Charles Rupert Chipman
Bridgetown Lawyer Shakes Up Rugby Team
Best known in Wolfville as the coach who turned Acadia’s football team into permanent holders of the King-Richardson trophy, Tupperville, Nova Scotia native Charles Chipman was a student at Horton Collegiate Academy where he played football and hockey before entering Acadia University in 1906. He was active in sports there, but left before taking his degree. Instead, he transferred to Dalhousie University Law School where he graduated in 1911. While in Halifax, he played rugby football with the Halifax Wanderers, one of the best teams in Nova Scotia.
Soon after setting up his law practice in Bridgetown, he came to the rescue of the Acadia rugby team. As the Acadia Athenaeum explained: “The early practices were more disappointing than usual. Neither scrim nor backs worked well....Charlie Chipman was called in. He reorganized the forwards and introduced some new wrinkles into the so-called New Zealand formation. Under his direction order began to appear from chaos....” Acadia became a football powerhouse for the next few years under Chipman’s guidance and in 1913, they captured the King-Richardson trophy, offered to the first team in the league to win the title five times. Chipman continued to be active in sports organizations, especially rugby. In 1927 he was appointed Accountant General of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, a post he held until 1945.
