Podcast: Oneida FC - The Short Life and Long Controversy of America's First Football Club

Photo credit: James d’Wolf Lovett, Old Boston Boys and the Games They Played (Boston: Riverside Press, 1906)

This week's episode talks to Dr Kevin Tallec Marston about his research into the short history of America's first football club, Oneida FC of Boston, which was formed in 1862 in the midst of the American Civil War.

What link did it have to American football and soccer and, perhaps even more intriguingly, how has its story been used by supporters of both codes to legitimise their heritage? It's a dispute that is still being played out, as controversy reigns about the shape of the ball on the monument to the club on Boston Common.

Please click the following link to listen to the podcast: https://player.fm/series/rugby-reloaded/ep-111-oneida-fc-the-short-life-and-long-controversy-of-americas-first-football-club

For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (which also has show notes and links for this episode).