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The history of the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league football club stretches back to the pre-schism (1908) days of rugby football in Australia to the present. The club's history is one of the longest of any Australian rugby league club and they are one of the National Rugby League's last two extant foundation clubs along with the Sydney Roosters. == Early years == South Sydney was the third rugby league football club founded in Australia after Glebe and Newtown. In 1908 a rugby league competition began in Sydney with working-class clubs, including the South Sydney Rugby Union Club, leaving rugby union to play by the new rules adopted by the New South Wales Rugby League. The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club was founded on Friday 17 January 1908 at Redfern Town Hall when J J Giltinan was joined on the podium by cricketer Victor Trumper and politician Henry Clement Hoyle before a large crowd of supporters. Souths took part in the first game of the inaugural competition when it started on Easter Monday, 20 April 1908. They defeated North Sydney 11-7 at Birchgrove Oval. Souths won the inaugural Sydney premiership beating Eastern Suburbs 14-12 in the final and backed it up the following year in extraordinary circumstances when opponents Balmain refused to show up in protest of the final being played as a prelude to a Kangaroos v Wallabies match. South Sydney kicked off to no one and were declared premiers. During these early years Arthur Hennessy was considered the founding father of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and he was assisted in administration by S. G. Ball. A hooker and prop forward, Hennessy was Souths' first captain and coach. He was also New South Wales' first captain and Australia's first test captain in 1908. He played 26 games for Souths between 1908 an 1911. South Sydney played in the grand final of the 1910 NSWRFL season, drawing with Newtown who were named premiers by virtue of being the League leaders. South Sydney's playing jerseys sported cardinal red and myrtle green colours. Some sources have suggested that this combination of colours was due to the local rugby union club being nicknamed the "Redfern Waratahs". The suburb is named after surgeon William Redfern, who was granted 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land in this area in 1817 by Lachlan Macquarie. Red and green dominate the colours of the waratah and hence, possibly, the South Sydney Rugby League Football Club adopted these colours for their jerseys. Prior to the establishment of the rugby league club in 1908, the earlier South Sydney rugby union club (which included Arthur Hennessy, South Sydney Rugby League club's first captain and coach), originally sported the famous red and green colours. The most famous story of how the club got the "Rabbitohs" nickname comes from their rugby union days at the turn of the 20th century. During that period, players wearing their cardinal red and myrtle green football jumpers, earned some extra money on Saturday mornings by hawking rabbits around the district with the traditional cry of "Rabbitoh!" echoing through the narrow streets. As they made a sale, they would sling the bunny from their shoulder and skin it on the spot, inevitably accumulating some of the fur and blood on their jerseys as they did so. When they played in those blood stained jumpers that afternoon, opponents from wealthier rugby clubs did not always appreciate the aroma and would mockingly repeat the "Rabbitoh!" cry. After further premierships in 1914 and 1918, Souths enjoyed the first of three golden premiership eras they would enjoy winning seven out of eight premierships from 1925–32, only missing out in 1930 where Wests broke through for their maiden premiership. Star players in Souths first golden era included five-eighth Alf "Smacker" Blair, Eddie Root, try scoring winger, Benny Wearing (144 career tries), Alf O'Connor and second row forward, George Treweek. In 1925 Souths won 15 games straight to go through the first grade season undefeated. The 1925 team is still the only Souths team to go through the first grade season undefeated. Such was Souths' dominance in the early years of the rugby league competition that the Rabbitohs were labelled "The Pride of the League". Premiership success evaded Souths between 1933-49 despite being runners up on four occasions before a new breed of Rabbitohs would make their mark on the game. In 1948 Souths began playing their home games at Redfern Oval. Their first match there was a 19-all draw with Easts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the South Sydney Rabbitohs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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