Tom Hudson

Tom Hudson was born in the Sheffield suburb of Hillsborough and went on to become a prolific football, rugby and fitness coach. As a youngster he was an all-round athlete and was a fine runner, cricketer, swimmer, and also played water-polo and captained Yorkshire.

Hudson joined the Royal Horse Guards and served in the Household Cavalry where he learned to fence, shoot and ride a horse, to which he put to good use in the modern pentathlon. He also became a Yorkshire fencing champion.

Hudson saw active service in Cyprus before leaving the household cavalry in 1959. He was a serving soldier when he competed in the modern pentathlon at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. That year he was runner-up in the Army Modern Pentathlon Championships, and winner of the swimming title for the third year in succession. Hudson competed in the World Modern Pentathlon Championships from 1957-59.

Dr. Tom Hudson was the pioneer of sporting scholarships in British universities, and served as Director of Sport at the University of Bath from 1971-92. He had been appointed fitness coach to Llanelli RFC when Carwyn James was head coach. As a result of the fitness training regime he installed, Llanelli became a formidable side in the 1970s, and in 1972 became the first club side to defeat the famous All Blacks.

During his time at the University of Bath in the early 1980s, Tom teamed up with Jack Rowell and Dave Robson at Bath RUFC and turned them into one of the best and most successful teams in Britain. He was inducted into Bath’s “Off-pitch Hall of Fame” in 2018.