What Philadelphia-area university has one of the oldest collegiate rugby teams in the nation?
Answer: Villanova University
While many Ivy League schools have fielded rugby teams since the 19th century, Villanova University was one of the first non-Ivy League schools to emerge during rugby’s renaissance in the 1960s.
Rugby, or rugby union, dates back to about the mid-1800s in the United States. The first-ever recorded rugby match stateside occurred in 1874 between teams from Harvard University and McGill University. At the time, rugby was primarily an Ivy League sport, with institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia, boasting teams. Despite receiving attention in the 1920s—thanks largely to rugby’s inclusion in the 1920 and 1942 Summer Olympics—rugby didn’t take off generally in the United States until the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the local teams participating in the Collegiate Rugby Championship were established during this time. Today, thousands of rugby clubs exist across America, and college rugby remains the most popular among them.