William Webb Ellis
Inventor
Anglican priest who allegedly invented the sport of rugby. The winner of the Rugby World Cup receives the William Webb Ellis Cup, a prize named in Ellis' memory.
He was a cricketer while studying at the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England. He went on to play the sport at Brasenose College, Oxford.
One of Ellis' Rugby School classmates, Matthew Bloxam (an amateur historian and archaeologist), claimed that Ellis had been the originator of the game of rugby.
His father died in combat during the Peninsular War of 1811.
Like Abner Doubleday, who possibly invented baseball, Ellis was a potential founder of a popular sport.