In the United States, Australian rules football (most commonly referred to simply as "Footy" but sometimes "Aussie Rules" or AFL) is a team and spectator sport which has grown rapidly across the country since 1996. The USAFL National Championships is currently the largest club tournament in the world with 41 teams competing across 6 divisions in 2022. A national youth team has also been established and participation is growing in women's teams, junior teams and in modified and non-contact variations such as Metro Footy and Footy 7s. The United States Australian Football League (USAFL) is the governing body, with various clubs and leagues around the country it oversees more than 2,000 players more than half of which are American. An active fan based organization, the Australian Football Association of North America also exists to promote a broader audience.
It was originally introduced in 1906 and by 1910 "field ball" or "fieldball", as it was then called in San Francisco Bay area schools, filled a niche later occupied by soccer. By 1911 with the rapid expansion to schools and colleges in three major cities the U.S. overtook New Zealand to become the second largest Australian football playing nation in the world and there were three reciprocal tours with international matches played at junior level between 1909 and 1919. However availability of officials, large fields, squads of sufficient size and difficulty in differentiating it from rugby as well as a lack of support from the game's administrators in Australia stunted its growth and it went into permanent recess at the end of the 1920s. It was rekindled in the 1980s through interest generated mainly from television highlights from Australia. Prior to this, it has been confused with rugby football which is less popular than American football in the U.S. The USAFL's founding president Paul O'Keefe made efforts to differentiate it through promotion of the moniker "footy".A Man with a Vision from USAFL 8 March 2007 The world governing body, the AFL Commission has also made efforts to differentiate it, producing educational videos such as "What is AFL?" aimed at a North American audience.
The country is a source of professional talent for the Australian Football League (AFL) with clubs began taking interest in converting American athletes, particularly amateur college basketball, college football and soccer players with an AFL International Combine being held since 2010. While many moved to Australia to further their careers, only a handful have made the grade, most notably: Jason Holmes, Mason Cox playing senior AFL and Danielle Marshall in the AFL Women's. Mason Cox's success has seen a boom in interest since 2016.
The national men's team - the USA Revolution - debuted in 1999, its best result is bronze the 2005 Australian Football International Cup and has won the 49th Parallel Cup 10 out of 11 times. The national women's team, the USA Freedom - debuted in 2007 and reached bronze in the 2011 Australian Football International Cup.
History
Australian rules football was virtually unheard of in the United States in the 19th Century. American football, soccer and Rugby Football were all established sports and Americans had limited awareness of the Australian game. Even Gaelic football had been introduced to the United States by 1892.San Francisco Call, Volume 71, Number 111, 21 March 1892
Australian football player Pat O'Dea moved to America in 1898 to visit his brother in Wisconsin and quickly became a legendary gridiron punter. O'Dea made headlines as the "Kangaroo Kicker" in the late 1890s. Yet rarely any received any mention of developing his kicking prowess through the Australian game, let alone his previous career in Australia with the Melbourne Football Club.PAT ODEA IS THE KING OF KICKERS. San Francisco Call, Volume 84, Number 178, 25 November 1898
A 1905 VFL Report made mention of a request from parties including president Theodore Roosevelt in the U.S. in obtaining copies of the Laws of the Game. The enquiry was due to a spike in deaths and injuries in American football, and inquiries into ways to make its football games safer. In response, the VFL enthusiastically wrote to 69 American universities and colleges insisting that they adopt the VFL's laws and affiliate with the newly formed Australasian Football Council (AFC) which it led. According to De Moore (2021) this overconfidence of the VFL in the superiority of its league competition backfired spectacularly in that it inadvertently led to the introduction of intercollegiate rugby into the United States, a 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States and the establishment of rugby union in the United States, effectively denying Australian Football the opportunity to become established. Furthermore, American players did not adopt any of the VFL's laws, however their investigations eventually led to legalizing the forward pass to open up the field of play a distinctive feature of the game today.
Following the VFL's failed attempt to convert the colleges, and its underestimation of the pull of global rugby, the league resolved not to respond to any further requests for copies of the game's laws. It successfully lobbied the AFC not to support the game being played outside Australasia, much to the frustration of proponents such as West Australian Football League secretary John J Simons.
Simons, while organizing a promotional Australian Football tour of England, had sought to include the U.S. and wrote to various football groups including expatriate Australians in North America to express interest in fielding teams against the Australians. He initially wrote to Con Hickey, chairman of the VFL for assistance, proposing the league send a touring side and provide funding, however Hickey replied that the VFL would not support the initiative believing it would be a failure.The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) 12 Apr 1909 Page 11 While the tour never went ahead, Simons was instrumental in the formation of teams in Vancouver and several Australians in America also answered the call.
First introduction: 1906–1909 In 1906 Pat O'Dea along with his older brother and kicking mentor Andrew (of the Wisconsin University Athletic Club and its American football coach) were able to attain a copy of the Victorian Football Association's rules (as this league was not affiliated with the AFC) and had begun training college students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Another expatriate Victorian cricketer A Warne, working with the Philadelphia City Council introduced the game in Pennsylvania along with cricket. But it was ex-Fremantle WAFL player Charles Lynan, then working at the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in San Francisco who had the most success training students, most of whom were basketballers and rugby players, at Columbia Park Grammar School. The VFL in 1908 through Hickey had begun to promote universal football as a preferred alternative to Australian rules for North Americans to play and compete against Australia, anticipating the league to adopt the rectangular field over the traditional oval field. Lynan seeing the trend away from American football as a major opportunity, and in response to a burgeoning local rugby community initially sought to convince the newly formed San Francisco Barbarians Rugby Club and also Stanford's newly formed rugby team, who had been actively seeking less violent alternatives to American football, to try Australian Football.San Francisco Call, Volume 103, Number 178, 26 May 1908 Though he garnered their support, including a financial commitment, the fanfare of the Australian rugby team's tour and matches against the two clubs in 1909 saw them lose interest in the venture. Following the tour, "Australian football" had to Americans, become synonymous with rugby.
Lynan decided that teaching younger players would be more effective to differentiate it and engaged O'Dea (following his move to San Francisco to practice law by Adam Woolcock for The Guardian 8 Mar 2014) to assist him to popularize it. By January 1909, they had trained more than 450 junior athletes to choose the best to form a squad. Having gained the support of the Public Schools Athletic Association of San Francisco president and founder of the Columbia Park Boys' Club Major Sidney Piexotto, Lynan and O'Dea, in correspondence with Australian football organizations including the WAFL and Young Australia League (YAFL) (who earlier had donated two footballs to the school) organized a cross-cultural excursion, feeling that their American boys were ready to take on Australia.
Simons once again applied to the VFL to provide a week's board, to which the league telegraphed that it was "totally opposed to the scheme" and refused any support. Undeterred, Simons as chairman of both the WAFL and YAFL, arranged for these leagues to fully fund the American's travel and board, providing £3,000 for an exchange visit.Evening bulletin. January 21, 1910, 3:30 Edition, Page 7, Image 7 A management committee was formed consisting of: Lynan, B. Free, L. Resleur, R. Buchanan, William McCann and T. Wood with a coaching panel consisting of Pat O'Dea, Lynan, Buchanan and Price.The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) 13 Jun 1908 Page 11 The 40 selected schoolboys, most of them also baseball players set sail on the SS Mariposa on May 21, 1909.40 Youngsters Will Sail for Australia. San Francisco Call, Volume 105, Number 125, 4 April 1909
First schoolboys tour of Australia: 1909
The initial tour was ambitious, and intended to visit many nations of the Commonwealth including all Australian states and play football matches, however in addition to the WAFL and YAFL reply invitations were received only from the New South Wales Football Association in Sydney and VFA in Melbourne, Victoria. The football side consisted of: Henry Behre (captain); Edward Burke (vice captain); James Caveney; Frank B. Cliff; John Costello; Charles Day; Frank Danis; Edward Firestone; Harris Fraser; Michael Glaser; E. Griswold; Robert Hayes; Emil Hastings; Garnet Holme; A. Johnson; Benjamin Katz; James Kerrigan; Harvey Loy; G. Locke; C. Meinhart; H. Meanwell; Adolph Muheim; Charles Nagel; Edward Nelson; Charles Norton; Roy O'Connell; Alfred Peterson; William Prang; Hyman Raphael; Sidney Rosenthal; Edward Ryan; IA. Schmoll; A. Schmulowitz; Theo Steffens; E.Stern; Frank Trachsler; A. Truhler; Lee Waymire; Peter Weber; Claude Weinhart; George Wihr; Edward Wilson; Sheridan Williams; George White; and, Leon Wing.
From a football perspective, the tour was an outstanding success. The team won an impressive 25 of the total 38 matches scheduled. The young side learned quickly and returned very keen to introduce the game to the States.NEW FOOTBALL MAY REPLACE OLD GAME Columbia Park Boys Master the "Victorian Style" During Australian visit. San Francisco Call, Volume 107, Number 82, 20 February 1910 Following the tour, NSWAFL patron and Sydney Football Club president Sydney lawyer R.A Munro King sponsored a competition to send an Australian schoolboy to America to help teach Americans Australian rules. The winner, decided based on the student who could give the best lecture on the game, its history and development was a Sydney (Fort Street Public School) schoolboy and surf lifesaving champion Eric Cullen-Ward who received a £200 traveling scholarship for his lecture and returned with the team to San Francisco.
New Zealand