July 4, 1892 Hurling Match on Boston Common between Boston + Cambridge Teams Draws 20,000 Spectators

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On July 4, 1892, a massive hurling match took place on Boston Common, between the Shamrock hurling club of Boston and the William O'Brien club of Cambridge.  The winner received a $100 purse.

Estimates varied from 10,000 to 20,00 spectators, according to Boston newspapers.  A detail of 100 patrolmen, including a lieutenant and four sergeants, were on-site for crowd control and to keep the pitch clear. 

The game was set to begin at 7 a.m. but did not get underway until 8:15 a.m. Prior to the game, the William O'Brien Club entered a protest saying there were several ringers from Lynn playing for the Shamrocks. 

In the end, the William O'Briens defeated the Shamrocks by a score of 2-1.  

A few days after the match, on July 7, The Boston Globe reported, "The members of the Shamrock Hurling Club still believe they superior players to the William O' Briens, who defeated them on the Common on July 4. and they challenge them or any hurling club in Massachusetts to play for from $100 to #300 a side at the picnic of the National Irish Athletic Club to be held at Oakland Garden on July 14."

A columnist in the Globe put the rivalry in a larger context when he wrote, "Foot ball is an effeminate game compared wit hurling. A player is more apt to get off his feet at hurling, and the ball is more eccentric and dangerous. This explains why Boston police escaped with such agility into the crowd on the Common yesterday, when they saw ball and players come rushing towards them. Still, in all the crash of clubs and conflict of mud and blood, the William 0'Briens were very considerate of the Shamrocks' shins."


Research + Text, Michael Quinlin


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