Rugby football
- Early versions
- Noble deeds of gallantry
- First varsity team
- Enthusiasm grows
- King of sports
- Men of the gridiron
- War years
Early versions
Since the formation of Mount Allison’s first varsity rugby football team in 1890, no other sport garnered as much attention, or generated as much school spirit, as this sport did in the years leading up to WWI.
Rugby football is purported to have been played first at a public school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, in 1823. While playing a game of ‘football,’ schoolboy William Webb Ellis allegedly picked up the ball and ran with it down the field. Soccer (otherwise known as association football) and rugby football emerged as the two dominant types of football played in England, and both versions were introduced in North America by the 1870s.
McGill University was the first college to in Canada to play rugby football, and the school codified its own rules for the sport in 1871. The United States, which had been playing a kicking version of football, was introduced to rugby football through a set of home-and-home matches between Harvard and McGill Universities in 1874. Harvard adapted McGill’s rules after the mini-series, and rugby football spread rapidly across universities in eastern North America. In 1881, Canadian intercollegiate rugby football began with the first annual match between McGill and the University of Toronto.
Mount Allison University rugby football pennant, s.d.
Mount Allison University rugby football game, Athletic Field, ca. 1904
Mount Allison University rugby football game, Athletic Field, ca. 1919
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Sackville, New Brunswick
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