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Children with an Alive & Kicking ball

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Written on Monday, April 21st, 2008 by Christian Wach

John Turnbull has posted an interesting article on the birth of football in the US on The Global Game. The article details the history of Paterson FC, which has a strong claim to being the first club to play football according to the 1863 rules which we honour with our kick-off game in Battersea Park. However, it also mentions Oneida FC of Boston, who were established earlier, but “played one of the football codes—perhaps a soccer-rugby hybrid”. Oneida FC are commemorated with a monument on Boston Common which I think we should visit as we head for Brazil…

photo by wallyg on Flickr
The monument (photo wallyg on Flickr, CC license)

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