Ed Lee
2012
Inductee
Ed Lee's entire life was dedicated to the sport of rugby in America. He captained and played on Princeton University's championship rugby team in 1934. The only loss that year was to a touring Cambridge University side. After graduating from Princeton, Ed continued to play rugby while attending Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale, he played for and captained the New York Rugby Football Club.
Ed was a founding member of the Eastern Rugby Union and served as an officer, director and attorney with the ERU for nearly 40 years. He was also a founding member of the United States of America Rugby Football Union (USARFU) in 1975.
Ed Lee was truly America's Ambassador of Rugby for more than 50 years. Through his leadership, Ed helped found more than a dozen Unions and foster growth of the sport through planning, coaching and youth development to establish rugby in America.
No request of help to Ed was too small or too big to be fulfilled. His expertise and care of every detail helped nurture many young men and women to carry the game forward at local, club, college, national, and international levels.
He loved the game and he embodied all of the principles of sportsmanship and fellowship to every person in the game, on and off the field. His lifelong passion for Rugby in America earned Ed his place in the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame.