Tom Billups

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom Billups (born December 26, 1964 in Burlington, Iowa) is an American rugby union footballer who played for the USA Eagles as an international and Blackheath Rugby Club, Harlequin F.C., and Pontypridd RFC as a professional. He played at hooker. After retiring in 1999, he accepted an offer to coach the Eagles two years later, keeping that position from 2001 to 2006. He is also an assistant coach in the University of California, Berkeley rugby program.

Originally a college football player, Billups discovered rugby after exhausting his football options and immediately fell in love with the game. Developing his skills by playing club rugby in California and New Zealand, he won his first international cap at hooker in 1993. He quickly established himself as one of the preeminent ruggers in the United States. During his international career from 1993 to 1999 he won 44 caps, with 12 of those as captain.

After the professionalization of the game in the mid 1990s, he was one of the first American rugby players to pry their trade overseas, playing for Blackheath in 1996 and joining the Harlequins a year later. He ended his professional playing career in Wales at Pontypridd RFC.

Billups entered a new phase of his rugby life in 2001, when he accepted the interim coaching position of the United States national team for a test against South Africa. He became the full-time coach the next year, leading the Eagles through their most successful rugby world cup to date, with a victory against Japan and a near-win against Fiji. He resigned in April, 2006 with a final record of 10 wins and 18 losses. He is the only Eagles coach to have a winning record against "tier-2" and "tier-3" nations, 7 wins to 10 losses.

He continues to be involved in the game as an assistant coach at Cal-Berkeley, helping the Bears to 15 national championshps in the past 16 years.

This biographical article relating to sports in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This rugby union biography is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.