Born in Palo Alto, California, John Clarence Patrick (1898–1959), better known as Jack, was a star football and rugby player for both Stanford University and The Olympic Club. At Stanford, Patrick was a leader on the field and off, serving as captain of the football team and president of his senior class.
While still at university, Patrick competed for Team USA in the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. The U.S. rugby team defeated the favored French squad to win the gold medal. Four years later, now a member of the OC, Patrick played in a rematch game in the 1924 Paris Olympics. The host French anticipated revenge as their highly touted team met the United States for the gold. Despite being a huge underdog, the Americans again prevailed, winning the gold medal with a score of 17–3, whilst playing in a hostile environment with a riotous crowd.
In 1925, Patrick helped the OC’s football team to an undefeated season. Led by OC Hall of Fame coach, Babe Hollingberry, and featuring another Hall of Famer, Jimmy Needles, the team’s crowning achievement was finally beating Cal’s Wonder Team, led by Andy Smith, in front of 45,000 fans (including 3,500 rooting for the Olympians). Of Patrick, the Olympian noted “[his] punts were superbly well-placed and so high that his ends never had trouble getting under them.”
Patrick served as coach of the football team for one year, in 1926, before coming back to the Club, starting in 1933, to coach the rugby team. The team went undefeated that season, with a record of 11–0–1. “Patrick’s able coaching and the thorough and earnest pre-season training of the entire squad are responsible for the splendid record,” the Olympian reported.
Starting in 1941, he served for many years as the Club’s director of the annual San Quentin “Little Olympics,” a competitive event put on by the OC for the men at the prison. Patrick has previously been inducted into the OC Hall of Fame twice, as part of the 1920 and 1924 U.S. rugby teams and the 1925 OC football team.
