On the night of April 1, one of the pioneers of Latvian rugby, Māris Šmits, passed away, reports the Latvian Rugby Federation.
On the night of April 1, one of the pioneers of Latvian rugby, Māris Šmits, passed away, reports the Latvian Rugby Federation.
Schmidt started playing rugby more than 50 years ago – in December 1971.
When the opportunity arose to unite all the best Latvian rugby players in the RAF master team, it was Šmits who became the team’s head coach, and for the next 20 years the Jelgava club was the strongest in Latvia.
Schmidt was later president of the RAF Rugby Football Club for a long time.
After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, Šmits was the director of the “University of Latvia” stadium for many years.
He took care of the preservation of the history of Latvian rugby with inexhaustible energy and was the founder of “Latvijas Rugby Brālības”.
