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Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games, being played at four of the first seven competitions. The sport debuted at the 1900 Paris games where the gold medal was won by the host nation. It was subsequently featured at the London games in 1908, the Antwerp games in 1920 and the Paris games in 1924.
The United States men's national rugby union team, represents United States of America in men's international rugby union, nicknamed the Eagles it is controlled by USA Rugby. USA Rugby is a member of Rugby Americas North, one of six regional governing bodies under World Rugby. Until rugby returned to Olympic competition, with sevens at the 2016 Rio Games, the United States was the reigning Olympic rugby champion, having defeated the one other competitor in 1920 and the two other competitors at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
Rugby union at the 1920 Summer Olympics was played in Antwerp, Belgium. Two nations entered the rugby union event at the 1920 Summer Olympics — France and the United States. The French team were thought to be assured of the gold medal and came in as raging favourites in the event. However, the United States team surprised everyone when defeating France by eight points to nil.
Rugby union in the United States is the fastest growing sport in the nation. Rugby union at the youth, high school, college, amateur club, professional, and international levels is governed by USA Rugby. There are over 125,000 players registered with USA Rugby as of 2016. Over 2,500 rugby clubs exist around the country, including those of whom are part of college rugby. Professional club competition exists as Major League Rugby since 2017.
Leonard Joseph Casanova was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Santa Clara University (1946–1949), the University of Pittsburgh (1950), and the University of Oregon (1951–1966), compiling a career college football record of 104–94–11. Casanova was also the head baseball coach at Santa Clara from 1940 to 1942, tallying a mark of 39–25. After retiring from coaching, he served as the athletic director at Oregon. Casanova was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1977.
California currently has 18 major professional sports franchises, far more than any other US state. The San Francisco Bay Area has six major league teams spread amongst three cities: San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. The Greater Los Angeles Area has ten major league teams. San Diego and Sacramento each have one major league team.
Norman Cleaveland was an American rugby union player who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics.
Colby Edmund "Babe" Slater was an American rugby union player who captained the United States national rugby union team that won the gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
George Frederick Haines was a swimmer and swimming coach who coached at the Santa Clara Swim Club, Stanford University and UCLA. He also coached for seven U.S. Olympic swim teams. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1977 as an Honor Coach.
The Northern California Rugby Football Union (NCRFU) is the Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams in Northern California, as well as northern Nevada. The NCRFU is part of USA Rugby.
The Santa Clara Broncos are athletic teams that represent Santa Clara University. The school colors are red and white. The nicknames for teams is The Broncos and the student fans are referred to as the "Ruff Riders". The Broncos compete in the NCAA Division I (NCAA) as members of the West Coast Conference of which Santa Clara is a charter member.
The Stanford rugby teams of 1906 to 1917 represented Stanford University as the school's only football program during those years, replacing American football with rugby union. The school had played American football from 1892 to 1905, but in 1906, concerned with the growing levels of violence in football, Stanford and other universities changed to rugby. Stanford played twelve seasons of rugby, during which it played other college teams, club teams from the United States, Canada, and Australia, as well as the New Zealand national team and Australia national team. Despite the team's success, it became clear that other schools were not adopting rugby in large numbers, and after rival California returned to football in 1915, Stanford faced a limited number of potential opponents; and after a year of playing neither sport officially due to World War I, the school returned to American football in 1919.
The California Golden Bears rugby team is the college rugby team of the University of California, Berkeley. The Golden Bears have won 33 championships since the national collegiate championships for rugby began in 1980. Current head coach and Cal alumnus Jack Clark took over the team in 1984, and has achieved prolonged success, leading the Bears to 28 national titles, including twelve consecutive championships from 1991 to 2002, five more consecutive titles from 2004 to 2008, and back-to-back titles in 2010 to 2011 and 2016 to 2017.
Danielle Victoria Slaton is an American retired professional soccer player. She is currently a soccer analyst for the San Jose Earthquakes, Fox Sports and the Big Ten Network. A five-year member of the United States women's national soccer team from 2000-2005, Slaton also played for the Carolina Courage in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) and was named the league's defender of the year. She went on to play for the French club Olympique Lyonnais where she was a starting defender on the team in the Division 1 Féminine. Slaton currently represents US Soccer as a member of the Athlete Council.
The Olympic Club RFC is a Pacific Rugby Premiership team based in San Francisco, California and were the 2019 Division II USA national champions. Known as the OC, or the Winged 'O' ruggers, the rugby team was formed in 1908 under the wing of the San Francisco Olympic Club, an athletic club and private social club which had been founded in 1860.
The first recorded match between two colleges in game played in United States using rugby union code rules occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University. Predating rugby using the rugby union rules were rugby union style "carrying games" with use of hands permitted including a game between Harvard College Freshmen and Sophomores at game played at Harvard campus in 1858. Harvard varsity interscholastic rugby team was not founded until December 6, 1872
Charles Allphin Austin was an American rugby union player, official, and coach who played center for the United States men's national team in its first two capped matches in 1912 and 1913. Austin also served as coach of the United States team that won the gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Mowatt Merrill "Mow" Mitchell was an American rugby union player and official who played at fly-half for the United States men's national team in its first capped match against New Zealand in 1913.
William Pettigrew Darsie was an American rugby union player who played at flanker for the United States men's national team in its first capped match against New Zealand in 1913.
References
- 1 2 Gallagher, Brendan (15 May 2016). "Olympic spirit was forgotten amid violence and acrimony". The RugbyPaper (400). pp. 32–3.
- ↑ CalBear81. "1924 Rugby: A Wild Olympic Rematch" . Retrieved 18 May 2016.