Stuart Krohn (born November 9, 1962) is an American former professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. At the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, he was an

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

in 1986. In

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, he played for Valley RFC for eight years, as the team won eight consecutive championships, and captained the international team at the

1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland, in April 1993. This tournament was the inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament. The International Rugby Board invited the established rugby union nations but al ...

and the

1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament and the first to be held in Hong Kong. It was the last major sporting event to be held in the then British dependency before the transfer of soverei ...

. Krohn was a member of the

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

winning USA Men's Rugby Team at the 1993 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and a member of the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

winning team at the

1997 Maccabiah Games The 15th Maccabiah Games are primarily remembered for being marred by a Maccabiah bridge collapse, bridge collapse that killed several participants. The Maccabiah had more than 5,000 athletes from 33 countries competing in 36 sports. New sports fo ...

Youth and college

Krohn was born in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. Krohn started playing rugby at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

, for the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado Boulder. The university sponsors 16 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden ...

in 1980. He transferred to the

(UCSB), and played rugby there for the

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as ''UC Santa Barbara'' or ''UCSB'', the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I i ...

. For his junior year, he went to study in France, where he played rugby, leading to a professional contract with Kronenbourg RFC in 1984. He dropped out of school to play rugby for a second year in France in 1985, for

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () (), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Toulouse is the most successfu ...

, and won the French National Rugby Championship with the team. Then he returned to UCSB and was the player-coach of the team. He was an

in 1986. In 1987, he graduated from UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in History.

Rugby career

He then went to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and played for the North Shore Rugby Football Club for two years. Krohn next went to

Durban, South Africa Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South Africa, on the Natal Bay o ...

, and played for the College Rovers professional rugby club for two years. Krohn went to

where he was a Hong Kong international and played at forward/backrower/No. 8 for Valley RFC for eight years, as the team won eight consecutive championships. There, he captained the international team at two

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) was the former quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it consisted of men's and women's tournaments, and was the highest level of competition in the sport ...

. He was a member of Hong Kong's Plate-winning side at the 1992 Sevens. He played on the Hong Kong 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens squad in Pool D, and the Hong Kong 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens squad in Pool D. Then, Krohn returned to the US and completed a master's degree graduate program in

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

while coaching Dartmouth Rugby there. In 1993, he began and directed a youth rugby program in

South Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of Downtown Los Angeles, downtown. It is de ...

, California, as part of the Inner City Education Foundation. In 1999, Krohn started coaching and playing for the Santa Monica Rugby Club. At the 1993 Maccabiah Games in Israel, Krohn was a member of the silver medal winning USA Men's Rugby Team, at the

he was a member of the gold medal winning team, and at the

2005 Maccabiah Games The 17th Maccabiah Games (), held in Israel, were an incarnation of the 'Jewish Olympics.' They attracted the largest attendance of any Maccabiah Games, including more than 900 representatives from the United States, almost 500 from Australia, and ...

he was Head Coach of the silver medal winning team. He has a wife, Kazuki, and a daughter, Sakura.

Halls of fame

In 2014 Krohn was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

, and in 2015 he was inducted into the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union’s Hall of Fame. In 2018, he was inducted into the Maccabi USA Rugby Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krohn, Stuart 1962 births Living people Hong Kong international rugby union players Hong Kong international rugby sevens players Sportspeople from Durham, North Carolina Male rugby sevens players Colorado Buffaloes athletes Dartmouth College alumni Stade Toulousain players Competitors at the 1993 Maccabiah Games UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletes United States international rugby sevens players Expatriate rugby union players in Hong Kong American expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Valley RFC players Competitors at the 1997 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2005 Maccabiah Games American expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand American expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Expatriate rugby union players in New Zealand American expatriate rugby union players in France Expatriate rugby union players in South Africa Naturalised citizens of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong Jewish rugby union players Naturalised rugby union players Jewish American sportspeople Rugby union players from North Carolina