RUGBY IN AMERICA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 5

RUGBY IN AMERICA

NEW ZEALAND CRUSADER FORMER ALL BLACK (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. Distinguished as scholar and athlete, a young New Zealander who has gained prominence in the United States, Dr. P. S. de Q. Cabot, of Massachusetts, arrived by the Mariposa yesterday from San Francisco to attend the New Education Fellowship conference.

A graduate of Otago University and a former All Black footballer, Dr. Cabot said that he was delighted to be back in New Zealand and he showed keen interest in the forthcoming tour of the Springboks. Much of the credit for making Rugby football a regular part of the life of many Harvard men is due to Dr. Cabot, who was recently re-elected as president of the Eastern Rugby Union. He said yesterday that the game was actually started in the United States before he went there and when he went to Harvard in 1932 he found that Rugby was played, but that there was little interest in it. “I started coaching at Harvard the next year and have been at it ever since,” Dr. Cabot said. The formation of the Eastern Union had followed and the game was played at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, as well as by various other clubs, there being about 10 in the union. Three vears ago a Cambridge team visited the United States and Dr. Cabot refereed all the matches. “Since 1934 we have been a regular schedule,” he continued. “It is only a short season, about two months. The American players are very keen, but the attendances at the matches are poor. We do not mind that, however, as we have the . full support of the administration at Harvard.”

Dr. Cabot’s interest in the tour of the Springboks is intense, as he played against the famous 1921 team when it met Otago.