Charles Reid, nicknamed Hippo, was a Scottish international rugby players.[1] He was capped twenty times for Scotland between 1881-88.[1] Reid vies with Ninian Finlay for the title of the youngest player ever to be capped for Scotland - he was seventeen years and thirty six days old when he was capped against Ireland on 19 February 1881; however, Reid had lived through an extra leap year day, when he was capped in 1881, so Finlay generally gets that title.[2] He played at second row/lock.[3]
Reid attended Edinburgh Academy, which he was attending when capped.[2] On his second cap, against England, he actually played against Frank Wright who was also seventeen at the time, but was a boarder from Manchester.[4] He later played for Edinburgh Academicals RFC.[1]
As Allan Massie says,
Reid was 15 to 16 stone in weight, and 6 ft 3in.[6] The first historian of Scottish rugby, R.J. Phillips says that Reid "carried no superfluous weight and was as active as a well-trained ten-stone man",[6] but that also, from his viewpoint in the 1920s, he was "Scotland's greatest forward."[7]
He played alongside some of the greats of the era including Ninian Finlay, Andrew Don Wauchope and Bill Maclagan.[8] He was said to be a proficient tackler, excellent at dribbling and Scotland only lost four times in his twenty one caps.[2] He captained Scotland in 1887 to their first Home Championship win, and also won four tries.[2]
He maintained an interest in rugby long after retiring from the game, and after the positional changes in the early 1890s, he wrote boldly:
However, Massie disagrees with this statement, and says that over-dependence on aggressive forward play such as that supported by Reid led to European sides being beaten thoroughly by New Zealand and South Africa when they toured.[10]
In the match against England in 1881, he played against his classmate Frank Wright at Raeburn Place.[8] At the end of the match, both of the boys were carried on the shoulders of their fans back to the school.[3]
He was the brother of James Reid, who was capped five times for Scotland from 1871-5,[1] including the very first rugby international.[11]
He was a doctor by profession, and later ended up living in Selkirk.[12]
His nickname "Hippo" does not refer to his being like a hippopotamous, but the fact that he didn't know the word for a horse, when asked once in an Ancient Greek class at the Edinburgh Academy.[8]