In the first half of the 19th century rugby was splitting from football/soccer in England. At the same time a young United States was playing the old football/soccer game forced upon them by the British. It was ugly. It was also quite violent. It was soccer with an edge and everyone had different rules. This was especially so at the future Ivy League colleges. They didn't play each other just yet. The games were between the respective classes at the respective colleges. The classes took apart each other, as well as some of the school and some of the towns. The administrations frowned on this. Some even went so far as to ban soccer from their campuses. The evolution towards football might have died there if not for the pickup games played among groups of schoolboys around New England. One such group in Boston formed the Oneida Football Club in 1862. They grew bored playing and practicing both soccer and rugby (with a round ball). Instead they took their favorite features from both soccer and rugby. They liked goal kicking from the former and running with the ball from the latter. Both became features of their hybrid "the Boston Game." The Oneida's destroyed everyone that they could convince to play their new game. They should. It was their game. Some historians consider these Oneida victories the first American football games since it was neither rugby nor soccer. That's a stretch. The game allowed running with the ball under certain circumstances, but it was still essentially soccer. The Boston Game was certainly a big step towards football but it wasn't quite there. The Oneida kids eventually found their way to Harvard. They brought their game with them. Harvard's preference for the Boston Game proved key in turning America away from soccer but at the time they were alone with their new game. A more civilized soccer was coming back to the colleges that had banned it. Since each college had their own rules games between the schools were slow in coming. The NCAA, for some reason, considers a game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869 as the first intercollegiate American football game. It was a soccer game. Other intercollegiate soccer games would take place over the next few years but they were always a struggle to arrange. It took far too long to haggle over rules before any game could actually take place. Something had to change. Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers all met to draft uniform rules. Harvard was invited but declined as they preferred their own Boston Game. Now, there are always several important steps in the evolution of something beautiful. Harvard declining the invitation to this meeting is one of those steps in the evolution of football. If they had attended they likely would have followed the herd and adopted soccer. American football might have died before it lived. Harvard could find no one to play them at their game but they kept at it. Finally, in the spring of 1874, Montreal's McGill University issued a challenge to Harvard. McGill would come to Cambridge for a Boston Game if Harvard would give them a shot at a game by McGill's rules. McGill played rugby. Harvard took care of McGill in their own game. The game played the next day, May 15, was the first rugby game played on U.S. soil. Harvard did fine and struggled to a scoreless tie. More importantly, they fell in love with rugby. Harvard couldn't wait for more. They played and defeated McGill the following year. Then, they went looking for Yale. Yale agreed to the game. Harvard destroyed them but Yale was captivated by this new game. Aside from this game being the first in the incredible Harvard-Yale rivalry, this game also saw the first uniforms worn in an intercollegiate game. Two of the spectators at this game were a couple of students from Princeton. They ran home singing rugby's praises to any who would listen. Three of the most influential campuses in the country were now playing rugby. Others were sure to follow. American football was right around the corner. In the fall of 1876, the father of the game that we all love today enrolled at Yale. His name was Walter Camp.
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