Dec. 14, 2006
BERKELEY - The University of California has signed rugby head coach Jack Clark to a long-term contract extension, Athletic Director Sandy Barbour announced today. Terms of the deal were not made public.
"We are absolutely ecstatic that Jack has accepted this offer to continue our mutual longstanding commitment." Barbour said. "Coach Clark has successfully served the Cal community for over 30 years as a student-athlete, coach and campus mainstay. His success on the rugby pitch has set the standard for all of our intercollegiate athletic programs both in competitive achievement as well as student development. In Jack Clark we have a man of great character, intellect and passion. I'm personally thrilled that we're going to have him around for a long time."
Entering his 24th season as head coach in 2007 with a 391-64-5 record (.850), Clark has coached the Golden Bears to 18 national collegiate championships (including 12 in a row from 1991-2002), achieved a combined record of 30-1 against rugby powerhouses Army, Navy and Air Force; won seven of the last 10 series with University of British Columbia, and guided Cal to a domestic winning streak of 98 games from 1985-96, followed by a 70-game tear that lasted until 2003.
Cal student-athletes who played rugby under Clark have gone on to the highest levels of the sport, including 97 All-Americans, 23 players on the United States National Team and three who have earned their Blues as graduate students at Oxford University.
In 2006, Cal posted a 20-1 record, including a six-point win over Rugby Super League champion New York Athletic Club, en route to its 22nd title in team history, a 29-26 victory over Brigham Young University.
The extension follows Clark's 2002 decision not to accept an offer from England's Bath Rugby Club to become its director of rugby, opting instead to remain at Cal.
"Cal is such a wonderful and challenging place, and I admire so greatly the students and our staff, that it's hard to imagine coaching elsewhere," Clark said.
Before beginning as an assistant coach in 1982, Clark contributed outstanding football and rugby careers as a student at Cal, followed by post-collegiate campaigns on the USA National Team and a selection to a World XV invitational team that played against Wales during its 1980 centennial celebration in Cardiff. Clark has also served as head coach for the Collegiate All-America team, from 1985-92; head coach of the USA National Team, from 1993-99; and general manager for the National Team, from 1993-2003.
After Clark's appointment as head coach, the "Cal Rugby Forever" campaign launched in 1985, leading to significant endowment for the sport of rugby at Cal, the return of the team's varsity status and construction of Witter Rugby Field and the Doc Hudson Rugby Fieldhouse.
"It's a real privilege to extend my work further at the university," said Clark. "I'm enjoying my coaching now as much as ever before."
Cal Rugby celebrates its 125th anniversary with the 2007 season.
