Possibly the most significant rugby player to come out of the United States ever, and undoubtedly the best American player of the early professional era, Dan Lyle changed the game in a variety of ways that can still be seen today.

A football player at VMI, Lyle started playing rugby with the Washington Rugby Club in the DC area while awaiting a decision on an NFL shot. A tight end with big hands and an impressive vertical leap, Lyle may have been a shade small for the NFL, but his skill set and his timing were perfect for rugby. The USA rugby team at the time needed an athletic jump-start, and Lyle was exactly that. Green? He was very green. But his way of thinking as an athlete fit superbly with rugby, and within a very short period of time Lyle was on the Eagles, and was one of the best players on the Eagles immediately.

Lyle played the game in the air more than anyone in the game when he first came up. He was not only able to get high in the lineout (especially as lifting became legal), but he was supremely in control of himself when he did. He was able to use his vertical leap to make restarts much more of an attacking weapon, and these are aspects of play that everyone began to embrace quickly. Lyle joined Bath in 1996 as one of the first American professional players and he joined a Bath team that proved among the best in the England.

The pinnacle with Bath was undoubtedly the 1998 Heineken Cup, when Bath became European champions in part because of Lyle's dynamic play as a thundering defender, lineout specialist, and open-field runner. He brought to Bath a professional approach to preparation for a sport that was only just starting to pay its players. Once again Lyle was ahead of his time. 

Named to the Barbarians and touted by more than one observer as the best No. 8 in the country, Lyle helped lead the USA to some of its best results. The only blemish perhaps on Lyle's record was his willingness to put his body on the line in a game. He launched himself into contact and enjoyed dealing out punishment, and as a result injury found him. He missed all of the 1998 USA campaign because of injury, and his injury in the 1999 Rugby World Cup was largely the reason why the Eagles lost by two to Romania. But what that does is reveal his value more than anything else. In over 125 games in top professional rugby (all but a handful with Bath), scoring 24 tries, and with 45 games for the USA, and 23 appearances for the USA 7s team; with two 15s Rugby World Cups and one 7s World Cup.

No, the USA hasn't done particularly well in the 15s World Cup, but with Lyle on the team the Eagles performed more than twice as well as without him.

Lyle helped open up the door for other US players to succeed. He was accepted as much as anyone has been. For the 2001-2002 season he was selected as the team captain for Bath, an honor that was in the past inthinkable to bestow upon an American. Lyle, thought, had come in with a different approach, a different attitude, but also an open mind, and won over everyone. 

At the time of his being selected, he told this to the old GoffonRugby website:

"I have always felt I knew what it takes to win personally," said Lyle. "Have I put my own expectations on others and asked them to fit my mold? Yes. Would I change much? No. I think you have to let people play their game and adapt to their capabilities, rather than them to you. To a point, mind you. ...  I have always prided myself on knowing the game in my mind," Lyle added. "That, I think, is the battle for oneself as a player. But when other people realize it, you become a leader. I only hope to do my best."

That about sums it up for an All-Time Great all-time great.

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