Hunt to be inducted into USC Rugby Hall of Fame

Pictured left to right: Doc Walker, Tom Blair, Bill Donaldson and Howard Hunt

Howard Hunt, a dominant player, successful coach and founder of the Carolina Rugby Foundation, will be inducted into the Gamecock Rugby Hall of Fame on April 18.

Born in Atlanta, Hunt moved to the Washington, D.C. area at 13 and attended Winston Churchill High School. At first, football was his outlet. But in 1978, during his junior year, the Potomac Rugby Union was formed, and several of his teammates decided to join the rugby team. Hunt joined them. During his senior year, the team was ranked No. 2 on the East Coast, and he was co-captain.

“I loved rugby from the very beginning. In football, I could only block and tackle,” he said. “But in rugby I could carry the ball, and I began kicking for points and touch.”

Hunt was an all ACC junior college offensive lineman when he decided to visit some of his high school teammates — Bill Donaldson, Tom Blair and Doc Walker — who were playing rugby at the University of South Carolina.

Soon after, he was packing his bags for Columbia.

Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 230 pounds, Hunt played prop and second row. Very quickly he emerged as a dominant player. But he had a small itch to play football. He walked on for the football team in 1984 but dropped the sport for good three days before the first game that fall.

Anchored by a strong cohort of experienced players from the D.C. area, Gamecock rugby dominated during the mid-1980s. For several years, USC was ranked as the top college team in the Southeast by Rugby Magazine.

Hunt’s favorite memories as a player include scoring a game-winning try against Clemson University and finding the try zone five times against Hilton Head, a top men’s team at the time.

Graduating in 1987, Hunt played for Charlotte, Hilton Head and Columbia as an 8-man.

In 1989, Hunt was practicing with Columbia when he noticed that USC — which was practicing on the same field — had no coach, and its numbers were dwindling. So, he volunteered to coach and brought renewed focus and energy to the squad.

“They were the best worst team,” he said. “The guys were not loaded with talent, but they worked hard and were disciplined. They just needed more players.”

So, Howard printed 1,000 business cards and gave them to players to hand out. Posters went up around campus. By 1992, the year he stepped aside as coach, the squad had grown to 35 players. Known for his energy and straight talk, Hunt picked up the coaching whistle again from 2001 to 2003.

His go-to messages: “Stay focused and disciplined” and “Don’t watch the show, be the show.” He also likes to quip that he’s the only USC rugby coach to have never lost to Furman — a team current USC coach John Roberts led for 17 years.

Coaching and playing aside, Hunt laid the groundwork for the structure that USC rugby enjoys today. He founded the Carolina Rugby Foundation and helped organize the first alumni game in 1990.

“Howard has been an active fixture of USC rugby for decades,” said Wyatt Shepherd, who played under Hunt and is a member of the Carolina Rugby Foundation. “He has given loads of his time to the organization he loves.”

Today, Hunt owns a Columbia-based real estate company, is a licensed contractor and professional artist. He has a son, Cole. To RSVP for the Gamecock Rugby Hall of Fame Gala, please visit our events page.