The Noble Art (boxing) and the Global Game (football)

The modern-day rules of both boxing and football were created in Cambridge by University students in the mid 19th century. Is this just a coincidence or was there a link between these two sports, that despite being banned for many centuries, have today grown into the most popular global sports? Nigel Fenner, author of ‘Cambridge Sport – in Fenner’s Hands’, explores the early local history of both sports, including the version of local football that sometimes allowed boxing, on the 50 or so local venues, many only recently discovered. Thanks in part to Lord Byron, boxing became known as ‘the Noble Art’, which coincided with sport being used increasingly in the English Public Schools, and Oxford and Cambridge Universities to promote manliness and chivalry in young men, preparing them for Britain’s growing Empire.