initial intention to found a field hockey team. Evidently, according to an article written by Keyes in the Hullabaloo, the Tulane student newspaper, “a lack of money, competition and coaching practically precluded starting a hockey squad, so it was decided to play rugby instead”.
The club, shortly after its founding, was fortunate enough to enlist the help of Arnold DuPisani, a member of the South African consular office in New Orleans, to coach and play scrum half for the team. Other early members besides Keyes and Goldberg, included medical students Bill Terry, the team captain, Jay Scully, Pete "the boot" Anderson, Brian Travis, Mike Maffet, Joe Chiapella, George Stelling, and Pat Schow, ably assisted by Nick Price (architecture), Fred King (law), Randy Starett (Business), Pat Kelly ( LSU Med. School anatomy professor) and Peter Maud (Tulane faculty) who took on the coaching responsibility after DuPisani’s departure for his home in South Africa. Others from the 1967 – 1970 era included Stan Smith, Ken Roy, Tim O’Mara, Bob Urann, Howard Sheridan, Nick Mantus, Brian Francis and probably the first undergraduate to play, Bob Edmundson, followed by John Howe. Apologies are extended to those whose names do not appear. Nobuo Hayashi (Tulane faculty) became the Tulane coach for the club beginning in the Fall of 1970.
Club team records for the 1967- 68 are not available but are for the second (1968 – 1969) season where the club first team had a 14 – 4 - 0 record, out scoring their opponents by 226 points to 91. The newly formed second team played four games, winning 3 and losing 1. For the third season (1969 – 1970) the first team record was 11- 9 – 1, (285 points for versus 162 against) with the second team only playing one game which they won.