Jami Jordan

Jami Jordan was the right woman at the right time in a fragile era of women’s rugby.

Much of early women’s rugby organizing (1974-1991), including the formation of territorial and national championships and the creation of the women’s national team, was in the hands of the Women’s Committee, an intrepid group of young women from different regions of the US who shared a vision for what women’s rugby could be. They fought for women’s rugby at a time when very few, beyond those who played, cared about the women’s game. 

After graduating from Penn State in 1980, Jami joined the Chesapeake Women’s RFC (1980-1986). Jami was a small but tenacious flanker, who also served as the club’s match and social secretary. In 1986 she moved on to play for the Maryland Stingers (1986-1991). The Stingers were a powerhouse, regularly dueling with Beantown for the East Coast crown. 

While playing for Maryland, Jami served on the Eastern Rugby Football Union, then USARFU Board, where she became Vice Chair of the Women’s Committee in 1989 and Chair in 1990. She served as Chair of the Women’s Committee from 1990 until 1993 and then stayed on the Women’s Committee as Treasurer until the committee’s functions were absorbed into USARFU.

As the Chair of the Women’s Committee, Jami is most renowned for guiding the US women to the first Rugby World Cup. The initiative was not sanctioned by USAR and thus had no financial support. Jami and the rest of the Women’s Committee had to build the program from nothing. In the end, the World Cup cost about $38,000, not including airfare for the players. Most of the trip was paid for by the players themselves. As if creating a World Cup program from thin air was not enough, Jami was also overseeing the creation of the first US women’s collegiate championship in 1991. A move that was contentious at the time.

In 1994, Jami was elected to the Executive Committee to form the first "worldwide women’s committee", which women hoped would become the women’s rugby world governing body. Shortly after the 1994 meeting at the '94 World Cup, the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) moved to incorporate this administrative body into the IRB as the IRB Women’s Advisory Committee. Jami represented the US on this committee until 2002. The World Cup gold and silver medals won by the United States in 1991 and 1994 would never have been a reality without Jami’s national and international leadership.

Jami continued as USA Women's National Team administrator from 2002 to 2004. In early 2002, she was asked to rejoin the US Women’s National Team to help steer it through the 2002 World Cup in Barcelona, Spain. She continued to serve as the US Women’s National Team administrator and then shepherded the selection process for the new WNT head coach after the 2002 World Cup. She stepped away from rugby leadership roles in 2004.

Jami lives with her husband, Mike, in Lake George, NY.