MONTREAL GAZETTE | Covo Cup: McGill, Harvard to mark anniversary of historic rugby match
Sports fans may know that McGill grad James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891; but less known is the fact that McGill rugby also has a place in history for its significant contribution to the creation of what became American football.
The McGill rugby squad played two games against Harvard on May 13 and 14, 1874, on the latter school’s campus in Cambridge, Mass. Harvard won the first match, the second was a tie; but the real winner was what would come to be known as the game of football. Harvard so enjoyed McGill’s version of the game that they adopted its British rugby rules, which spread around New England and eventually led to American football as we know it.
McGill and Harvard pay tribute to those historic matches on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Percival-Molson Stadium, as the two teams face off for the Covo Cup. The annual competition was launched in 1974 to mark the centennial anniversary of those historic games. Named after former McGill engineering professor and rugby coach Peter Covo, the showdown has been played most — but not all — years since then.
