Grasshoppers joined Wasps as rugby insects

LIKE many a good idea, the formation of Preston Grasshoppers came about during a meeting in a pub, The Bull Hotel, on September 28, 1869, between a group of public schoolboys, some of whom had discovered the sport on the playing fields of Cheltenham College, 150 miles south of the Lancashire town.
A resolution was passed: ‘That a club be at once formed in Preston to play football with the Rugby Rules of the game but without hacking. That the club be called ‘The Preston Grasshoppers.’
Naming sporting teams after insects was the fashion in the Victorian era – RFU found...

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