Originally published May 21st, 2019
By Zane Miller
The Last Hurrah is a series that discusses the final
major sports events at sporting venues around the world.
On Sunday, May 18th, 1924, the United States national
rugby team and the France national rugby team faced against each other at Stade
de Colombes (now Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir) in Paris for the gold medal in
rugby union, the final rugby union match to be held at the Olympics as of this
writing.
Rugby union has had an interesting history with the
Olympic Games, as it made its debut in 1900 in Paris in the second Summer
Olympics ever held, with France taking the gold; however it was taken out for
the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, likely due to those particular Olympics having
much less interest and fanfare, along with the possibility of not having enough
athletes to adequately field teams.
Nevertheless, rugby returned in the 1908 Olympics in
London, where Australasia, a combined team made up of athletes from both
Australia and New Zealand, claimed the gold medal. Australasia would compete
once again in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, where they would win two more
gold medals, both in swimming.
However, rugby did not return in the 1912 Olympics, but
it did come back once again in 1920, with the scheduled 1916 Summer Olympics
being cancelled due to World War I.
In the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, only
two teams participated, with the United States and France facing each other in
a one-game playoff for the gold medal. The United States won the lone match to
earn the gold in a massive upset over the much more established French team, which
might have been the kindling for the disdain of the French fanbase towards the
American team going into the 1924 Olympics.
As the two countries met in September of 1923 to set
up the rugby union competition in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, both
France as well as the United States agreed to return for 1924. However, they
would be joined by brand new team that year as well, as Romania also agreed
their national rugby team. It was the first time in Romanian history that they
had sent a team to compete for any Olympic sport, and they were essentially
guaranteed a medal as there were only three teams competing.
Despite the United States winning four years earlier,
France was still the massive favorite and was predicted to win easily. This assessment
makes sense when you think about it, as France had a clear home field advantage
as the United States team had to travel by ship to Paris (airplanes were not
yet a common mode of transportation) and Romania collectively hadn’t even heard
of rugby until it was introduced in 1913, and had only competed in a grand
total of one international competition before heading into the Olympics.
The United States team arrived in Europe after the
aforementioned exhausting and treacherous journey across the ocean, but they
were not met with a warm welcome from the French immigration officers, who
refused the team entry into France for unknown reasons after the team finished
passing through England. The team was detained for over 12 hours, however they
were eventually granted access into the country.
The Americans had received a negative reputation
amongst the local fans, as French newspapers had referred to them as “streetfighters
and saloon brawlers” after word got out that the team had initially been banned
from entering the country.
The weeks leading up to the actual tournaments did not
help quell the tension, as the American team was also barred from practicing at
Stade de Colombes, and were instead forced to use a small patch of open land
next to their hotel. The team decided to practice at the stadium anyway, and
essentially broke in by scaling the fence around the field to complete their
practices, further angering the fans in the process.
The tournament, which was a round-robin format
typically used in the Olympic Games, with each team playing two games, got
underway with France easily handling Romania with a 61-3 victory on May 4th. The
United States did the same in the next game of the round robin on May 11th,
beating Romania 37-0 as Romania quickly exited the tournament, locking up the
bronze medal. This left France and the United States to play in the gold medal
match once again.
Once the teams reached the gold medal match on May 18th,
the atmosphere had reached its boiling point. While the relationship between
the French media and the American team had improved, as the newspapers admitted
the skilled play of the Americans, the fans were not impressed. During a
practice, thieves stole $4,000 worth of clothing and possessions from the
American team and when the time of the game finally arrived, the crowd of
nearly 40,000 fans booed the United States team any time they got their hands
on the ball.
However, not to be deterred, the Americans held on to
beat the French team 17-3, defending their gold medal from four years earlier,
while France clinched silver yet again. After watching their team face yet
another tough loss in a gold medal match, the French fans quietly left the
stadium and headed home.
No, just kidding, they began rioting almost
immediately, hurling glass bottles, rocks, and whatever debris they could get
their hands on at the American side. The French players tried to help defend
the American players from their own fans, but they too were overwhelmed by the
hostile mob. An American player was knocked unconscious after the game after
being hit by a walking stick when the crowd stormed the field in anger, but
eventually the police at the match were able to restore order.
Things did not get much better with the medal
ceremony, as the playing of the United States’ national anthem, The
Star-Spangled Banner, was drowned out by intense booing, and the United States
team left under police protection back to their locker room.
When all was said and done, the Americans took home
their second gold medal in rugby, while France settled for their second silver
medal with Romania taking the bronze medal, their first medal in any sport at
the Summer Olympics. Rugby would not return at the Olympics for another 92
years, despite strong efforts to bring it back in 1980 and 1988. However, when
it did return for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the game played
was the ‘rugby sevens’ variety, named as such due to the teams playing with
seven players a side and 14-minute games (seven minutes a half), rather than 15
players a side and 80-minute games for rugby union. When it returned in 2016, the
men’s gold medal was won by Fiji, with Great Britain taking silver and South
Africa getting bronze. On the women’s side, Australia earned the gold, with New
Zealand and Canada in tow, taking the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Link to stats database: https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1924/RUG/
Other sources:
http://wesclark.com/rrr/1924_olympics_2.html
http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/olympics.htm#usa1924
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