Alternative title: Walter Camp was a rugger...
A short tribute to US Rugby and American ruggers... displaying one of the first rugby team at Yale, in the 1870s... feat. "Father of American Football" Walter Camp...
History records that first rugby game in the US was played on May 5, 1875 (exactly 134 years ago...) between Harvard University and Montreal's McGill University.
To be precise, that was the first game organised and played between two distinct teams, because the rugby game was already known and played before that date in universities with no competitions nor agenda.
I'm afraid time is missing (to me...) to explain how rugby was introduced a by an old Rugbeian (Mr D.S.Schaff) in Yale in 1871, competing with other old local ball games, then how East Coast Universities were struggling to decide common code and rules for their inter-universities fixtures : sometimes playing "real" rugby code (inked in 1845 and 1871), sometimes accomodating it with local rules, sometimes changing code at half time... All this effervence about codes will soon be ironed out by Walter Camp and friends who will amalgamate all influences and set up the code of American Football as we (almost) know it... and surpassed in popularity rugby code until it surged again in West Coast Universities in the 1910s (another story.. another time...)...
The upper picture, captioned "Uniform of the First Rugby Team at Yale", comes out of a ten pages article titled "Football in America" written by Walter Camp in the November 1898 issue of Franck Leslie's Popular Magazine (larger picture here). This richly illustrated article explains the roots of American Football in local ball games and pays a tribute to rugby code as a major contributor, as Camp was also a pioneer of Rugby game at Yale.... hence, the picture of the rugby team... There is no date for this "first rugby team"... but I guess that young-looking Walter Camp (sitting in the middle row, third from the left) was then a "Freshman", i.e. 1876 ... All other suggestions are welcome !
Funnily, a large part of this article (at least, the pictures...) was dedicated to "fashion" discussions about the uniforms and football kits... For instance, here are a couple of football players from the 1880s : Peace of Princeton, Frederic Remington and Gill of Yale...
PS : first post in almost three weeks... I still have many stories and pictures to share but can hardly spare time to write them down and put them online... contributions are welcome ! F-
Edit May 6th : this wonderful (according to my standards...) article is now available for download... You'll find all the details about the early days of rugby in the US, written or discussed by people who were involved in person 20-25 years earlier. It also shows that historical recollection can be (is...) difficult as even protagonists do not remember all facts and dates...
"Football in America" W.Camp, 1898
