Thomas Joseph Gavin (28 March 1922 — 25 December 2009) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, educator and international rugby union player.
Born to Irish parents in Coventry, Gavin attended local primary schools, followed by Cotton College junior seminary, where he learned his rugby.
[2] Gavin became the only person to play international rugby while an ordained Catholic priest in 1949, when he was capped twice by Ireland in the Five Nations, having refused an ordinance from the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid to make himself unavailable.
[4] Gavin headed the Birmingham archdiocesan educational service and from 1978 to 2004 was the priest of St Thomas More Parish, Coventry.
He organised the 1982 visit to Coventry of Pope John Paul II, who arrived by helicopter to Baginton Airport and held a Mass to 300,000 worshipers.