The Logan Jersey: The Headmaster Who Built RGS Rugby
by Matthew Dehaty
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In 1883, a headmaster named Logan arrived at Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. The school had already been playing rugby for six years by then, on grounds barely fit for purpose, against local teams with names like Tankerville, Armstrong, and the Y.M.C.A. from South Shields. It was a game, not yet an institution.
Logan changed that. Over 29 years he built three XV teams, won the Schools Cup, and introduced the school's first rugby colours. Two of the men who coached under him were Northumberland County players; one went on to become President of the Northumberland Rugby Union. This isn't the story of a jersey, really. It's the story of the man who decided rugby at RGS was worth taking seriously in the first place.
The photograph
The earliest team photo we could find of the RGS 1st XV dates to 1897, fourteen years into Logan's tenure. Two years after it was taken, those same players went on to found the Old Novocastrians Rugby Football Club, the club that gives Old Novo its name.
We built the Logan Jersey directly from that photograph, the same way we approached the RG Jersey and the OD Jersey: find the archive, respect what it shows, then re-engineer it so it holds up as something you'd actually wear today.
Why this matters more than it looks like it should
Rugby clubs love a founding myth, but they rarely have the paperwork to back it up. RGS does. A named headmaster, a documented run of building the game from nothing, a dated photograph, and a direct line from that 1897 team to a rugby club that still exists. That's rare enough to be worth building a jersey around rather than just a plaque.
It also completes something. The RG Jersey, the OD Jersey, and the Logan Jersey are three different threads through the same Newcastle rugby history: the school itself, the Durham/Gosforth hoops that spread through the region, and now the headmaster who got the whole thing started at RGS specifically. Told separately, they're three heritage pieces. Told together, they're the fuller story of how rugby actually took root in the North East.
What's in it
- 330gsm cotton/polyester — heavyweight, with the structure to hold its shape
- Yarn-dyed stripes for colour fastness that actually lasts, not a print that fades
- Made in the UK, for the same reasons behind every jersey we build this way
- Rubber buttons and side splits at the hem — small details lifted straight from the era the photograph comes from
- Embroidered Old Novo logo detail at the hem
- Body length runs long, allowing for natural shrinkage after a few washes
Fit is traditional and standard through the body. If you're between sizes, size up.