The Harvard Rugby Football Club is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I rugby union program that represents Harvard University in the Ivy Rugby Conference. Having been established in December 1872, Harvard has the oldest rugby college program in the United States.
Scene from the 2nd Harvard v McGill game played at Jarvis Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1874, under the rugby rules
Image: Harvard vs yale program 1875
Image: Harvard football team 1877
The Ivy Rugby Conference was a rugby union conference consisting of the eight member schools of the Ivy League. As of the 2022 season the teams now compete in the Liberty Rugby conference, but an Ivy League champion will continue to be awarded. The Ivy conference was formed in 2009 to foster better competition among rugby teams from the Ivy League schools and to raise the quality of play. Ivy Rugby formed committees to manage the league, independently of the LAUs and TUs. The conference took over the organization of the Ivy rugby championships that had been contested since 1969.
Photo of the first Yale team to play using rules of rugby (1876); Back row: Clark, C. Camp, Hatch, Walter Camp, Wurts, Taylor; front row: Davis, Downer, Walker, Baker, Bigelow, Thompson, Morse
