Rugby School was founded in 1567. The boys wear sports jackets, and the girls (first admitted to the school in the 1970s) wear similar jackets with long skirts, reaching their ankles. Some girls wear their pyjamas underneath their skirts in winter!
Pedometers, unknown in John’s day, can now be worn for fun. On a school day, pupils can easily cover at least five miles, walking between their house, and the classrooms, specialist rooms like IT, science blocks, and chapel.
Many Old Rugbeians have become famous. For example Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice in Wonderland, Arthur Ransome who wrote Swallows and Amazons, and Rupert Brooke, the First World War poet. Today tourists can buy rugby balls in the school shop. The game was invented by a pupil, William Webb-Ellis. He didn’t set out to invent a new game; he simply disregarded the rules while playing football one afternoon. On what became an historic day in 1823, he grabbed the ball and ran with it. The opposing team called for him to be sent off. But some people wondered if rules should instead be changed. Should it be allowed, or shouldn’t it? This became a serious discussion in the school, and in sporting circles. Within ten years, the novel way of playing became a new game in itself. The new game was named after the school where it began.
