Gamecock Rugby Hall of Fame
In April, 2024 The Carolina Rugby Foundation inducted its first hall of fame class. The Hall of Fame ceremony recognizes the best who have worn the garnet and black and unites our rugby alumni with current members of the Gamecock team. Each inductee is presented with a Garnet blazer that includes our Hall of Fame logo. The ceremony coincides with the team’s Spring awards banquet.
Alumni and friends may nominate a member to the Hall of Fame using the form at the bottom of the page. Nominations are collected during the fall and evaluated by our Hall of Fame selection committee. Our Hall of Fame class is determined each January and made public. All living inductees must attend our Hall of Fame ceremony in April.
Member Profiles
Sandy Frazier
Sandy Frazier was born in Philadelphia and was introduced to rugby during his service at Philadelphia’s First Troop City Calvary around 1965 at the age of 22. In 1967, he moved to Columbia and joined the Fort Jackson Rugby Club as their captain.
Very quickly, Fort Jackson’s roster became diminished due to the Vietnam War. So, Frazier turned his attention to a new pool of prospective players: The University of South Carolina. He met with administrators, attracted 20 new players, and the USC rugby football club was born with Frazier serving as player, coach, and captain.
In 1969, while competing at a 7s tournament at Duke University, Frazier met Dr. James (Jim) Wynn, a seasoned rugby player who was planning to move to Columbia. The pair bonded immediately, and Frazier invited Wynn, a fellow Hall of Fame inductee, to join the Gamecocks.
Graduating in 1971, Frazier married, moved to Memphis, and began a lifelong career as a successful homebuilder. In 1972 Frazier joined the Bulls/Old No. 7 rugby club and continued to be involved in the sport until 1991. He participated in rugby tours throughout the U.S., and in England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, and New Zealand. Frazier was inducted into the Memphis Rugby Hall of Fame in 2019.
After his death on June 17, 2024, the rugby club and Frazier family established The Frazier Coaching Fund to support our head coach’s salary and stipends for assistant coaches.
Matt Godek
Matt Godek grew up in Alexandira, Virginia and didn’t know what a rugby ball was until he enrolled at the University of South Carolina in 1966. At the time, Godek was an aspiring football player. The 5’9, 230-pound linebacker and center joined the Gamecocks as a walk-on player. After his freshman year, head coach Marvin Bass pulled him aside and told him that his chances of earning field time were slim.
Godek put away the shoulder pads and began looking for an alternative athletic outlet. He saw some on-campus literature on rugby and decided to give it a try. His first two games were against N.C. State.
“We had a great social after the game and I was locked in,” said Godek.
After graduating in 1970 with a degree in marketing, Godek joined the Army and continued to play rugby for the next several years while working part-time for Leather Balls, a company that sold rugby supplies. Affable, energetic, and good-natured, Godek was a natural salesman. In 1978, he founded his own company, Godek Rugby and Soccer Supply, and set up his warehouse store in Merrifield, Virginia.
A U.S. rugby pioneer, Godek travelled the world over the next four decades and made many friends as he built his business. Godek’s name became synonymous with service and personal relationships. And everyone in the rugby community knew him. In 2020, Godek received a lifetime achievement award from the U.S. Rugby Endowment. Last year, he was also recognized by USC Rugby with a lifetime achievement award.
Now semi-retired, Godek lives in Fairfax Station, Virginia.
Jim Wynn
A native of Pennington Gap, Virginia, Dr. Jim Wynn is, perhaps, USC Rugby’s most distinguished alumni. He received his BS in Pharmacy from the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) in 1964 and his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 1969 at the School of Pharmacy, MCV Health Sciences Division. During this time, Wynn played rugby for teams in Richmond and Norfolk where he developed a keen intellect for the game.
In 1970, Wynn moved to Columbia and joined the faculty at the University of South Carolina’s College of Pharmacy. He quickly joined the USC rugby club as a player/coach. A natural teacher, Wynn went to work and transformed a collection of great athletes into a nationally formidable team.
Wynn’s USC-led teams of the early 1970s were the strongest in club history. They compiled an incredible 37-game home winning streak and competed for national championships. Wynn stepped away from coaching in 1975 to spend more time with his growing family and handed the coaching reins to Jean Pierre Chambas.
In 1982, Wynn left Columbia for the College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina where, over the next twenty years, he served as a tenured professor of pharmaceutical sciences, Chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Education. In 2001 Wynn was appointed the Founding Dean of the South University School of Pharmacy in Savannah, Georgia.
During a three-decade career Wynn received over 50 awards and recognitions related to his teaching effectiveness, among them being named the 1994-95 "Governor's Professor of the Year" for the State of South Carolina. Throughout his professional career, Wynn remained engaged with USC rugby and regularly attended alumni games.
He passed away July 11, 2012.