Oneida FC

The game played by the club, known as the "Boston game", was an informal local variant that predated the canonization of rules for soccer, rugby, or American football. The club played in the Boston Common from 1862-1865 against pickup teams throughout the Boston collegiate community. A commemorative plaque stands in the Boston Common which reads:

On This Field The Oneida
Football Club Of Boston
The First Organized Football
Club In The United States
Played Against All Comers
from 1862 to 1865. The Oneida
Goal Was Never Crossed

[This monument is placed on Boston Common November 1925 by the seven surviving members of the Team.]


On St. Patrick's Day [March 17th] 2011, the Oneida FC was re-established as a contemporary sporting entity in homage to this original team, and currently supports two teams; one competing in the USA Rugby League National Championship, and the other in the Boston Casa Soccer League. [These two teams are referred to as: OFC/RL & OFC/S, for Rugby League & Soccer, respectively. They are based from Cambridge, MA, and are affiliated as a brother club to the Boston 13s RLFC. Oneida FC logo, designed by Mr. Kyle Winter, is a traditional heraldic design. The central graphical element is an Enfield upon a field of harvard crimson, and emblazoned upon a shield of metallic silver & grey. Two banners mount the shield: one above, reading "Oneida FC"; and one below, reading "est. 1862". An Enfield is a rare heraldic creature, having the head of a fox, forelegs like an eagle's talons, the chest of a greyhound, the body of a lion, the hindquarters and tail of a wolf. It's earliest found use if from the crest of the Ó Callaigh clan of Ireland. [Ó Cellaigh of Uí Maine are the most documented O'Kelly sept in early Irish history and annals. The enfield appears in Leabhar Ua Maine.]
The ancient tradition among the O'Kellys is that they have borne this fabulous animal since the days of King Tadhg Mór Ua Cellaigh who fell "fighting like a wolf dog" on the side of the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. When Tadhg Mor fell this mythical beast issued from the nearby sea to protect the dead body of the chief until it was retrieved for proper burial by his kinsmen. The animal is sculptured on many old (c.1375–1650) tombstones of the O'Kelly family in the Abbey of Kilconnell (founded c. 1353 by King William Buidhe Ó Cellaigh), and in the old church of Cloonkeen.