The 1920 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad and commonly known as Antwerp 1920, were an international multi-sport event held in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
The 1900 Summer Olympics, today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 14 May to 28 October 1900. No opening or closing ceremonies were held.
Rugby union at the 1900 Summer Olympics was played in Paris. Rugby union matches at the 1900 Summer Olympics were held on 14 October and 28 October. Forty-seven athletes competed, most from three nations and including a Haitian and a French-born American.
Football at the Summer Olympics, also referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 and 1932. Women's football was added to the official program at the Atlanta 1996 Games.
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.
Morris Marshall Kirksey was an American track and field athlete and rugby union footballer who won two gold medals at the 1920 Summer Olympics. He is one of the few athletes to win gold medals in two different Olympic sports.
The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States of America Rugby Football Union in men's international rugby union. USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States, and 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.
Belgium has competed at most editions of the Olympic Games after making its first appearance at the 1900 Games. The nation was host to the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed as the host nation of the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. The British Olympic Association was the National Olympic Committee responsible for organising the United Kingdom's representation. At the time British athletes competed under the team name "United Kingdom". The British team comprised 676 competitors.
Daniel Brendon Carroll DSC was an Australian national representative rugby union player. He was a dual Olympic gold medalist winning in rugby at the 1908 Summer Olympics for Australia and also winning gold for the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics.
Robert Lyman "Dink" Templeton was an American track and field athlete, Olympic gold medalist in rugby union, college football player, and track coach.
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 1913 New Zealand tour rugby of North America was the second tour by the New Zealand national rugby union outside Australasia. Sixteen matches were played along with a Test match against United States sides.
Rugby sevens was played at the Olympics for the first time at the 2016 Summer Olympics, with both men's and women's contests. It was added to the Olympics following the decision of the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October 2009. The champions for the inaugural rugby sevens tournament in 2016 were Fiji for the men and Australia for the women. Prior to 2016, 15-a-side matches were played in 1900, 1908, 1920, and 1924.
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.
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 1924 United States rugby union tour of England and France was a series of five matches played by the United States in England and France during April and May 1924. The matches in England were warm-up matches for the 1924 Olympic Games. The United States was the defending Olympic champions and successfully defended their title despite fielding a team made up mainly of sportsmen from other sports. In the intervening years, between the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, France had played twenty-one internationals and the United States none.
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 a 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.
