Well-loved builder of Canadian Rugby Dies

In 1974 rugby was introduced into the Ottawa high school system as a result of John Jerome and a few others lobbying the school board to start a league. Colonel By High School was part of that inaugural season. A rag tag crew of chaps, including Jim and Norm Carr (former Canadian International), fresh from arriving from the UK, donned the blue and white stripes for the sides first run around. No one really remembers that season, as it was just a few exhibition games amongst a few schools that didn't know a thing about the game.

However the spring of 1975 saw a full season of inter-school matches culminating in a City Championship match between Colonel By and St. Joe's Catholic School. Colonel By was led by Dan Cyr, who scored the only try in a 4 nil thrashing of St. Joe's. Legend has it that the loss was such a disappointment to St. Joe's that they had to close the school a short time later. John Jerome was the low key architect of that team, and a string of teams that won the City championship over the time he was there, but more importantly he was the architect of life for a generation of players, who at the time were searching for an identity and a place to call home. Rugby turned out to be that identity and that home...who knew?

Jerome recognized that in order for rugby to be successful in the schools, it needed good coaching. He reached out to the Ottawa Irish Rugby club, who practiced a few blocks from the school and invited the club to come and help out. Simon Blackwell was the first club coach to help at Colonel By, and he started a trend that spread to other high schools in Ottawa. The Irish embraced the idea more quickly than the other Ottawa based clubs and benefited from a solid stream of quality players, that helped the club become a powerhouse club in Eastern Canada from the late 70's through to the late 90's.

As a case in point, Irish member Dan Demerah coached at Hillcrest High School the year that Al Charron decided to try the sport, and since the Irish coached him, that's where he went to play club rugby. Hillcrest, by the way, was another successful rugby factory for the Irish, having produced a number of quality players for the club prior to Al's arrival. Many of the players from the club were featured in the various representative sides from the Area, Province and ultimately Canada, during those years.

John Jerome had no idea what he was creating, he just went about introducing more and more kids to the game in his low key, non rah-rah way, and the rest took care of itself. Early on, he introduced high school players to the wonders of travel, organizing a number of March break tours to exotic locales including Bermuda, Mexico, Jamaica and not so sunny BC. These tours were true eye openers for many of the players as they learned life skills on these trips that just couldn't be taught in a class room. He built a rugby culture at the school and everyone wanted to be a part of it.

Jerome was more than a rugby enthusiast though. As a teacher he was head of the English department at the school. He was well read, well spoken, polite, well mannered and a consummate professional in

all aspects of his life. He was a lover of the arts, and in his retired years he spent many hours at the National Art Gallery, in Ottawa giving talks on various aspects of Canadian Art, including sharing his vast knowledge of Inuit Art, at Gallery presentations. He was a published author having written a book on Mother Theresa (he met her and interviewed her for the book), and he was a terrific friend to everyone, and took enormous pleasure in sitting and talking with people.

I got to know JJ much better over the last year as John Billingsley (Rugby Canada Hall of Famer) and I would meet John for coffee on a monthly basis. He amazed me with his wit, charm, and the breadth and depth of the topics of our conversations. He mostly loved the rugby conversations, though, and so that's what we would talk about more often than not. He was an amazing man.

I last saw John last Wednesday at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. He had been recently moved there from his residence as he had been diagnosed with COPD (a progressive lung disease), and he seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. I wasn't sure what to expect when I went to his room, but when I got there he was propped up in his bed, full of zip and we had a good visit. He died on Thursday, December 6, , and he will be missed. Rugby would not be the same, in this country if it weren't for the likes of John Jerome. RIP JJ. Your spirit lives on in the 100's of rugby players who learned to love a game that is for many, larger than life. I know that holds true for you.

Details on John Jerome’s funeral can be found here > http://ottawacitizen.remembering.ca/obituary/john-jerome-1071729971.