History of rugby union in the United States

rdf:langString History of rugby union in the United States

rdf:langString The first recorded match between two colleges in game played in United States using rugby union code rules occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University. Predating rugby using the rugby union rules were rugby union style "carrying games" with use of hands permitted (as opposed to "kicking games" where hands were not permitted) including a game between Harvard College Freshmen and Sophomores at game played at Harvard campus in 1858. Harvard varsity interscholastic rugby team was not founded until December 6, 1872 In addition to Harvard rugby, Columbia Rugby, and Princeton Rugby, University of Pennsylvania and Yale College first fielded rugby teams in mid 1870s playing by rules much closer to the rugby union and association Football code rules (relative to American football rules, as such American football rules had not yet been invented). An example of Penn's earliest games was a game against College of New Jersey (which in 1895 changed its name to Princeton) played in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 11, 1876, which was less than two weeks before Princeton met on November 23, 1876 with Harvard and Columbia to confirm that all their games would be played using the rugby union rules. Princeton and Penn played their November 1876 game per a combination of rugby (there were 20 players per side and players were able to touch the ball with their hands) and Association Football codes. The rugby union code influence was due, in part, to the fact that some of their students had been educated in English public schools and by 1869 Princeton was playing with rules substantially identical to rugby. Among the prominent college players to play in a 19th century version of rugby (rules that did not allow forward passes or center snaps) was John Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy and an 1892 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Walter Camp of Yale. Heisman and Camp were instrumental in the first decade of the 20th century in changing the rules to more closely relate to present rules of American football. Rugby grew in the early 1900s, spurred in part by American football's crisis of 1905–06 due to the perception that American football was a violent sport. During this era, rugby was perceived as having the potential to challenge American football as the dominant football code on the west coast. For example, from 1906 to 1912 University of Pennsylvania (aka Penn) team played per rugby union code rules even after Penn started playing American gridiron football. Evidence of such may be found in an October 22, 1910, Daily Pennsylvanian article (quoted below) and a yearbook photo that rugby per rugby union code was played. Such is the devotion to English rugby football on the part of University of Pennsylvania's students from New Zealand, Australia, and England that they meet on Franklin Field at 7 o'clock every morning and practice the game. The varsity track and football squads monopolize the field to such an extent that the early hours of the morning are the only ones during which the rugby enthusiasts can play. Any time except Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a squad of 25 men may be seen running through the hardest kind of practice after which they may divide into two teams and play a hard game. Once a week, captain CC Walton, ('11), dental, who hails from New Zealand, gives the enthusiastic players a blackboard talk in which he explains the intricacies of the game in detail. Led by Cal and Stanford, a number of universities of the West Coast took a different path and did not play rugby union alongside American football BUT instead eliminated America football and changed their game to Rugby union. Other schools that made the switch included Nevada, St. Mary's, Santa Clara, and USC (in 1911). At the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, a United States rugby team (composed largely of players from University of California and Stanford University) defeated France to win the gold medal. Rugby union was again included in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, where the United States defeated France for the gold. The player-coach of United States Olympic gold-winning rugby team at the 1924 Summer Olympics was Alan Valentine, who played rugby for Swarthmore College and also played while at Penn (as he was getting a Master's degree at Wharton School of Finance of University of Pennsylvania). Despite this success, however, rugby in the United States was surpassed by American gridiron football BUT Dartmouth, Penn, and Yale on East Coast played intermittently from the 30s through the 50s and University of California never stopped playing from the last decade of the 19th century through to the present. Princeton and Harvard teams played using rugby union code continuously since the early 1930s (as detailed below). The present Princeton Rugby team was reorganized in 1931 under the leadership of Monte Barak, Hugh Sloan, H.F. Langenberg, and coach John Boardman Whitton and has been playing continuously ever since. Similarly Harvard Rugby has continuously played since the early 1930s. Indeed, over 5,000 people attended the inaugural Harvard - Princeton game in 1931. Yale Rugby teams played using rugby union rules continuously since the late 1940s and Dartmouth Rugby teams continuously played per rugby union rules since it was reorganized in 1951. Rugby union in the United States revival beyond University of California and Stanford University on West Coast and certain Universities (which became part of the Ivy League in the mid 1950s) accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s, as many colleges started club rugby teams. USA Rugby, the body that governs rugby in the U.S., was founded in 1975. On 31 January 1976, the U.S. national team played Australia—in its first official match since the 1924 Olympics—before 7,000 fans at Glover Field in Los Angeles. The United States national team participated in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup. Rugby in the U.S. received a significant boost in 2009 when the International Olympic Committee voted to reinstate rugby into the Summer Olympics beginning in 2016. Professional competition of rugby union began in 2016 (PRO Rugby), and the currently-sanctioned top-level professional league, Major League Rugby began play in 2018. Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate MLR Draft in 2020. Players are eligible for draft after 3 years in college at 21 years old. Free agents can try to join teams at 18 years old. College rugby is the fastest-growing college sport in the US. Rugby union is also the fastest growing-sport in the US.