On September 23, The Towson Rugby Club as well as the community at
large, lost a unique home-bred student athlete. Abe Cahan. Abe who was
a Junior philosophy major here at Towson, loved the Orioles and a week
before his death, attended an Orioles game in Fenway Park in Boston.
The father and son returned early from their trip to Boston, so that
Abe would be able to make his classes the next morning. After being
nervous about his son, because he was not able to get in touch with
Abe for a few days, Cahan’s father went to his apartment and found him
dead. The cause of death for Abe has now been determined to be heroin
intoxication, according to the office of the chief medical examiner of
Maryland.
     Cahan graduated from Towson High School in 2008, he played baseball
and football. His father said he was a big sports fan, and did not
mind jumping right in to club rugby. He was a fan of both the Ravens
and Patriots said his father John. Abe liked New England teams only
because he was born in Vermont, but the family moved when he was only
in kindergarten. Rugby was not a sport he played regularly before he
came to Towson, but he loved football and he thrived on contact. Rugby
seemed like a natural fit.
     “We didn’t see him much this year and we have no idea why. We just
like to think he was busy with work or school as anything else,” rugby
coach Don Stone said Sept. 25, in a report by the Towerlight on the
death of Abe Cahan.  Stone later said that “We’re kind of surprised by
this because it’s not something I think any of us would have looked at
him and thought. It’s a cautionary tale for any college student …
these guys think they’re indestructible. Even when they dabble in
things, there’s a risk and there’s a danger and I think Abe’s a
cautionary tale in that regard and something I warn my boys about to
try to use as a lesson. A sad one, but a lesson nonetheless.”
      The Police were called to Cahan’s Towson Woods apartment at 1:43
p.m, and were initially told that he collapsed due to cardiac arrest.
That same report by the police after his father found him face down on
the floor of his apartment, was that foul play was not suspected in
his death, according to Baltimore County Police spokesman Mike Hill,
in a statement released just days after his death. Abe was not a
suspected drug user by his family or his friends, but actions leading
up to this incident suggest that there was some signs signaling a
difference in behavior, such as not being at team practices as often
as he was in recent years.
     Cahan was a large part of the Towson’s Men’s Club Rugby team.  He
attended roughly half the club’s practices and games in their spring
season, but as of the fall he had only watched or played in a few.
Whether it was the struggles of college workload, or a drug use that
nobody knew about, it is a big loss for the Rugby team. The team has
honored Abe at every game since his passing. They have since moved up
to number 7 in the nation. All of the teams entering the  Rugby
semifinals this weekend are ranked top 15 Division II rugby clubs in
the nation