Jack Clark (rugby union)
| Place of birth | United States | ||||||||||||
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| Height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 250 lb (110 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||
| Playing career | |||||||||||||
| Position | Lock | ||||||||||||
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| National team(s) | |||
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| Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
| 1979-1980 | United States | 2 | (0) |
| Coaching career | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Club / team | ||
| 1993-1999 1984-present |
United States California Golden Bears |
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Jack Clark is an American former rugby union player, former head coach of the U.S. national rugby team, and the current head rugby coach at the University of California, where he became the sixth head coach in team history in 1984.
A sixth-generation Californian raised in Huntington Beach, Clark was a standout football and basketball star at Edison High School, winning the school’s Most Inspirational Athlete award. He was an All-America Junior College offensive tackle at Orange Coast Junior College before transferring to the University of California as a junior and earning varsity letters in football (1976–77) and rugby (1977). After Cal he signed a professional gridiron football contract with the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League and later signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League before continuing his rugby career. Clark was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1979 Inter-Territorial Tournament/National Team Trials and was selected to the national team, earning full caps in 1979 and 1980 against Canada. In 1980, Clark was selected to the Overseas XV and started against Wales in Cardiff Arms Park.
Jack Clark has served as the University of California’s varsity rugby head coach since 1984 (assistant coach 1982-83), compiling an overall Cal record of 680-90-5 (.877), a career that includes both 15s and 7s, and has yielded 22 National Collegiate Championships in 15s, including 12 in a row from 1991-2002 and five straight from 2004-2008, and three national titles in 7s at the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Collegiate Rugby Championships.
In 2006 and 2009 Clark’s Cal student-athletes defeated the USA Super League Champions, New York Athletic Club (NYAC). Clark’s Golden Bear rugby program has produced 127 All-Americans and 45 of Cal’s all-time U.S. international 15s players.
The Bears' era of success under Clark has also included a combined record of 35-1 against rugby powerhouses Army, Navy and Air Force; 14 of the last 18 vs. University of British Columbia; a domestic winning streak of 98 games from 1990–96 and a 70-game tear that lasted until 2003; a winning streak over U.S. collegiate competition that lasted 115 matches between April 2004 and May 2009; and a winning streak in 15s of 63 straight matches from 2010 through Feb. 18, 2012.
Clark’s 16 test victories with the United States national team are the most among head coaches in team history. His teams also maintained a margin of defeat of a converted try or less on 14 occasions. The Eagles’ best performances under Clark may have come in defeats against teams ranked significantly higher than the U.S., including 26-22 vs. Australia, 25-18 vs. Ireland, 28-23 vs. Wales, and three losses to Argentina by a total of 14 points, the closest of which was a 29-26 result. During Clark’s tenure as head coach and general manager of the U.S. National Team, he was the first to offer national team players full primary-care insurance and compensation contracts which covered retainers, daily fees and performance bonuses.
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