The Jackson N. Huddleston Jr. Endowment provides $1,726 per year to the Husky Rugby Club. This goes toward medical support, access to better facilities, and everything UW Rugby needs to be competitive.
Click here to donate to the Endowment.
An Article from Goff on Rugby about the creation of the endowment:
March 23, 2006 - It's a story like something out of Knute Rockne, All American, but in fact it's much more touching, truer than that.
Earlier this month, Jack Huddleston, the first ever captain of the University of Washington rugby lay dying under hospice care in his Seattle home.
Huddleston hd remained close to Huskies rugby over the years, and had heartily supported the effort by the team and the players to renew relationships with the alumni and start an endowment fund.
"Jack knew the end was close for a while and he started pushing the endowment fund," said former UW captain Jake Pederson. Huddleston connected with Liz Norton, whose son, Tyler, still plays at UW, and Norton kept making phone calls.
In Mid-January the program was told by the UW administration that the endowment fund had been created. Now all the club needed to do was raise $25,000 over the next five years to ensure the fund's existance.
Pederson told Huddleston the good news, and the former captain was barely able to talk. But talk he did that day, and wrote a check for the full $25,000 for the UW Rugby Endowment Fund, thus ensuring its existence.
That was the last day Huddleston spoke, and a week later he died.
"He told me he wanted to make a significant contribution to this effor but I still couldn't believe he wanted to donate the entire amount," said Pederson. "This is a big step for us in getting some of those things make this club that much more competitive in the future, like paying a coach, getting improved medical support, and access to better facilities. It's good for the University of Washington, too. Hopefully we can start to develop different ties with the University other than being a rec sports program."
And more than that, the players and the coaches were deeply touched by the actions of the former club captain.
"He didn't want people to feel sorry for him but we wanted people to remember him," said Pederson. "Younger guys may not know the significance of some of the things he did. But we've named the fund after him, and maybe now they will."
