Emil Signes '56 Inducted into Rugby Hall of Fame

By Nick Byrne '11

On September 16, Dr. Emil Signes ’56 and his wife, Heide, traveled from their home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, to reunite with his classmates. The Class of 1956 meets monthly to celebrate birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and to “talk about the good old days.” This month, they had one more milestone to celebrate—Dr. Signes’ induction into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame.

On September 4, the former USA Rugby men's and women's sevens coach and his family traveled to Chicago for his induction ceremony. Dr. Signes was one of 12 members inducted into the Class of 2015.

In 2009, American rugby reporter Alex Goff published a Rugby Magazine article titled "Why Should We Thank This Man for Rugby Getting in the Olympics?" in which he credited Dr. Signes with setting the stage for rugby’s entry into the hallowed games.

“Now that rugby has been accepted into the Olympic Games, it’s fair to say that the [International Rugby Board’s] success is in part due to their support of the women’s game,” Goff said. “Rugby would not be an Olympic sport without the women, and women would not have an international sevens presence were it not for one man—Emil Signes.”

Honored and humbled by Goff’s article, Dr. Signes published “Boys and Girls Together: A Prehistory of International Women’s Sevens,” in which he offered his perspective on how his efforts may have led to Olympic rugby.

“The entire topic of rugby and the Olympics is obviously bigger than one person,” Dr. Signes wrote. “From what I've done, heard, and read, however, the steps that were taken in the development of women's sevens in the USA in the 1980s and in the initiation of international women's sevens in the 1990s were at least partly based on my efforts, and it's nice to watch it all develop.”

Although Dr. Signes attended Xavier well before there was a rugby team on 16th Street, he has coached and worked with several notable Xavier rugby alumni, including Mike Petri ’02.

“In 2002 I took a select side to Singapore,” Dr. Signes said. “Mike was on that tour. It was great to watch him score the team’s only try against Australia while I was in Chicago. ”

Over the course of his career, Dr. Signes, who began coaching rugby in 1974, has won 14 national championships, coached both the men’s and women’s national sevens teams, and helped inaugurate and develop international women’s sevens.

“It’s exciting that long after Xavier, rugby became a big part of my life,” he said. "But it’s also exciting that it became a big part of the Xavier long after me. The parallel is incredible.”