page_title: History of rugby union in the United States
section_title: Olympics gold: 1920 & 1924
hierarchical_section_title: History of rugby union in the United States / Olympics gold: 1920 & 1924
caption_attribution_description: English: Rugby match between France and the U.S. team at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Français&#160;: Match de rugby France - Etats-Unis, VIIIe Olympiade - Paris 1924 dans le Stade de Colombes (futur Stade Yves du Manoir) spécialement construit pour cet Olympiade. Vue en direction des Tribunes de Marathon. Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
context_page_description: The first recorded rugby match in the United States occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University.
  Rugby grew in the early 1900s, spurred in party by American football's crisis of 1905-06 due to the perception that American football was a violent sport. During this era, rugby was perceived as having the potential to challenge American football as the dominant football code on the west coast.
  At the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, a United States rugby team composed largely of players from Stanford University defeated France to win the gold medal. Rugby union was again included in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, where the United States defeated France for the gold. Despite this success, however, rugby in the United States largely faded away.
  Rugby union in the United States began its revival in the 1960s and 1970s, as many colleges started club rugby teams. USA Rugby, the body that governs rugby in the U.S., was founded in 1975. On 31 January 1976, the U.S. national team played Australia—in its first official match since the 1924 Olympics—before 7,000 fans at Glover Field in Los Angeles.
context_section_description: The U.S. national team won their first test in 1919, defeating Romania.
  Rugby union was a fixture at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and a United States team composed largely of players from Stanford University and coached by Dan Carroll defeated France to win the gold medal, after money was raised in San Francisco to send them to Europe.
  In 1924, rugby union was again included in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. An American side was invited to participate, and the team surprised spectators by landing a place in the final with the hosts – the French. An estimated 50,000 turned up to Colombes Stadium to watch. The United States defeated France for the gold in 1924.
  This was, however, the last time until 2016 when rugby featured at the Olympics, and the last ever for the full 15-man version of the game (the return of rugby in 2016 was in the sevens version). As a result, the 1924 United States team is the last to win gold in the full version of rugby union. Rare vintage footage of the 1924 Gold Medal match was included in the rugby documentary, A Giant Awakens: the Rise of American Rugby.
caption: France playing the USA in the 1924 Olympics final
exif: {}