Gordon Wood

Gordon Wood may refer to:

See also

Gordon Wood (rugby union)

Benjamin Gordon Malison Wood (born Limerick, Ireland 20 June 1931 – died Limerick, Ireland, 18 May 1982) is a former rugby union footballer who represented Ireland and the British and Irish Lions during the 1950s and early 1960s. He also played for both Garryowen and Munster. His son Keith Wood would later play for the same four teams.

Early years

Wood was educated at Crescent College and once scored four tries - playing at wing against Mungret College. Among his team mates while playing for Crescent was the actor Richard Harris.

Rugby international

Ireland

Between 1954 and 1961, Wood made 29 full appearances for Ireland. He made his Ireland debut on 13 February 1954 in 14-3 defeat against England at Twickenham. He scored his only try on 27 February 1960 in a 6-5 defeat against Scotland at Lansdowne Road. Wood made his last full appearance for Ireland on 13 May 1961 in a 24-8 away defeat against South Africa.

British & Irish Lions

Together with Tony O'Reilly, Andy Mulligan, Ronnie Dawson, Syd Millar and Noel Murphy, Wood was part of a strong Ireland contingent included in the British Lions squad for their 1959 tour to Australia and New Zealand. Wood played in 15 of the 33 tour games, including two Test games against New Zealand. He made his debut for the Lions against Victoria on 23 May and played his final game against North Auckland on 12 September. He scored two tries on the tour - one against New Zealand Universities on 1 July and another against Marlborough and Nelson Bays on 29 July.

Gordon Wood (American football coach)

Gordon Lenear Wood (May 25, 1914 – December 17, 2003) was an American high school football coach in Texas. He was a head football coach for forty-three seasons, winning or sharing twenty-five district championships and nine state championships.

Wood mainly ran a variant of the single wing formation, called “Warren Woodson Wing T”, named after the former Hardin-Simmons coach whom Wood admired. Though it was primarily a running offense, Wood was ahead of his time because his teams could also pass effectively from it.

Early life

Wood was the fourth son and the youngest of eight children. He grew up in West Texas, mostly in and around Abilene spending most of his childhood picking cotton to help support his family. He decided not to be a cotton farmer at the age of twelve when his family's crops failed and his father moved him to other farms in West Texas and New Mexico to pick and pull cotton. Wood stayed on those farms from late summer until November and didn't start school until December. His father never appreciated education, so Wood didn't start school until he was seven years old. Because his family moved around so much, Wood attended several different schools in and around Abilene before he graduated from Wylie High School in 1934.