A Study on the Conditions of Sports at Rugby School in the 1860's

through examining the verbal evidence in the Clarendon Commission Report (1864)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the conditions of sports at Rugby School in the 1860's through examining the Clarendon Commission Report (1864).
There are three motives for examining the conditions at Rugby School. First of all, a satisfactory research has not been so far made on the conditions at the school after the era of Thomas Arnold. Secondly it is understood that the educational practices at the school had much influence on many other public schools in the latter half of the 19th century, Thirdly, sports thrived at the school as much as at Eton College and Harrow School placing Rugby School in the central position of the English public schools in the formation process of sports education.
Particularly, this study will focus on the attitudes of the masters toward sports through examining the verbal evidence in the Clarendon Commission Report Vol. IV which has not been closely investigated so far. This study is to verify that the 1860's was a beginning of a new era in the formation process of sports education, clearly distinguished from the preceding period.
Following points were made clear through examining the Clarendon Commission Report in this study.
1) Various physical activities, such as cricket, football, rackets, fives, hare and hounds, leaping, swimming, gymnastics, as well as volunteer corps training and rifle corps training, were practiced at Rugby School in the 1860's. Among them, football was compulsory and the students were compelled to participate.
2) The students had two hours for play on a full school day and five hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons. This signified nearly twenty hours a week spent on sports and trainings for the students.
3) Management of sports, similar to rifle corps training, was committed to the self-governing organization consisted of students in the upper school. The masters supported this system and left it to the students to manage.
4) Rugby School was provided with a spacious, 13-acre school close of grass, various gymnastic instruments, and rackets courts for athletic use. Also, the River Avon was availed for swimming training. The size of this school close made it possible to hold either five football matches or seven cricket matches at the same time.
5) The attitudes or the masters became more favorable toward sports, compared to those in the first half of the 19th century. The headmasters often appeared in the close and watched the students play games. Also, they were quite enthusiastic about expanding the close and preparing athletic equipments, A few of the school masters even joined the students in the games.
Consequently, the conditions at Rugby School in the 1860's turned out to be distinctively different from that in the era of Thomas Arnold in which sports were never seriously encouraged.
However it was not until in the later decades that the headmasters themselves voluntarily participated in sports followed by the rest of the masters.
The conditions at Rugby School in the 1860's were well on the way to “Athleticism” era, in which sports became excessively valued and the weight on academic activities diminished.