While sports historians generally consider the 1874 faceoff between Harvard University and Montreal's McGill University as the first official rugby match in the nation's history, there is evidence that games based on the rules of rugby preceded this historical event. On Nov. 18, 1869, the Inquirer detailed a Thanksgiving Day competition between two amateur sporting associations in Philadelphia: the Germantown Cricket Club and the Young American Cricket Club. The article explains that since the "cold season has compelled them to put away the bat and ball," the two teams arranged to play a game based on rules "adopted chiefly from those of Rugby school" in England. The Germantown club came out on top.