The first tournament was held in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx in 1958 and was won by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's A side who beat their own B side. From 1961 through 1964 the tournament was held in the Spring and the Fall at the Madison Ave Armory at 95th Street in Manhattan. The Spring tournament was developed to keep the New York rugby teams in shape during the off season. A different team would be invited each Saturday and an eventual winner would be decided. The Fall tournament has always been held on the Saturday following Thanksgiving and traditionally marks the end of the Fall rugby season in the New York Metropolitan area. With the destruction of the Armory, the tournament was moved outside in 1967 to Randall's Island, which is located beneath the Triborough Bridge between the three city boroughs of Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. During the 1970's the finals were often held in Downing Stadium, which had long been connected with rugby. In the 1930's the NYRFC played its matches there and it had also been the site of several international matches, including the Met NY Union against the Fiji National side in the 1960's and more recently, the US Eagles against the Irish National side on September 9, 1989, and the Met Union vs. Roodeport, a South African side, on November 23, 1993.