Sydney University Football Club (SUFC), established in 1863, is widely known as “The Birthplace of Australian Rugby” and is the oldest rugby union club outside of Great Britain.

Is that accurate? As ‘old rivals’ the Wallaroo FC may offer a balancing opinion.

Institutional Teams and Open Clubs
While newspapers show that in 1865 the students at the University of Sydney were playing football games among themselves, as set out below, they did not constitute and form a club to play other clubs until 1871—the year after the founding of the Wallaroo FC in 1870.

In the context of rugby history, a major distinction is made between “institutional” teams (affiliated with hospitals, schools, or universities) and “open” clubs (independent, non-affiliated clubs open to any member of the public).

Similar to the ‘oldest surviving club’ claims in England of Guy’s Hospital (1843) and in Ireland with Dublin University (1854), the Sydney University footballers in the 1860s at most had an internal ‘club’ or association.

They were not a rugby club like Blackheath or Richmond. They were not an ‘open’ club. At no time in the 19th century—and probably all but the final years of the 20th century when professional rugby union arrived—has anyone other than current or (at times) former students been able to join and play rugby for the Sydney University’s XV. They were no more of a club than the teams of the schools and colleges were.

Sydney University Football in Mid-Late 1860s
In addition to the University’s team, there had been in the mid-to-late 1860s two clubs come and go under the name of ‘Sydney FC’; however, they initially had their own football rules and ultimately adopted Victorian rules from Melbourne. Games were also played against visiting military outfits, each with their own quirky football rules.

The University football at this time varied from ‘a strange combination of Rugby and other rules’,* and may have gone as far as playing a form of Victorian rules to meet the second Sydney FC.

Perhaps these variations were made as concessions to opponents to enable games to proceed at all, but it is clear that by the end of the 1869 winter, there was no advancement of football, let alone under the rugby code, being made at all in Sydney under the stewardship of the University footballers (if they were even attempting that at all).

The Rise of Wallaroo — the First ‘Open’ Rugby Club
In May 1870, the first ‘open’ club in Australia dedicated to playing football under rugby rules was formed: the Wallaroo FC. The club’s stance was that they would only play by rugby rules or not at all.

Any number of instances in newspapers can be found over the ensuing decades stating that Wallaroo were founded in 1870 and the Sydney University footballers formed a club later.

“In 1870 the first football club, the Wallaroo, was formed. Before that the University students, although they had no regularly formed club, played several scratch matches with members of the army or navy or any team that could be got together. After the formation of the Wallaroo Club the University formed a club…”
— Australian Town and Country Journal, 16 December 1893

The Evidence of the 1871 Founding of the SUFC
This is supported by making a comparison with the University’s cricket club, which in various forms first came to life in 1854. Since 1857, notices alerting the University’s students/cricketers about upcoming matches and meetings are replete in the city’s newspapers, including from 1863–69 when the University’s football club was purportedly operating. Yet at this time, there are no instances of anything similar in the newspapers regarding the University’s football doings.

Tellingly, the first such newspaper appearance in relation to the University’s footballers is in 1871; the language and details recorded are consistent with a formal meeting, and it was held in a city hotel rather than at the University**.

This meeting made it clear they were moving from an informal setup to a constituted football club with formal membership and rules. Other than still limiting who could join the club, this mirrored the structure of the other clubs and marked the formal founding of today’s SUFC.

1871, 1865 or 1863?
By the mid-1870s, where meetings of other clubs were noting their fifth or fourth annual meeting and report since coming into existence, the SUFC was silent in this aspect. Then, in 1876, this was suddenly addressed by neatly aligning the annual report with the year of the first newspaper stories of University footballers playing matches (1865). This occurred without any accompanying explanation and was referenced in meetings for the rest of the 19th century.

“The committee of the University Club, in presenting this their eleventh annual report…the club both as regards the number of members and strength in the field has never been surpassed during the eleven years of its existence.”
— The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 April 1876

This approach, while ignoring that the first formal meeting was in 1871, is consistent with the manner in which Guy’s Hospital and Dublin University conclude what year their founding was. Yet, today the SUFC disports via its club badge and history that it was in fact founded even earlier, in 1863.

However, if 1863 were accurate, why after the 1876 meeting and the ensuing decades did no footballer of that mid-1860s era ever come forward to contend 1863 was the relevant season and not 1865? And where are the stories about the SUFC club founders of 1863? Who were they?

The True Birthplace of Australian Rugby?
Rugby football was first played in the Australian colonies at Christ’s College in the late 1840s in Tasmania [link], and in Victoria in the 1850s by Melbourne clubs such as South Yarra [link]. It is acknowledged that neither of these have any continued lineage to today’s Australian rugby scene.

But then, nor directly does rugby have a patriotic home and continuous committed existence at Sydney University either until the 1880s.

The true birthplace of Australian rugby is the work and leadership of the Wallaroo FC. From its founding in 1870—declaring it would only play matches by rugby rules—to taking steps to encourage new clubs to form, and then starting and directing the meetings of 1874 that ultimately resulted in the formation of ‘The Southern RFU’ (today the NSWRU). It was not the SUFC who called for or who led these meetings.

SUFC Devoted to Rugby?
There is also the question of just when did the SUFC become devoted to rugby?

As discussed above, the University teams of the mid-late 1860s were not playing games per rugby rules.

In 1877, the SUFC proposed at NSWRU meetings that it change its playing rules to do away with carrying and running with the ball as well as scrummages (scrums)—elements that are quintessentially the rugby game.

These modifications in effect would have meant SUFC and all the other Sydney rugby clubs switching en masse to soccer or Victorian rules. It took a decisive counter-charge from Wallaroo FC delegates at the NSWRU meeting to bury the SUFC proposal and to save SUFC from itself.

In retrospect, this act in 1877 by the SUFC lit the flame of a crisis in local football that essentially gave the Victorian rules code (now AFL) the opening it needed to plant its flag in Sydney by the formation in 1880 of its NSW Football Association and rival clubs. At a public meeting that same season, a chastened SUFC was at pains to point out that the club still adhered to rugby, and they didn’t join the NSWFA.

Perhaps then it is 1880, and not earlier, when SUFC first truly declared its allegiance to rugby.

* Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 July 1867
** SUFC 1871 meeting – see The Sydney Morning Herald 23 June pg.1, 24 June pg.4 & 12 July pg.5; The Empire 26 June pg.2

Note: a Sydney University football club playing under Victorian rules existed from 1887-89, however there is no indication that this arose from a split within the University’s rugby club and players.

All website text & content © Sean Fagan

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