Daniel Carroll

Age He is erroneously referred to in some records as the youngest ever Australian representative rugby player due to a birthdate error in the Olympic records database. He served in the American Army as a lieutenant in World War I and lived out his life in the US, working in the mining/petroleum industry.

Schooling and early rugby Carroll was born at Flemington, Victoria. His family relocated to Sydney during his early childhood and he was educated at St Aloysius' College (Sydney) playing rugby in the school's first XV and then at Sydney University where he studied dentistry. His club rugby was played with St George in southern Sydney. He was a winger at that time and in that position made his Australian representatives appearances. Later in his career, he played at fly-half.

Australian rugby representative He was selected in Australia's inaugural national rugby team to tour the northern hemisphere – Dr Paddy Moran's first Wallabies for the 1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of Britain. He was the youngest member of the tour squad at 20 years. Carroll played in the first Test of the tour, the 6–9 loss to Wales at Cardiff Arms Park, which was the first rugby Test played by an Australian team on British soil.

At the time, the rugby tournament for the London Olympics game may not have appeared to be of great significance. Australia had already beaten Cornwall, the British county champions, early in the tour, and Scotland, Ireland and France had all turned down the Rugby Football Union's invitation to participate in the Olympic bouts. Neither the tour captain, Moran, nor the vice-captain Fred Wood played, so Chris McKivat led the Wallabies to an easy 32–3 victory and to Olympic glory, with each Wallaby in that match thereafter an Olympic gold medalist. Carroll scored two tries in the match.

At the tour's end, McKivat would lead fourteen of the Wallabies into the professional ranks with the fledgling rugby league code in Sydney, but Carroll stayed loyal to the amateur game and was rewarded in 1912 when he was again selected in the Wallabies squad for the 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States. The tour was a disappointment with the squad billeted out in college fraternity houses where the hospitality played havoc with team discipline and as result the team lost against two California University sides and three Canadian provincial sides. They rose to the occasion for the sole Test of the tour – the November 1912 clash against the United States at Berkeley, won 12–8. Carroll played at fly-half in that match and scored a try. Carroll thus made two Test career appearances for Australia.

American rugby and war service alt=A group of 23 young men arranged in two rows—thirteen standing in back and ten squatting in front—in rugby uniform: white sweaters emblazoned with vertically striped shields, black belts, and light colored shorts. Carroll stayed on in America after the 1912 tour. He played for All-America against the All Blacks in 1913, a Test won by NZ 51–3. He served in the American Army as a lieutenant in World War I and won a Distinguished Service Cross.

He completed a degree in geology at Stanford University in 1920. He was coaching rugby at the university when he was selected as the playing coach of the USA side selected for the 1920 Summer Olympics. He won a gold medal at Antwerp in that team playing at fly-half.

Post playing After Stanford, Carroll furthered his education at Oxford and the Royal School of Mines in England. In 1921, he took up an appointment with Standard Oil and remained with the company until his retirement.

Carroll married Helen Warden from Great Falls, Montana in 1927 and had one son, Daniel – who is deceased. Helen died in 1941, and Carroll died in New Orleans in 1956.