Sport has a long tradition in Sydney life, interwoven with its fabric and culture. Today we talked all things footy on 2SER with Tim Higgins. Football, in all its varieties, is pretty topical as we're off to the World Cup, the Lions are touring and it's State of Origin. But where did it all begin? The Dictionary's article on Sport in Sydney, written by Richard Cashman, provides us with the answers. Rugby Union was the first football code to gain a toehold in Sydney. The first club to be formed was at Sydney University in 1864 and the following year Hyde Park hosted the first recorded public rugby game. The Southern Rugby Football Association was formed in 1874 to administer the code. Next came soccer, with the first recorded match of soccer being played at Parramatta Common on 14 August 1880. The 1920s saw a number of international teams touring, including England and (surprisingly) China. The celebrated split in Sydney rugby began in 1907 and culminated in the launch in 1908 of a new, more professional code known as rugby league, which was based in inner-city working-class suburbs. South Sydney was one of the foundation clubs. The backing of hotelier and prominent entrepreneur Sir James Joynton Smith was critical for league's survival. By the 1920s rugby league had become the dominant football code in Sydney. Australian football is a relative newcomer on the Sydney scene. It became cemented in Sydney when the struggling Australian football team South Melbourne Swans relocated to Sydney and became the Sydney Swans in 1982. But there are some diehard fans here in Sydney, among them 2SER's breakfast host Tim Higgins. If you missed today's chat between Tim and historian Lisa Murray you can catch up with it on 2SER's podcast. And don't forget to tune in to 2SER 107.3 next Wednesday at 8.20am when we'll once again be looking at Sydney's history from different angle.