Football Legend Earns Hall of Fame Honor for Another Sport

Warren Muir is going into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater … again. The former Gamecock All-American running back (1967-69) was inducted into the University of South Carolina Association of Lettermen’s Athletics Hall of Fame back in 2003. Muir had a less well-known, but still successful, sports career after the gridiron, and on April 19, he will be inducted in USC Rugby Hall of Fame.

“I was kind of surprised when (USC Rugby) coach John Roberts called me,” said Muir, a retired engineer who lives in Columbia. “It has been a while since I played rugby. I just loved the camaraderie of it.”

“Warren played rugby for 18 years, which is quite remarkable,” said John Roberts, head coach of the USC Men’s Rugby Club. “During a time when very few knew rugby, they knew Warren the football player. He was a sports celebrity and brought a lot of attention to the game in South Carolina.”

Muir ran for more the 2,200 yards for the Gamecock football team and was part of South Carolina’s 1969 ACC Championship team. Following his graduation in 1970 and a tryout with the New York Giants, Muir came back to Columbia to work but still had that competitive itch. A former football teammate told him about the club rugby team, so he thought he would try it. It didn’t take long before he was hooked.

“Andy Chavous (1967,1969) was a defensive back at Carolina, and we had a mutual friend that was having a Christmas party,” Muir recalled. “He asked me if I missed football, and I said yes. Jim Wynn was a Pharmacy teacher there and coached them and asked me to come out for rugby. I said, ‘Rugby? What’s that?’ Then I remembered when I was on campus, I had seen them practice and thought it looked like fun.”

The USC Rugby Club is South Carolina’s oldest intercollegiate club sport as it arrived on campus in 1967. American football evolved from rugby in the late 1800s, and Muir enjoyed the physicality of the sport.

“I came to practice the first time and saw a guy (Wynn) with a whistle, so asked if I could watch, and he said, ‘you can’t learn by watching!’” Muir said. “He told me to just get in there, and when you screw up, we’ll let you know.

“It was fun. After practice, we all went down to Five Points and had a few. That kind of made it stick even better!”

The social aspect of the sport aside, Muir proved to be a quick study at the game. The football “touchdown” comes from how you score in rugby, where you have to physically touch the ball down when you cross the goal line. That’s something Warren didn’t know at first.

“Very early, I didn’t really know what was going on, so I was in a ‘B’ game with the team, and I made a good run,” Muir said. “But I ran through the try zone because I didn’t know you had to touch the ball down. So, I learned that the hard way.”

Muir’s bruising style from his football days translated well to rugby, although he had to learn a different level of fitness in a game that requires players to play offense and defense without helmets and shoulder pads with very limited substitution for 80 minutes. That requires a lot of running and play doesn’t stop when a player is tackled.

“I liked it all,” said Muir. “You should really get in shape to play rugby, but I played rugby to get in shape. I played flyhalf and inside and outside center (positions).”

Muir became one of the best backline players for Carolina and helped the Gamecocks establish a 37-game home winning streak while competing for national championships. He later helped in the creation of the Columbia Rugby Football Club, playing for “Olde Grey” for two years before moving to Greenville to work for Michelin. There, his love for the game continued as he played for the Greenville Rugby Football Club for more than a decade, helping to create a powerhouse in the Upstate. His work took him to France on one occasion, and he found an opportunity to play his new favorite sport there as well.

“They sent me to France, and when I got to work, I asked if they had a rugby team in the town I was staying,” Muir said. “Someone there said, ‘yeah, and they’re practicing tonight.’ They gave me a map. Oh boy, they had some guys that had played for the French (national team). They had a good rugby team. I wasn’t registered to play with them, but they eventually stuck me in a ‘B’ game because it didn’t matter.”

The camaraderie that Muir enjoyed so much held true in France as some of the French players showed up on his doorstep to take him to watch an international tournament. He later moved to Aiken, South Carolina and became a social member of the Augusta Rugby Club in the late 1980s. After moving back to Columbia in 2019, Muir remained connected with the USC Rugby Club and was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Carolina Rugby Foundation in 2024.

Muir has four grown children and nine grandchildren, and he will be a part of the Carolina Rugby Foundation’s second Hall of Fame class. The induction ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Rugby Club’s Spring Awards Banquet on April 19 at the Campus Room at Capstone. Muir is one of three inductees this year, along with Rick LeBel and Jeff Smolka.

Pictured below: Warren Muir (Seated, third from right) and family.