Alternative title: Walter Camp played 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
Very interesting post. If only the Americans hadn't felt compelled to change the rules and make their own game.
Posted by: Sean Fagan | 05/05/2009 at 15:17
Ah, Walter Camp...purists called his version of an "open scrum" (the front rows did not engage before the put-in) a "scrimmage" because they thought it a sissified version of the scrum.
Posted by: Grant Cole | 05/02/2012 at 22:17
this one is a bit wild... http://www.flickr.com/photos/rugby_pioneers/717091207/
Posted by: Frederic | 06/02/2012 at 12:05
link to Tony Collin's article in "Journal of Global History" about the origins of football in America : https://static.squarespace.com/static/502784a984ae2d2eef45097c/t/51b300f6e4b0f0ee887a4b86/1370685686684/American%20Football%20in%20Transnational%20Context%20(JGH).pdf
Posted by: Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com) | 14/05/2014 at 16:29
I read with interest your information about Edward Owen Roe who is my husbands fathers first cousin.
Some time back we met holiday makers who were from Bayonne in France three months later when we arrived back home we received a copy of a photograph of Edward Owen Roe from the rugby club in Bayonne which shows him in the Bayonne rugby team after winning the French championship in 1913 ect;he was also in the French resistance and a street named after him in France
We wish we could get in touch with the other members of his family as my husband can remember him.
Posted by: Abigail jones | 12/06/2014 at 18:18