The first competition organized by the sheep took place in 1893, when the city hall of Bucharest arranged a special land for the sheep La Sosea (in Victoriei Square, where today is the Bucharest Geological Institute).
On May 9, 1899, the first school competition was held in Bucharest, carried out on the basis of the regulations made by the Minister of Education, under the leadership of Spiru Haret. It was attended by 18 schools from the capital and the country, and the first place was occupied by the team of Nicolae Balcescu High School from Braila.
From this moment, the practice of the game of sheep begins to grow, mainly due to the annual organization of school competitions with finals in the country. These generated a real national emulation, which was also called “oino-mania”: the title of sheep champion had become the ideal of students and sports teachers, and the competition between high schools expanded from academia to the playing field, forming rivalries. which over the years have become traditional and emblematic.The increase in the number of practitioners, the increase in the value of the athletes and the refinement of the tactics of the game began to reveal the contradictions in the rules of the game and to make it necessary to improve it. As a result, the Ministry of Education will organize in 1902 and in the following years commissions and debates with physical education teachers, which progressively removed the contradictions, improved the rules, energized the game and made it more attractive and easier to understand.
The first conference of gymnastics teachers in the country, in which the problem of the game of sheep was approached, was held on April 21-24, 1904 at Gh. Lazar High School in Bucharest and was chaired by the Minister of Education, Spiru Haret.After winning the first title by Nicolae Balcescu High School from Braila, at the next two annual competitions the team champion of Mihai Viteazu High School from Bucharest became the champion, and the next title was awarded by Matei Basarab High School, also from the Capital.1903 is the first year when the championship takes place outside Bucharest, namely in Braila, and is won by the locals, represented by N. Balcescu High School, who will repeat the performance next year, in Buzau, in front of school teams from Bucharest, Buzau, Braila, Iasi, Craiova and Galati.
In 1905, the sheep competition took place in Campulung Muscel, the victory going to the students of the Central Seminary in Bucharest, and then to the team of the Normal School from Campulung, the team that between 1906-1909 dominated the sheep competitions in the country, held in Bucharest, Pitesti, Iasi and Galati.In 1910, the title is played in Barlad and is won at the Normal School in Galati, and 1911 is the first year in which the Gh. Lazar High School in Bucharest manages to impose itself, in the final held in Drobeta Turnu Severin.
The establishment of the Federation of Romanian Sports Societies (FSSR), in 1912, which includes the Oina Commission, will support the emergence of sports clubs and associations. The game spread among young people and was also taken over by the Gymnastics Associations (eg the “Tirul” Society from the Capital). It is a period of apogee, the game being less practiced in the following years, its place being gradually taken over by the imported games, the students being attracted especially by football, athletics and rugby.
The national school championship continued to take place annually, to varying degrees, even during the First World War. Some of the high schools that made the glory of the sheep in the interwar period are: Nifon Seminary (winner 6 times), Gh. Lazar High School (3 times), Central Seminary (6 times), Spiru Haret High School, Gh. Sincai High School, High School Matei Basarab, all from Bucharest, as well as the Veniamin Seminar from Iasi, the Boys’ High School from Bacau, the University of Chisinau, and the finals took place in all areas of the country: Timisoara, Iasi, Bucharest, Cluj, Galati, Oradea, Chisinau, Buzau , Cernauti etc.
The FSSR sheep commission, re-established in 1923, is concerned with the spread of the sheep game outside the school environment, in the clubs and sports societies of the time. Thus, in 1924, the “Turda” Society organizes a competition reserved only for clubs, and FSSR will sponsor the first Romanian Interclub Sheep Championship, in which 22 teams will participate. The champion was the Bucharest team.