Leslie Hood

Leslie Hood (13 September 187623 September 1932) was an English rugby union player. He competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics and won silver as part of the Great Britain team in what was the first rugby union competition at an Olympic Games. He also competed in amateur catch-as-catch-can wrestling competitions and played ice hockey at Manchester. He was born in York, the third son of William Hood, a general practitioner in practice at Castlegate, York. Along with his three brothers, he was educated at St Peter's School, York. He was a good all-round sportsperson but not as academically gifted as his siblings.

In 1896, he joined Hammersmith rugby union club as a wing three-quarter back, completing two seasons with the club, before joining Rosslyn Park rugby club. In 1899, he entered Eugen Sandow's bodybuilding competition at Crystal Palace Park and won a gold medal. In 1901, he won the twelfth amateur Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling championships in the category. He retained a lifelong interest in winter sports and mountaineering, and in 1911, he competed in the Bott handicap on the Cresta Run at St. Moritz, Engadine in Switzerland.

Hood excelled at ice skating, and in the 1910s, he would compete in ice dance competitions with Ethel Muckelt. He was a founding player in the Manchester ice hockey team that was based at the Ice Palace ice rink in Derby Street, Cheetham. By 1927, he was a director of the Ice Palace and Taylor Brothers & Co., a steel manufacturing company with works at Trafford Park, Trafford, Manchester, and by 1928, he was vicepresident of the company. He had always maintained a good level of physical fitness, however, in late 1929, he was diagnosed with progressive muscular atrophy and died of pneumonia at a nursing home in Whalley Range, Manchester. Provided by Wikipedia