Rugby-Pioneers

Happy New Year !

All the best... great rugby memorabilia... have fun... and hope to meet you somewhere in 2008...


Identificateurs Technorati : rugby

American trade card c1890

American trade card c1890 advertising for... a "baking powder" brand in Wichita, Kansas

From a time when rugby and American football had a lot in common...


Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, sollidays

Stade Français : La Faisanderie

In my previous post, I was explaining that Stade Français had difficulties to find a "home" stadium in the late XIXth. It became really critical, and not only for rugby practice, as the omnisport club was constantly growing. In 1901, Stade Français managed to get a 6 ha lease in the wonderful Parc de St Cloud (West of Paris, Google maps here) to build its first infrastructures, ie a club house, two rugby / football grounds and 5 tennis courts. The place, named "La Faisanderie", still is the heart of the club today (some pictures here on SF website) and a training facility for the "pro" rugby.

Here are the folks in 1905 in an un-identified game (in Les Sports Modernes Illustrés, Larousse, 1905). I can just tell that the coloured gentleman in the middle of the line-out is André Verges, who will earn an international cap against the All Blacks the following year.



"La Faisanderie" also enjoyed the venue of the first Tennis World Championship in 1912, the predecessor of Roland Garros French Open (1928)

More annecdotically, I also have some "evidences" that cricket was once played on "La Faisanderie" rugby grounds... a couple of British expatriates, I assume... as French sportsmen never managed to capture the essence of cricket...



The guys are playing at the same place as my previous rugby picture... Please check the posts in the back !



Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, stade français, faisanderie, andré verges

Stade Français : searching for a stadium...

Did you know that the words "Stadium" or "Stade" were litterally "re-invented" by the young sportsmen of Stade Français - students from Lycée St Louis in Paris, most of them being very well educated in ancient Greek... - when they were searching for a name for their newly formed sports club in 1883... ? Stade Toulousain, Stade Bordelais, Stade de France and all "stadiums" in France (in the world ?) owe something to the Stade Français...

That was just a foreword to discuss past and present stadiums of my favorite team...

Before "Jean Bouin" - our current stadium close to the Parc des Princes in Paris - , before "La Faisanderie" - headquarters of Stade Français omnisports club in Parc de St Cloud - , the ruggers of Stade Français struggled a lot to find a place "of their own" and wandered a lot among various areas in Western Paris : Paris (Parc des Princes... too expensive !), Bécon, Levallois, Bagatelle or Courbevoie... as in the picture dated 1897, showing part of a 1500 people crowd celebrating an easy victory over Stade Bordelais 5 tries to nil... (in Le Sport Universel Illustré, 13 nov. 1897 - article by Frantz Reichel from rival Racing Club de France...)

It looks a little like a Sunday picnic with all these bikes along the pitch... it sounds rudimentary, but there is a refreshment bar (cf the sign between the flags...)...

Here are the teams of the day posing... I recognize Louis Dedet and Henri Amand (sitting) in the middle of the picture... Two years later, Bordeaux will defeat Paris for a first championship title... opening a decade of undisputed domination over French rugby...





Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, stade français

Jeux Olympiques - Paris 1924 : a series of 10 postcards by Yves Roowy

Every serious rugby memorabilia collector do have a copy of this fine postcard, illustrated by Yves Roowy to celebrate the 1924 Olympics in Paris.

On many occasions, I mentioned that this card was part of a ten cards series featuring tennis, swimming, wrestling, bowing, hurdles, discus, sprint, fencing and football (the full series can also be seen here on Flickr)

I eventually scanned all the others cards... here they are...

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, roowy, tennis, swimming, wrestling, boxing, hurdles, discus, sprint, fencing, football

A Game for boys... a Game for men...

This morning, I received this boys' book c1930... You know that I like rugby illustrations from youth litterature (nice drawings, vivid colors etc...), but this one is too much ! The smiles.. the haircuts... even the sunshine... too much !

I can't resist to draw a parallel with this image from the same period showing basically the same thing, i.e. a ball holder running from two opponents... Back to French championship (CASG vs Quillan) : the Parisian 3/4 (yes, with a beret...) is trying to escape these two terrrrrible forwards from Quillan (many "r" in "terrible"... as they say in the very deep south of France....)... You could almost feel his fear... he running for his life... (hardly a joke : French rugby was so violent in these days...)



A game for boys... a game for men... not the same game !

(in Le Miroir des Sports, Oct.8 1929)

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, Quillan, CASG