Tom Pirelli
2024
Lifetime Achievement Award
Inductee
Tom started his rugby career as a freshman at Princeton University in 1965. The first rugby match Tom ever saw was the one he was playing in.
Tom played four years as an undergraduate and another three years for the Princeton RFC as a graduate. Tom played on three Ivy League Championship teams, first in 1969, then 1971 and again in 1973. Tom was also one of the seven Princeton players who won the Washington 7s Tournament in November 1968, even though none of them had ever seen a 7s match until that day.
In 1970, Tom founded the Princeton Alumni Rugby Association which evolved into the Flying Tigers due to their many international tours. Tom organized tours to England and the Caribbean, including matches against the London Welsh and the Cayman National Team. Tom started the first Reunions match in 1970, with Princeton Rugby alumni playing against the undergraduate team every year since then.
In 1971 and 1972, Tom worked as a consultant for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI, where he played in the summer 7s league with the Michigan RFC.
Tom volunteered to be the head coach for the Lawrenceville High School Rugby team in 1972, which was his first high school coaching experience.
In 1974, Tom founded the Princeton Athletic Club RFC and became its first captain.
Tom moved from Princeton to Chicago in 1976 where he played for the Chicago Lions. Tom then volunteered to be the head rugby coach at the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago, where he served for three years as coach and captain. Tom continued to play for the Chicago Lions Old Boys for many years as well.
Having become good friends with the legendary Dick Smith of the Lions, Tom joined Dick’s USA Owls for Golden Oldies Tournaments in London and Vancouver, playing his last match in 1997 at age 50.
In 2012, Tom joined Alex Magleby and Jon Bobbett to form the Golden Eagles Association. The GE’s have subsequently been able to raise millions of dollars to support both the men’s and women’s Eagles 7s. Three years later, in 2015, Tom decided he missed high school rugby. There were no teams anywhere near where he lived in Jupiter, FL, so he founded the Jupiter Sharks Rugby Club and served as an assistant coach and Club president for five years.
The Sharks won the Florida High School Rugby Championship in 2018. One of those Sharks, Lewis Gray, became captain the U.S. Naval Academy team which went undefeated in the ’22 – ’23 season and won the national championship after defeating Cal. Lewis was presented with the Rudy Scholz Award as the best male collegiate rugby player at the end of the season. Lewis is now training as a Marine fighter pilot.
Tom served as head of a committee to develop and endow the Prusmack Award for the US Rugby Foundation, presenting the equivalent of a Heisman Trophy to the best male and female collegiate rugby players each year. A current star of the women’s Eagles 7s team, Samantha Sullivan, was the first woman to receive a Prusmack Award.
Tom continues to be a big supporter of youth rugby in the U.S., and of Princeton University Rugby. Over his many years of involvement in rugby, Tom was a player, high school coach, college coach, club coach, referee, administrator, youth rugby sponsor, tour organizer and Eagles supporter.
Tom currently lives with his wife, Jane, in Stuart, FL. They have three daughters, one son, and three granddaughters.