| University | Penn State University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mary Forsyth is a pioneer of women's rugby union, in England and internationally.
| University | Penn State University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mary Forsyth is a pioneer of women's rugby union, in England and internationally.
Forsyth was born in Pittsburgh, US. She was a high school athletics prospect when she enrolled at Penn State University in 1977. [1] She had to set aside her athletics aspirations as she had to work to pay for her tuition. She soon discovered that her college had a women's rugby team so she switched from athletics to rugby. [1] She represented Penn State for four years and continued her rugby career when she returned to Pittsburgh.
In 1985, Forsyth moved to London for work and lived only yards away from England's first women's rugby club in Finchley. She joined the Richmond Rugby Club where she met Deborah Griffin, Alice Cooper, and Sue Dorrington. [2] In 1988, She made her sole international appearance for England against Sweden. [1]
Forsyth was part of the organising committee for the inaugural women's Rugby World Cup in 1991 and was its financial controller. [3] [2] [4] Most of the committee meetings were held in a boardroom in central London where Forsyth worked then. [3] Seven days before the tournament began, she gave birth to her first child. Although she missed most of the World Cup, she still managed to fulfill her role, and made it to the final with her newborn baby, husband and mother. [3]
Forsyth, Cooper, Dorrington, and Griffin will be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in a special ceremony during the 2021 Rugby World Cup semi-finals at Eden Park on November 5, 2022. [1]
1968 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tournaments.
The 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup was the first Women's Rugby World Cup. The tournament was not approved by the International Rugby Board (IRB), yet it still went ahead despite the disapproval of the sports governing body. France confirmed their participation only minutes before the draw was made on 26 February. Representatives of the IRB, WRFU and RFU attended the final, but it was not until 2009 that the IRB officially, and retrospectively, recognised and endorsed the event as a "world cup" when it published, for the first time, a list of previous winners in a press release.
The USA Women's National Team XVs represents the United States in women's international rugby union. The team was officially formed in 1987 and is nicknamed the Eagles.
The Wales women's national rugby union team first played in 1987. Wales plays in the Women's Rugby World Cup and the Women's Six Nations Championship.
The England women's national rugby union team, commonly known as the Red Roses, represents England in women's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Women's Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on a total of 20 out of 29 occasions – winning the Grand Slam 18 times and the Triple Crown 24 times – making them the most successful side in the tournament's history, helped by their status as the only fully professional women's team in 2019. They won the Women's Rugby World Cup in 1994 and 2014, and have been runners-up on six other occasions. Their current permanent head coach, as of October 2023, is John Mitchell.
The Canada women's national rugby union team represents Canada in international rugby union competitions. They are overseen by Rugby Canada, the governing body of rugby union in Canada.
Christine Grant was an American athlete, coach, administrator, and advocate for women's college athletics. Dr. Grant served as the athletic director at the University of Iowa from 1973 until 2000. She was inducted into the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006. Grant was also inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
Kathleen Flores was an American rugby union player who was the head coach of the U.S. women's national team until January 2011 and the head coach of the Brown women's rugby team. Past coaching tenures include Bay Area Touring Side (BATS) Rugby Club, the SF FOG men and the Berkeley All Blues. She played rugby from 1978 to 1998 for Florida State University, the Berkeley All Blues Women's Rugby Club and U.S. women's national team. She started coaching for the Berkeley All Blues 1998 and had been head coach and administrator for the U.S. women's national team since 2003. She began coaching the women's rugby team at Brown University in the fall of 2013, following the retirement of Kerri Heffernan. During her time in Rhode Island, she also coached the Providence Women’s Rugby team. She was able to bring them to several division 2 championships.
Dame Farah Rangikoepa Palmer is a professor at Massey University and a former captain of New Zealand's women's rugby union team, the Black Ferns.
The most popular sports in Jamaica are mostly imported from Britain. The most popular sports are athletics, cricket and association football; other popular sports include basketball, Tennis and netball.
Kerry Davis is an English former international women's footballer. She was the first Black woman to play for the England women's national team.
Richmond Women, formally Finchley RFC, is a women's rugby union team based in Richmond, London, England. They were founded in 1986 and played in the Women's Premiership. They are also the women's team of Richmond F.C.
Mary Dixey is an American former rugby union player. She was a member of the United States squad that won the inaugural 1991 Women's Rugby World Cup defeating England 19-6 in the final. She played at the Flyhalf position for the Women's Eagles. Her Eagle appearances include matches against The Netherlands, Wales (co-captain), Canada, Japan, and Ireland. She scored a try as an Eagle in the United States v. Ireland quarter-final match in the 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2017, she was inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame as a member of the 1991 Rugby World Cup team. Dixey's club is Beantown RFC. She received Club Nationals MVP selection twice. Dixey also played 15s and 7s with Hartford Wild Rose and founded Hello My Name is Mary 7s who played exclusively at the Cape Cod 7s Tournament. Dixey was part of the coaching staff of Radcliffe Rugby at Harvard University from 1993 to 2001, including the 1998 National Championship campaign, and Yale WRFC from 2002-2006. In governance service, Dixey sat on the USA Rugby BOD as a director, the Management Committee as an International Athlete Vice President with oversight of national teams, and she chaired the Eligibility Committee.
Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is a New Zealand rugby union player. She plays fifteen-a-side and seven-a-side rugby union, and was a member of the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team and New Zealand women's national rugby union team. Woodman was a member of the New Zealand Women's Sevens team that won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and gold medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She retired from international sevens rugby after the Paris Olympics.
Deborah Griffin is a pioneer of the growth of women's rugby, both in England and globally.
Gillian Florence is a Canadian rugby union player who has participated in five world cups. Starting out as a prop on the national team, she became one of Canada's top flankers.
Krista McFarren is a former American rugby union player and athlete. She was a radiologist in the United States Air Force and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel before she retired from active duty in 2001.
Sue Dorrington is a former English rugby union player and pioneer of the women's game, in England and internationally.
Alice D. Cooper is a pioneer of women's rugby union, in England and internationally.