 This only known portrait of William Webb Elllis, circa 1857, from the Illustrated London News. William Webb Ellis (November 24, 1806 – January 24, 1872) Salford, England is often credited with the invention of Rugby football. The story of how he founded the game is apocryphal. Nevertheless his name is firmly established in the lore of rugby football. He has become immortalised by the William Webb Ellis Cup presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup. Image File history File links William_Webb_Ellis. ...
Image File history File links William_Webb_Ellis. ...
is the 328th day of the year (329th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...
For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...
For other uses, see Rugby (disambiguation). ...
The William Webb Ellis Cup. ...
For the rugby league competition, see Rugby League World Cup. ...
Even if Webb Ellis could be credited with introducing running with the ball in hand - for which there is no evidence - this was not the action that split football into two codes (Rugby and Association). That split occurred later over the issue of hacking, meaning to tackle a player by kicking him in the shins. The founders of Association football (soccer) decided to ban the practice and were considered unmanly by the traditionalists. Under present rules neither code allows hacking, although ironically it probably occurs more often in soccer. A player (wearing the red kit) has penetrated the defence (in the white kit) and is taking a shot at goal. ...
Biography
 Statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School William was born in Salford, Lancashire, (some sources say he was born in Manchester, Webb Ellis actually said he was born in Manchester in an 1851 census as he later moved to the city) the son of James Ellis, an officer in the Dragoon Guards and Ann Webb whom he married in Exeter in 1804. After James was killed at the Battle of Albuera in 1812, Mrs Ellis decided to move to Rugby, Warwickshire so that William and his older brother Thomas could receive a good education at Rugby School with no cost as a local foundationer (i.e., a pupil living within a radius of 10 miles of the Rugby Clock Tower). William attended the school from 1816 to 1825 and he was noted as a good scholar and a good cricketer, although it was noted that he was 'rather inclined to take unfair advantage at cricket'. The incident where Webb Ellis supposedly caught the ball in his arms during a football match (which was allowed) and ran with it (which was not) is supposed to have happened in the latter half of 1823. Statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School. ...
Statue of William Webb Ellis outside Rugby School. ...
For other uses, see Salford (disambiguation). ...
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ...
This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ...
Dragoon guards was, in some armies, particularly the British Army, the designation used to refer to heavy cavalry regiments from the 18th century onwards. ...
The city of Exeter is the county town of Devon, in the southwest of England, also known as the West Country. ...
Combatants Spain Portugal Britain France Duchy of Warsaw Commanders William Beresford Joaquin Blake Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult Strength 10,000 British 10,000 Portuguese 13,000 Spanish 38 guns 23,000 infantry 4,000 cavalry 40 guns Casualties 5,916 dead or wounded[2] 5,936 dead or wounded...
Rugby is a market town in the county of Warwickshire in the West Midlands of England, on the River Avon. ...
A view of Rugby School from The Close, the playing field where according to legend Rugby was invented Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is one of the oldest public schools in England and is one of the major co-educational boarding schools in the country. ...
After leaving Rugby he went to Oxford University in 1826, aged 18. Here he played cricket for Brasenose College, Oxford. He entered the Church and became chaplain of St George's, Albemarle Street, London and then rector of St Clement Danes in The Strand. In 1855 he became rector of Laver Magdalen in Essex and a picture of him (the only known portrait) appeared in the Illustrated London News after he gave a particularly stirring sermon on the subject of the Crimean War. The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...
Bowler Shaun Pollock bowls to batsman Michael Hussey. ...
and of the Brasenose College College name The Kings Hall and College of Brasenose Latin name aula regia et collegium aenei nasi Named after Bronze door knocker Established 1509 Sister college Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Principal Prof. ...
View of Clarendon House, now demolished. ...
This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...
Italic textOranges and lemons! // Headline text St Clement Danes at night St Clement Danes is a church in the City of Westminster, London. ...
Strand, May 2001 St. ...
For other meanings of Essex, see Essex (disambiguation). ...
The Illustrated London News was a magazine founded by Herbert Ingram and his friend Mark Lemon, the editor of Punch magazine. ...
Combatants Allies: Second French Empire British Empire Ottoman Empire Kingdom of Sardinia Russian Empire Bulgarian volunteers Casualties 90,000 French 35,000 Turkish 17,500 British 2,194 Sardinian killed, wounded and died of disease ~134,000 killed, wounded and died of disease The Crimean War (1853–1856) was fought...
He died in the south of France in 1872; his grave at Menton was rediscovered by Ross McWhirter in 1958 and has since been renovated. Menton (Occitan: Menton in classical norm or Mentan in Mistralian norm; Italian: Mentone) is a town and commune in the Alpes-Maritimes département of the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur région of France. ...
Alan Ross McWhirter (12 August 1925 - 27 November 1975), known as Ross McWhirter, was, with his twin brother, Norris McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records. ...
The legend
Origin of the claim The sole source of the story of Webb Ellis picking up the ball originates with one Matthew Bloxam, a local antiquarian and former pupil of Rugby. In October of 1876, he wrote to The Meteor, the Rugby School magazine, that he had learnt from an unnamed source that the change from a kicking game to a handling game had "...originated with a town boy or foundationer of the name of Ellis, William Webb Ellis". Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (12 May 1805 - 24 April 1888) a native of Rugby in England was the original source of the legend of William Webb Ellis inventing the game of Rugby football. ...
Year 1876 Pick up Sticks(MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...
In December of 1880, in another letter to the Meteor, Bloxam elaborates on the story:
- "A boy of the name Ellis – William Webb Ellis – a town boy and a foundationer, ... whilst playing Bigside at football in that half-year [1823], caught the ball in his arms. This being so, according to the then rules, he ought to have retired back as far as he pleased, without parting with the ball, for the combatants on the opposite side could only advance to the spot where he had caught the ball, and were unable to rush forward till he had either punted it or had placed it for some one else to kick, for it was by means of these placed kicks that most of the goals were in those days kicked, but the moment the ball touched the ground the opposite side might rush on. Ellis, for the first time, disregarded this rule, and on catching the ball, instead of retiring backwards, rushed forwards with the ball in his hands towards the opposite goal, with what result as to the game I know not, neither do I know how this infringement of a well-known rule was followed up, or when it became, as it is now, a standing rule."
1895 investigation The claim that Webb Ellis invented the game did not surface until four years after his death and doubts have been raised about the story since 1895 when it was first investigated by the Old Rugbeian Society. Among those giving evidence, Thomas Harris and his brother John, who had left Rugby in 1828 and 1832 respectively (ie after the alleged Webb Ellis incident) recalled that handling of the ball was strictly forbidden. Thomas Hughes (author of Tom Brown's School Days) was asked to comment on the game as played when he attended the school (1834-1842). He is quoted as saying "In my first year, 1834, running with the ball to get a try by touching down within goal was not absolutely forbidden, but a jury of Rugby boys of that day would almost certainly have found a verdict of 'justifiable homicide' if a boy had been killed in running in." Year 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
A statue of Thomas Hughes at Rugby School Thomas Hughes (October 20, 1822 – March 22, 1896) was an English lawyer and author. ...
Tom Browns Schooldays, first published in 1857, is a novel by Thomas Hughes, set at a public school, Rugby School for Boys, in the 1830s when Hughes himself had been a student there. ...
The plaque A plaque at Rugby School bears the inscription: THIS STONE
COMMEMORATES THE EXPLOIT OF
WILLIAM WEBB ELLIS
WHO WITH A FINE DISREGARD FOR THE RULES OF FOOTBALL
AS PLAYED IN HIS TIME
FIRST TOOK THE BALL IN HIS ARMS AND RAN WITH IT
THUS ORIGINATING THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF
THE RUGBY GAME
A.D. 1823
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 Image of the plaque at Rugby School | This image has been (or is hereby) released into the public domain by its creator, G-Man. ...
This image has been (or is hereby) released into the public domain by its creator, G-Man. ...
Controversy A number of codes of mediaeval football allowed the carrying of the ball, as indeed do several other current football codes. Medieval football is a modern term sometimes used for a wide variety of localised games which were invented and played during the Middle Ages in Europe. ...
Some sources have claimed that Ellis may have actually been giving a demonstration of a sport known as caid, which was an ancient Irish game that is similar to rugby, and is the ancestor of Gaelic football. Some speculate that Ellis could have witnessed it during his youth whilst his soldier father was stationed in Ireland. Though this story, as dubious as it may be, adds fuel to the speculation that Ellis did not create the game per se, as there had previously been sports such as caid and harpastum, a game which was similar to rugby that was played by the ancient Romans. There was another game in Wales called "cnapan", which was still being played in 1823. That involved teams of up to 1,000 players on each side, and it was a running, handling and passing game with much physical contact and with elements that resembled scrums and lineouts. There was no kicking of the ball in that game, since it was made of wood and (to add interest) boiled in tallow to make it slippery! Could some of the boys at Rugby School have known about that game? Caid was the name used for a collection of various ancient and traditional Irish football games. ...
Gaelic Football (Irish: Peil, Peil Gaelach or Caid ), commonly referred to as football, or Gaelic , is a form of football played mainly in Ireland. ...
Harpastum, also known as Harpustum, was a form of football played in the Roman Empire. ...
Cnapan (sometimes spelt Knapan or Knappan) is an archaic sport which vaguely resembles some modern versions of football. ...
There is also much speculation as to what kind of rules were in place for football at the Rugby School. Some sources have claimed that the rules of the game being played were constantly altered. Malcom Lee said in an interview that "...the rules were discussed almost every time the boys went out to play and that adjustments were frequently made [to the game]" [1]
It is clear that the drop-goal was an integral part of the game at that time - indeed it was the major way of scoring a goal. The rules required a player to catch the ball cleanly and at the same time make a mark with his heel. That entitled him to a "free kick" ie free of interference by the opposition. They were allowed to line up on the mark, but not charge until the player offered to kick. If a player were running to catch the ball, what more natural than that he should continue his run after the catch (despite the need to dig in his heel)? There is little reason to believe that Ellis would have been the only, or even the first, player to do this.
Shortly before the great schism in rugby which resulted in the development of two rival codes rugby union and rugby league, the old boys of Rugby School elevated the myth to an apparent truth as they tried to prove that their School was the true birthplace of the game. It may well have been that the rise of working class rugby in the north of England left Rugbeians feeling that they were losing control of "their" game. The word schism (IPA: or ), from the Greek σχισμα, schisma (from σχιζω, schizo, to split), means a division or a split, usually in an organization. ...
For other uses, see Rugby (disambiguation). ...
Wally Lewis passing the ball in Rugby League State of Origin. ...
Today
The Rugby World Cup, named after Webb Ellis Despite there being not a shred of evidence to support it, and plenty of evidence to dispute it, the notion that describes Ellis as creating the game is very popular. Thus, the story of Webb Ellis has legendary status in the history of rugby. The William Webb Ellis Cup was named after him, the cup being the prize of the Rugby World Cup. Both variants of the Rugby game are named after the School where the game began, and there is a pub in the town called The William Webb Ellis. Image File history File links Webb_Ellis_Trophy. ...
Image File history File links Webb_Ellis_Trophy. ...
The William Webb Ellis Cup. ...
For the rugby league competition, see Rugby League World Cup. ...
See also The history of rugby union follows from various football games played long before the 19th century, but it was not until the middle of that century that rules were formulated and codified. ...
Abner Doubleday Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 – January 26, 1893), was a career U.S. Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. ...
This article is about the sport. ...
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