There were at least two real historical events portrayed in the film, even though they were not in the book: 1) The headmaster closing down the school hunt; 2) The headmaster complaining that before he arrived at the school, there were no masters (teachers) on school grounds at night to keep the boys from bullying, otherwise causing trouble, or getting into mischief.
This production is at least the fifth time that this novel has been made as an English language film or television program, following productions in 1916, 1940, 1951, and 1971.
The characters in this film were based in part on actual people from the original author's own childhood, including versions of the brother of the author, and the author himself.
Various of the elite British so-called public schools had evolved unique games played only at the school (Eaton: the Wall game and Harrow football). Rugby School was no different playing a variant of soccer with an oval ball that could be carried. The game began to spread and rules were formalized and it was named rugby after Rugby School where it began. In the movie, the arcane original and somewhat chaotic version of rugby is faithfully re-created which bears little resemblance to the modern game of rugby.
There was a lesser-known sequel to the novel this film was based on, published in 1861, "Tom Brown at Oxford."