The year 1864 has been described as the birth date of modern organised athletics. The scene of the birth was Christ Church Ground, Oxford; the occasion was on Saturday, 5th March when the first Oxford and Cambridge Sports were held, and the players were 28 unsuspecting undergraduates. The result was a tie with 4 events each. So was born the oldest dual athletics contest in the world. The final results are interesting to compare against the highwater marks achieved during the subsequent matches. It should at all times be remembered that the Sports were until 1959 a March/April event (except in 1895 and 1898) and hence often blighted by cold and wet weather.
The first minute book of the O.U.A.C. remarkably still survives. It was sent in 1954 in a parcel from Canada by the headmaster of a school in British Columbia to Dr. R.G. Bannister. This precious book had been converted into a personal scrapbook by the 1866 President of the O.U.A.C. The record is clear that, although held at Oxford, much of the credit for arranging the first match must go to R.E. Webster (later Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England) of Cambridge.