In 1895, Rugby School in England erected a bronze plaque that declared:
"This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis who with a fine
disregard for the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his
arms and ran with it thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game."
A.D. 1823
Sports historians concur this event is apocryphal; no first-hand testimony exists crediting Ellis with this innovative feat. But myth is often more powerful than memory to fabricate the story that a daring English school boy spontaneously originated the sport.
What is fact is that this public school in Warwickshire, England (founded in 1567), introduced a handling and tackling ball game, bestowing its name to the world.
The first, formative ball games
The Roman Empire played harpastum, a ball game copied from the Greeks that witnessed two opposing teams compete on a rectangular field with a small ball, often stuffed with feathers. The combatants consisted of five to twelve players with the aim of retaining the ball, or advancing it over an end line. Play was violent, permitting wrestling and tackling.
Throughout the Middle Ages, many diverse ball games appeared in Europe. These were impromptu encounters, sometimes scrummaging as masses of town boys battled each other in ferocious contests. The football matches proved so popular that English kings banned play for over three-hundred years, insisting that boys and men concentrate on archery.
English public school games
Public schools emerged in England as early as the seventh century. These were religious institutions to train young men for the clergy, offering a classical education of Latin and Greek. By the 19th century, nine predominated: The day schools of Merchant Taylors' and St. Paul's and Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Shrewsbury, Rugby, Charterhouse, and Westminster.
These institutes played their own versions of football, with different codes regulating how many players per team, scoring, and the size of grounds. Most games employed a round ball and utilized a taut string to kick under for a goal. In 1834, Eton played Harrow in the first public school football contest.
Eventually, in the 19th century, the Cambridge University Football Association codified the rules of the kicking game. One by one, schools adapted these rules to play "Association football." By 1863, the term was shortened to "Assoc" with a suffix "er" added to create the word "soccer."
Rugby Flourishes
In the 1830s, Rugby School's game permitted "running in with the ball in hand.". In 1845, three senior Rugbeians codified 37 "laws." Foremost, twenty players per team, and no advancing the ball via a hand fumble. The ball, locally made from a pig's bladder, appeared more oval than spherical in shape.
The Rugby graduates proceeded to universities and took the sport and its laws with them. Soon after, many public schools also adopted the Rugby code, introducing additional school versus school game competitions with a defined sport played under a well-organized system.
At first, Rugby spread throughout the Home Countries of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland via schools and universities Then, it expanded to other English-speaking nations, shadowing the colonial expansion of the United Kingdom. It found eager enthusiasts in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and, finally, the USA. In effect, to paraphrase the famous 1773 statement of Earl Macartney, "The sun never sets on rugby."
William Webb Ellis
Ellis was born in 1806, attending Rugby School from 1816 to 1825. He matriculated at Oxford's Brasenose College, receiving a B.A, in 1829, and an M.A. in 1831. He entered into church service as a minister. In 1858, his grave was discovered in the old cemetery
of Menton, France, where it is maintained today by the French Rugby Federation.
Australia and New Zealand hosted the first Rugby World Cup in 1987 under the aegis of the International Rugby Board (IRB). Searching for a branding opportunity to popularize the new tournament, the committee revived the sport's original myth to award the winner with the Webb Ellis Cup.
A final acknowledgement of the sport's alleged founder occurred in 1997 with the commission of a life-sized, bronze statue of the school boy. William Webb Ellis - ball in hand - now stands prominently back on the campus where it all started in 1823: Rugby School.