tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17831302028801472932024-03-06T03:42:29.439-05:00the sockerite...topics in U.S. soccer history
@TheSockeritethesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-48811702866122609202016-03-01T09:21:00.000-05:002016-03-01T09:21:03.428-05:00Soccer returns to the Forest City: 1903-1905<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Check out the history of soccer in Cleveland </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-from-beginning-to.html" style="font-family: cambria, serif;">up to 1889</a><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">, </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-in-1890.html" style="font-family: cambria, serif;">in 1890</a>, and <a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-and-around-cleveland-1893-1901.html">from 1893-1901</a><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> for more on happenings before the turn of the 20th century.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Organized soccer returns to Cleveland</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Momentum in Cleveland began to shift in soccer's favor </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-and-around-cleveland-1893-1901.html" style="font-family: cambria, serif;">from the low years of 1893-1901</a> as the new century entered toddlerhood. The change began i<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">n May of 1903,
when the </span><i style="font-family: cambria, serif;">Plain Dealer </i><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">reported on the formation of a Cleveland association football team. At that time the team was only practicing, but by December they had also reportedly hired a Mr. Loew, formerly of Preston
North End, as their coach in anticipation of facing opponents after
Christmas. At the time, Preston North End were celebrating their 40th anniversary as one of the premier sides
in English football. They had won the first two seasons of play in the Football
League (1888-89 and 1889-90) and earned runnerup finishes in the next three seasons. Mr. Loew's connections to the club were not specified and are to this day unclear, but the news lent some credibility to the club at least in the eyes of the reporter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In 1905 the <i>Plain Dealer</i> practically
exploded with news about soccer, though the backlash against the sport began to
appear. Haverford College's victory over
Harvard in the second official intercollegiate league match on April 15th was
briefly noted. Two days later, however,
the <i>PD </i>included a brief special from one of its writers opining that "the
formation of intercollegiate associations for the minor sports seems to be
present college fad [sic]. The latest is an intercollegiate association for
association football which Haverford is trying to organize." This attitude
is in contrast to the 1899 article mentioned in my last post, which mentioned what it called the "revival" of
association football by Yale, and suggests a change in attitude about soccer,
and, necessarily, about college football.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Just for the record, soccer did not turn out to be a fad, and Haverford College has a team to this day.</span></div>
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The British are coming!</h3>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Little news of soccer appeared
until the end of summer, but nearly all the articles that did appear before
1906 portrayed the game, its players, and its primary audience as British. In September, however, the longest article
that the <i>PD </i>had ever printed about soccer appeared (it also appeared in the LA
Times, and perhaps in other US papers).
The article profiled the Pilgrims amateur soccer team that toured the US
in the fall to promote the sport, with a photo of the captain, Sir Charles
Sharpe Kirkpatrick, a thin, bespectacled man. of 31 with the beginnings of a
widow's peak. Described as an English
baronet, "a big fellow with a genial smile," and "good at almost
everything in the way of athletics" the article went on to explain where
his ancestral property was located, and that his wife had an extensive social calendar to attend to during the trip.
The gentility the visiting sportsmen and their English game stood in contrast off the field and on the field to college football, which critics were decrying for
its brutality and supporters were praising for its character-building
qualities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For example, in early November,
in an article that also appeared in the <i>New York Times</i>, Cleveland readers were
informed that the University of Chicago was taking up soccer, and that it was
seen as an alternative to college football.
"Brutality and roughness have no place in the association game,
which is strenuous enough to suit the most exacting... [and] the beneficial
results of the exercise in the open air will be extended to a much larger
percentage to the students." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The same month, probably motivated by the attention and excitement that
surrounded the Pilgrims' tour, "no less than thirty-five Clevelanders, who
played the game in Great Britain... organized the Cleveland Association Football
Club" - later to become "Cleveland Soccer Football Club." A handful had reportedly played the game in Britain. Soon a Thanksgiving Day game was announced
between two teams, one comprised primarily of English and the other of Scottish
players - though an Irish team had also been proposed. The goal was nothing short of evangelization:
"it is hoped that everything will be in shape to give Americans an idea of
how the game is played."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: cambria, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><b><i>This is the last post in the series on early Cleveland soccer</i></b>, which is really more of a prehistory. The face of soccer was to change again with the Corinthians visit in 1905 and the formation of a formal - if unstable - league.</span></span></div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-71749341137767603722016-02-26T06:20:00.000-05:002016-02-26T06:20:06.157-05:00Soccer in and around Cleveland, 1893-1901<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Check out the history of soccer in Cleveland <a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-from-beginning-to.html">up to 1889</a> and <a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-in-1890.html">in 1890</a> for some of the references in this post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Soccerites go underground</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">While there was no mention </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">in the <i>Plain Dealer</i> </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">of any
more association football matches between the Globes and Wanderers - the faithful adversaries I've written about before (see the posts about soccer </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-from-beginning-to.html" style="font-family: cambria, serif;">up to 1889</a><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> and </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-in-1890.html" style="font-family: cambria, serif;">in 1890</a><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> - soccer did not disappear in Cleveland, though official reports
were sporadic. </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">News of nascent leagues
in northeast Ohio percolated throughout the 1890s but they either didn’t last, or, as with those in Youngstown area, were too distant from Cleveland to receive regular
attention from that city's press.</span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">What is more interesting than
the sporadic attempts to (re)establish soccer is the tone of the reports
towards the game.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">League rumors</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Let's begin with the attempts to
start leagues. In March of 1893, the </span><i style="font-family: cambria, serif;">Plain Dealer</i><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> tantalizingly announced not
just the formation of a league, but of an intercity league pitting sides from
Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati against each
other. The article implied that this was
a result of the growth of soccer in Cleveland which, according to the paper,
then had "several association teams."
Still, organizers recognized that the game had room to grow: "The
aim of the league is to elevate association football. The idea is to have
championship matches in each city in the league, and the winners of a majority
of the local games will meet yearly in one of the cities of the circuit to play
for a challenge cup that has already been donated by Mr. John C. Meyers,
president of the Western Football League of St. Louis." The idea of the league apparently sprouted
out of the established annual championship match between Chicago and St. Louis
teams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There were signs of growth
elsewhere in northeast Ohio. In October
of 1893, the <i>Plain Dealer</i> announced the establishment of a league in Mahoning
County with "four clubs, all of which have been in existence several
years." The names of the teams were
not mentioned in the article, but this interest in the game presaged the later
emergence of powerhouse factory teams in the area such as the Goodyears and
Goodrich, which benefitted from their proximity to competition not only in
Cleveland but also around Pittsburgh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The <i>Plain Dealer</i> did not report
subsequently on these leagues during the 19th century, if they even survived to
the 20th. Throughout the rest of the 1890s, there were only scattered mentions
of "association football" or football played by "association
rules." Soccer continued to be an occasional holiday attraction. In
connection with a running race on Thanksgiving 1895, the <i>Plain Dealer</i> announced
that "the annual game of association football will be played between the
Newburg and the West Side Athletics."
Two reports of a nascent professional league formed by baseball team
owners on the East Coast appeared in 1895, and then there was the tantalizing
mention of the establishment of the John Walker Cup competition in April of
1896. At least one game was to be played
in May of that year in pursuit of that cup, between the West Side Athletic club
and "the Waverly team." There is no record of the result or any other
matches in pursuit of the 19th century edition of the Walker Cup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Silent waters run deep?</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If the <i>Plain Dealer</i> reported
rarely on Cleveland teams in the mid-1890s, it did not mean that soccer was
dormant in northeast Ohio. For example,
in September 1896, the PD reported that the Rivers soccer team was organized in
East Liverpool, having played ten games in 1895, winning nine. In November 1897 the PD reported that a team
was being organized in Akron to "play a few games this fall." In
1902, the Youngstown team arranged a game against Elwood City, PA. In November 1902, the East Liverpool and
Youngstown team were reportedly scheduled to play one another.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There were also signs in the press that soccer was not viewed yet as a "foreign" game, but rather an "old" game that had fallen out of fashion. </span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif;">In announcing the annual 1895
game between Newburg and the West Side Athletics: "This old and popular
game is seen now but rarely and as it has many admirers it will doubtless be a
popular one." </span><span style="font-family: cambria, serif;">In 1899, an article about
undergraduates at Yale who were organizing a soccer team were described not as
"starting" a club, but as "reviving" the association game. In both instances, soccer was portrayed as something from the past, not from overseas.</span><br />
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At the same time, powerful baseball owners recognized early on that their investment in infrastructure - stadiums - went unused for large portions of the year. Far from demonizing the sport, these owners sought to capitalize on it. <span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">In February 1901 the </span><i style="font-family: cambria, serif;">PD</i><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> reported
that the manager of the Chicago White Sox was planning to have his team play
winter soccer in order to stay in shape.
There was clearly a financial incentive as well, because Charles
Comiskey was reportedly responding to a St. Louis team owner, EF Daniels, who
enticed him with reports that his team drew 3,000 spectators. Comiskey felt the Sox could draw 10,000 - a
decent return for a time of the year when his team would normally earn nothing at the box office. Cleveland team owners did not seem to be involved in this speculation, but the idea clearly was interesting to the city's sporting public.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">This perspective is important because the dominant narrative about soccer in the US holds that it is and always has been viewed as something unfamiliar and even alien to Americans. Early soccer in the US definitely did not benefit from the same infrastructure as baseball, which formalized its teams and leagues much earlier throughout most of the country. But the suggestion from scattered early reports is that soccer - or a precursor kicking game - was played widely in an unorganized fashion by children. It's likely that soccer was not viewed as a serious endeavor, like baseball, and hence did not garner adult attention like that sport. </span></div>
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<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Next: Soccerites begin to stir again: 1903-1905</span></h3>
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thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-39986427024313776932016-02-23T10:11:00.001-05:002016-02-23T10:11:27.267-05:00Soccer in Cleveland in 1890<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2016/02/soccer-in-cleveland-from-beginning-to.html">Check out the first part of this series about soccer in Cleveland up to 1889</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Yes, this post is just about soccer in 1890</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">While the first organized soccer
game in Cleveland clearly happened in 1889, there were several Cleveland soccer firsts in 1890,
including the first inter-state game, the first (recorded)
serious injury, and the known first youth team game.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Wanderers played three games
in 1890 that were reported on in the PD, including a match against Michigan's
Bay City team that was mistakenly been identified as a Sandusky team and was also
misidentified as the first ever opponent of the Wanderers. The Wanderers won
5-4, though one goal was not credited to the Wanderers, reportedly because the
referee did not see it. Importantly, because the match was played in Cleveland
a game report was filed with the <i>Plain Dealer</i>, leaving a record of the
game. There probably would have been no
report in the PD had the game been played in Michigan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In the first of the two games
between the Globes and Wanderers at Brotherhood Park on November 8th, the most
noteworthy event in the eyes of the <i>Plain Dealer</i> was the injury to Joseph Smart
of the Wanderers in the twentieth minute of the second half when he "fell
with his leg under him and the limb was broken." The player was taken in an ambulance for care
- to his home. The Globes had scored one
goal in the first half but the game was abandoned. A similar injury, had it occurred in the
first decade of the 20th century, may have received more attention due to the
fact that the violence of American college football resulted in calls by some
for soccer to replace it in university athletic programs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In the second game on November
27th 1890, the Wanderers blanked the Globes by a score of 3 to 0 on an
afternoon evidently marred only by bad weather and mediocre attendance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The teams evidently remained
active, for readers of the <i>PD </i>learned in late November 1891 that the Globe Juniors contested a match against a team going by the
name of "the Unknowns" – probably a neighborhood side lacking the
organization of the two main Cleveland clubs, but perhaps coached informally by
one of their players. While no remark was made about this game, it is the earliest recorded youth soccer game in Cleveland - and perhaps in all of Ohio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Lessons learned</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">What do we learn from these
matches in the decade before the turn of the century?</span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The first thing we learn is that
the term "football" still referred to multiple games, not just
American football, or what was often known then as “the collegiate game.” Globe and Wanderer games were referred to in <i>The Plain Dealer </i>first and foremost as
football games, with the clarification that the games were to be played by
"association rules." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The second thing these reports
reveal is that while one report noted that Globe and Wanderer games were
attended mainly by local English residents, the game was not described as
"foreign." At this time, there
were still old-timers who had played pre-Civil War football in town squares,
open fields, and city streets, a game in which the ball was mainly kicked and
definitely not carried. In other words,
the kicking game was seen as no more foreign than the old timers who had played
it across America in the early to mid 19th century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The third thing we learn, though,
is that unlike the boys who played the old kicking game, the two Cleveland
sides now had the desire and ability to organize. They set up at least four “official” games between
the senior sides, often on holidays, and had enough players to designate senior
and junior teams. Their interest and ability
to organize was undoubtedly helped by the fact that the players and fans shared
cultural traditions outside of soccer, and that sports were increasingly being
organized by adults. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">The games, in other words, were
not one-offs or pickup games. The Globes
were organized enough to split their personnel into senior and junior sides,
and the Wanderers were able to contact and organize a game with an out of state
side over 250 miles away. In fact, it was not unusual at this time for teams to
organize a series of one- or two-game contests on an ad hoc basis with other
teams. However, lacking a full-fledged
league or cup series that would attract other teams and fans, interest in these
two teams apparently faded.</span></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;">Next: Soccerites go under the radar... 1893-1901</span></h3>
</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-31510951033656999392016-02-17T16:20:00.000-05:002016-02-18T17:19:16.796-05:00Soccer in Cleveland from the beginning to 1889<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Note: This is the start of a short series expanding on my timeline of Cleveland soccer history from <a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-timeline-of-early-soccer-in-cleveland.html">1889-1905</a>. Look for more in the coming couple of weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What game are we playing, anyways?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Football was a common game in the
US well before the codification of different systems of rules in England, which
resulted in the evolution of association football and rugby football, which
later became soccer and American football respectively. Now in North America,
“football” is synonymous with the game played by the NFL on Sundays, the NCAA
on Saturdays, and high schools on Friday nights. In the mid-1800s, however, a game of football
usually meant a pick-up contest between kids that mostly featured kicking the
ball, though often handling it was allowed in certain specific situations, such
as knocking it out of the air as in hockey. Forward passing of the ball with
the hands was usually not allowed, unlike in present-day gridiron.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the mid- to late-1800s, the
rules for different forms of football games were written down and standardized.
In 1863 and 1871, respectively, rules for soccer and rugby were developed as
the representatives of the different private schools and universities became
dissatisfied with making <i>ad hoc</i> compromises on their own sets of rules in order
to play interscholastically. This was itself made possible by improvements in
communication and especially transportation (think train travel), making
organization of competition and intercity travel much quicker and cheaper than
before. These rules made their way across the Atlantic to the U.S., where
Americans replicated and adapted the games. A generation of Americans, however,
played various forms of football somewhere between soccer, rugby, and a
primitive form of American football, whose first rules were only formalized by
Walter Camp of Yale in 1879. </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Some pigskin with your turkey?</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The first local game of
"association football" recorded by the <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/">Cleveland <i>Plain Dealer</i> </a>was played
on November 28, 1889, Thanksgiving Day. At
the time Cleveland was itself undergoing tremendous growth that started around
1860 and would extend until 1910, when it officially became the sixth largest
city in the country (from whence comes the name of the <a href="http://www.afccleveland.com/">AFC Cleveland</a>
supporters’ group "<a href="http://6thcitycleveland.com/">Sixth City Syndicate</a>"). The city welcomed transplants from the
East Coast as well as immigrants, mainly from Europe, particularly Central
Europe. When the first soccer players gathered in League Park in Cleveland for
a Thanksgiving Day match in 1889, they were surely Britons celebrating a new
holiday in an old way.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The two teams in the match were
the Globes and Wanderers, who opposed each other on 4 recorded occasions in
1889 and 1890. The newspaper report on
the first game suggests that it was a nearly all-English affair, though some
Scottish-sounding names can be found on the roster. The game was a draw, but the fans were
treated to eight goals from the two sides, which lined up in 2-3-5 formations
as was the standard practice in that era (and was to be repeated for each of
their reported head-to-head games). <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A second match was held on
Christmas, December 25 1889. The match
was a 1-1 draw, though newspaper reports suggest that a last-minute goal by the
Globes was nullified by the final whistle.
If you’re going to settle for a one-all draw, at least it should be
spiced with controversy. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Both games were announced in the <i>Plain Dealer</i> on the day they
occurred, and, interestingly, were listed under the title "Football"
rather than "Association Football" or "British Football"
even though the second article clearly indicated that the event was an occasion
for the English community of Cleveland to gather. In the article itself, the game was described
as being played under association rules.
It's important to remember that the “college game” of American football
was only formalized in 1879 by Walter Camp at Yale.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Next: Soccer in Cleveland in the roaring 90s</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-13242558342385626352015-05-07T23:29:00.003-04:002016-02-18T17:20:24.946-05:00Baltimore Pompei and the 1958 National Challenge Cup: National Final<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3>
National final - Baltimore Pompei vs Los Angeles Kickers<o:p></o:p></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Before Pompei could focus on the final, the issue of the
location of the game had to be settled.</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The USSFA was internally divided over
where the match should be played. Gene Ringsdorf, a Baltimore native and second
vice-president of the USSF, stated early and often that the final should <o:p></o:p><br />
be
played in his hometown if Pompei qualified. The main hurdle was the school
board, which rejected Pompei's request in the fall of 1957 to play their ASL league games at
the school system's Kirk Field stadium. A one-time permit was more likely to be approved, but
other parties in the USSF lined up to lobby for other locations, notably Los
Angeles and New York. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lifeinlegacy.com/2003/1108/RingsdorfEugene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://lifeinlegacy.com/2003/1108/RingsdorfEugene.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gene Ringsdorf</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On May 19<sup>th</sup>, the Baltimore school board gave
Pompei permission to use Kirk Field for the match, and the Sun announced on the
20<sup>th</sup> that the game would be played that Sunday, May 25th. On the 21<sup>st</sup>, however, the Sun
announced “Pompei Title Game in Air” and explained that the Kickers had
scheduled an LA league game for the 25<sup>th</sup>, while Pompei was busy
preparing for the final on the same day. The <i>Sun </i>went on to reveal that the two
men responsible for the scheduling decision were the USSFA president, Walter
Rechsteiner, and the executive secretary Joe Barriskill – who were from L.A.
and New York, respectively. Ringsdorf
was livid, having already announced that the game would be in Baltimore. “It’s
an insult to the city of Baltimore,” he fumed. “I notified them when the
Pompei-Beadling series was scheduled that, if Pompei won, it wanted the title
game in Baltimore May 25<sup>th</sup>." To add another wrinkle, the president of
the LA Kickers, Albert Ebert, was going to request that the game be played on
June 8<sup>th</sup> in New York. He apparently followed through, and it took
several days to sort through the confusion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, on May 23<sup>rd</sup>, Joe Barriskill telegraphed confirming that the match would be played on June 8<sup>th </sup>in Baltimore. A $3500
guarantee by Pompei probably didn’t hurt matters. It has to be remembered that
the USSFA had very few sources of income at this time, and depended heavily on the Open Cup box
office earnings for its year-round annual budget.
Choosing the final location was not just a matter of sporting justice for the
USSFA, but of maximizing the gate to ensure its survival.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having settled the question of the field location, Pompei
could focus on its competition. The Kickers were a German club that was
frequently overshadowed at the time by its local rival, the LA Danes. The Kickers had
beaten two other SoCal teams, St Stephen’s and Hollywood SC (both 3-1) before
besting the Danes 2-0 in the Western semifinal. Beating the Danes was not the
end of the Open Cup journey for the Kickers, however. LA was the hottest soccer
area on the West Coast, but Western qualification at the time was also contested by teams from the midwest soccer hotbeds of St. Louis and Chicago. Indeed, in 1957 Kutis of St.
Louis had taken both the 1957 Open Cup and Amateur Cup, a remarkable
feat. While the Kickers defeated the Danes, the other 1958 Western semifinal saw the Chicago Lions dispatched
Kutis. The Kickers then won the Western final handily over the Lions by a score of 3-0.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAhQBJb_KRVcRlIvleFtck5Anzi-_ihMn_qfnDRAM60R0oKducF1p0P8cx78b5f416B0tjK9k_ccMFxo1LaCGlxZCDg-abLrNI613R-AYFj_uc8JzxoK_pMlHvG4PAv6-GOdEdeo2yETr/s1600/1960-05-03+Kicker+-+from+LA+Times.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAhQBJb_KRVcRlIvleFtck5Anzi-_ihMn_qfnDRAM60R0oKducF1p0P8cx78b5f416B0tjK9k_ccMFxo1LaCGlxZCDg-abLrNI613R-AYFj_uc8JzxoK_pMlHvG4PAv6-GOdEdeo2yETr/s320/1960-05-03+Kicker+-+from+LA+Times.JPG" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Al Zerhusen in 1960.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The most dangerous player on the Kickers was one that some
of Pompei’s players knew well. Al Zerhusen, scorer of 19 goals with the US Olympic
team that toured the Far East the year before, was an Army man from Brooklyn who
spent a year at Ft. Meade. While there he played for the Baltimore Rockets
during their 1956 season before moving on to Cincinnati and then LA. A deadly
scorer, Zerhusen earned frequent call-ups to the national team during his long
career which spanned the darkest days of US soccer history. He had netted 31
goals that season, his first with the Kickers. Besides Zerhusen, all Baltimore
fans knew about the visiting LA team was that they had a crafty winger named
Willie Carson and that they had beaten the Danes again the week before to take
the LA league championship for 1958.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei was on a slight high going into the match. They had
sustained a significant unbeaten run in league and cup play until their loss in
the first Eastern final leg against Beadling, and held third place in the ASL
with an 11-3-3 record. Furthermore, Cyril Hannaby, Larry Surock, and John
Pacciocco had recently been recommended by a DC/Maryland panel to try out for a
US select team set to tour Asian that summer. The Pompei squad was declared fit
by trainer Jimmy Benson, except for Bill Bryant, who had fluid in his knee, and
Tom Quaranta, who was suffering from shin splints. No mention was made in the
Sun of the head injuries suffered by Hannaby and Jojo Defonso in the semifinal
match against Eintracht. Larry Surock’s
scoring streak seemed to have gone cold, though, which may have secretly
worried Granny Kraft, though nothing was mentioned about it in the media.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVvSQJCIhKWTEMfyJOfDwsf4pYXYaRZrnsxce4l5lyNb48sjyvBG1XVkovfHEo8wkx-rA93FJFKmScFY-3U5s4D8K_fC2VXEJ06njQK7kEGvh_KBXl6RiBYbTX0QA3p3gfhgMowALTzHSx/s1600/1958+Open+Cup+Final+program.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVvSQJCIhKWTEMfyJOfDwsf4pYXYaRZrnsxce4l5lyNb48sjyvBG1XVkovfHEo8wkx-rA93FJFKmScFY-3U5s4D8K_fC2VXEJ06njQK7kEGvh_KBXl6RiBYbTX0QA3p3gfhgMowALTzHSx/s320/1958+Open+Cup+Final+program.jpg" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1958 National Open Cup final program.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The championship match was the biggest soccer event in
Baltimore since the Baltimore Soccer Club, under the leadership of Ferd Doyle,
had clashed with Chicago Sparta-Falstaff in a two-leg Open Cup championship
series that was abandoned with no winner in 1940. All regular league games were cancelled on
the day of the match, which organizers predicted would attract 5,000 fans the
double-header at Kirk Field. Before the national championship, a Junior
National Cup match would be played between Umberto Nobile, sometimes referred
to as a feeder club for Pompei, and the May Club of Philadelphia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All eyes were on the star scorers Surock and Zerhusen, who
between them had netted nearly 60 goals that season. Would the game be a duel
between the two aces? Would one of them take control of the match with a
dominating performance to all but write his name on the Asian tour roster?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While both stars played in the match, and a total of 69
shots were recorded for both sides, neither of the star forwards took
control. Tom Quaranta successfully
stifled Zerhusen in front of the Pompei net, while Werner Staacke and Eberhardt
Herz shepherded Surock who was played on the wing by Kraft. LA’s Carson stepped
into the limelight in Zerhusen’s place, popping up in the 8<sup>th</sup> minute
behind the Pompei defense. Hannaby rushed out of his goal to meet the
challenge, but Carson cleverly jinked the keeper to slot the ball home. He was
not done for the day, but Pompei found their response in the 16<sup>th</sup>
minute. Bob Swinski put the ball to Ray Surock, whose cross found Jojo Defonso
in the center. Charles C. Atwater, writing the next day for the Sun, wrote that
DeFonso “registered with a boot over his head with his back to the goal.” The term “bicycle kick” was not in
common use at the time, certainly not among mainstream sportswriters who would
rarely have even seen a soccer game, much less a bicycle kick. Would the 4,500
fans in attendance even realize what an exceptional feat this was? For DeFonso,
it must have been an incredible experience to score such a goal in a national
final.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Mx1S2lf1deWJ6AB2yrrEDqt6_PFXEOnidYnRLXy03Y3KSsr4RYrS6e-lpc6km0ZPZX-rHlKSDdW8gNnIo_NlXIkKg6r7BqXygJJrG7bHFf8PtHjvzI62Ti41PFw1P5Y9JBcbfqpCINXC/s1600/1958-06-08+Booters+balked+photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Mx1S2lf1deWJ6AB2yrrEDqt6_PFXEOnidYnRLXy03Y3KSsr4RYrS6e-lpc6km0ZPZX-rHlKSDdW8gNnIo_NlXIkKg6r7BqXygJJrG7bHFf8PtHjvzI62Ti41PFw1P5Y9JBcbfqpCINXC/s320/1958-06-08+Booters+balked+photo.JPG" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jojo DeFonso and John Paccioco attack the <br />
ball for Pompei while Heinz Weizenbacher <br />
defends the Kickers' goal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei’s quick response boded well for the home side.
Quaranta was doing his job, while Joe Speca showed class in the midfield and
Dave Roles shined in a substitute forward role. Bill Bryant did his best in a
substitute position at center forward and at fullback. The second half saw more
attacking soccer by Pompei, including a shot by Larry Surock from distance that
was curling into the far post before LA’s Heinz Weizenbacher snatched it out of
the air. Another shot by Surock later in the half resulted in a rebound that
fell to Bryant, but his driving shot was blocked by LA fullback Friedel
Scheerer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The half was not without chances for LA, however, as
Zerhusen found himself free behind the Pompei backline and looked to repeat
Carson’s success against Hannaby. This time, however, Hannaby rose to the
occasion and smothered the ball as Zerhusen tried to round him for an easy
shot.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The teams ended regulation time tied 1-1. Overtime saw one
chance for Pompei, a driving shot by Swinski that Weizenbacher bobbled briefly.
On the other end, though, Carson emerged as the hero, pounding a shot at
Hannaby that the keeper managed to parry, but into the path of the onrushing LA
player who finished the rebound. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Pompei, the game must have been a great advertisement,
even though LA had the better of the game. The visitors registered 41 shots to
Pompei’s 28, and forced 20 saves from Hannaby compared to Weizenbacher’s 17. At the very least, the game must have
entertained the fans that showed up. The question was whether they would
continue to show up as Pompei pushed for the ASL title in 1958 and sought to
repeat their Cup success in 1959.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
Epilogue<o:p></o:p></h3>
The 1958 Cup final was the high water mark for the club,
however. Just six months later, in a US Open Cup match against St. Gerard’s to
kick off their national campaign, Pompei drew exactly 37 paying fans, and
business manager Joe Bonvenga complained that “we need about 400 paid
admissions to break even, and we haven’t been getting near that this year. If
attendance doesn’t improve, we will have to fold.” What’s more, Larry Surock
had been appointed player-manager, and this caused some dissension in the team.
Bob Swinski left the field with ten minutes remaining against St. Gerard’s to
protest a direction given by Surock. The team continued on for a few more years, including at least one season under the leadership of Cyril Hannaby, but they never recaptured the magic that took them to within minutes of a national championship.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Find more photos in the <a href="https://twitter.com/BaltimoreBohs/media">Baltimore Bohemians's Twitter feed</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-91935649346968039852015-05-07T21:04:00.000-04:002015-05-07T21:27:07.728-04:00The skeletons in the sockerite closet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Every family has a secret or two to hide. The Sockerite family is no different. </h3>
<div>
In fact, one of the first records of a soccer-like game in the city of Cleveland (OK, <a href="http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=OC1">Ohio City was not part of Cleveland at the time</a>) is a gruesome one from 1853. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: center;">The text reads as follows:</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WqVur1eE0ssdM3nRUE4ueOYlKkhXhc916u5f79WMIUZRZ3UgQJetNLysF7wZBlTo9iv_2siTNeyZxoPFKieqWDVaf7KggEfvi4vNFj3m-RxCPdWwkXTP2luajYb3DuFLLl-SmFC1z23s/s1600/1853-06-21+The+Mystery+Cleared+Up+p3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="97" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1WqVur1eE0ssdM3nRUE4ueOYlKkhXhc916u5f79WMIUZRZ3UgQJetNLysF7wZBlTo9iv_2siTNeyZxoPFKieqWDVaf7KggEfvi4vNFj3m-RxCPdWwkXTP2luajYb3DuFLLl-SmFC1z23s/s320/1853-06-21+The+Mystery+Cleared+Up+p3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Mystery Cleared Up</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #666666; text-align: center;"><i>"We have been informed that the woman's skill dug up in Ohio City, was once a foot ball for boys. It probably came originally from a doctor's shop (!), and after being kicked about for a long time, fell into the cellar, one side of which is open."</i></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Note here that the kids were <u>kicking </u>the skull, not throwing it. At the time, kids across the young country played a chaotic kicking game that the English, Americans, and others developed into soccer and rugby, and that Americans developed into a forward passing game independent of the English. They didn't always use skulls, but they apparently didn't have expensive leather balls or <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/110408628336758946/">even rags to play with</a>.</div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In this era, newspapers, particularly the <i>Plain Dealer</i>, used the term "football" or "foot ball" mainly when referring to what we would now call "political footballs" - something that's the focus of a sharp debate, and that serves as a sign that a politician or party can get what it wants. Football the game was generally not organized or interesting to adults, or worthy of newspaper commentary except when rowdy children got out of control.</div>
<br />
Thanks to this article, though, we know that boys in the Cleveland era in the mid-19th century were playing a form of what was later to become both soccer and American football.</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-65206431703332190222015-05-03T11:27:00.001-04:002015-05-16T10:02:05.860-04:00Baltimore Pompei and the 1958 National Challenge Cup: Eastern Final<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Eastern Final – Pompei vs. Beadling SC – Game One</h3>
</div>
<h3>
<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei headed to Pittsburgh for their Eastern final game on
May 4<sup>th</sup>, staying overnight in a hotel prior to their game against
<a href="http://www.beadling.com/">Beadling Sports Club</a>. Beadling is one of a number of clubs started by miners
in the Pittsburgh area, and has a soccer history dating back to the late 1890s. Beadling did not have to play any ASL opponents to get to the Eastern final, and they were an unknown quantity to the Baltimoreans. The team was in the process of making a deep run in the 1958 national amateur cup
competition that would see them reach the final of that
competition. Moreover, Pompei was still
nursing wounds from their Eastern semifinal dogfight with Eintracht. Keeper
Cyril Hannaby, fullback Al Massaroni and substitute forward Jojo DeFonso were
recovering from injuries, with Hannaby and DeFonso suffering serious head
injuries, probably concussions, in that match.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Hu_A7P7h5SKB_0SNAUnmCik_Iq-G3WhRTgqNCNkEQ2eu_fEcVPPO3S_T1BleN_Rz1GQiIH3jWC7s_E34MeVArPCiomNfjHlvpB7o62QrgXfCzk21OH-TUeUgnjcIyOv5g9TTPGx9Tvmv/s1600/1959-06-07+No+Goal+for+this+Pole+pS1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Hu_A7P7h5SKB_0SNAUnmCik_Iq-G3WhRTgqNCNkEQ2eu_fEcVPPO3S_T1BleN_Rz1GQiIH3jWC7s_E34MeVArPCiomNfjHlvpB7o62QrgXfCzk21OH-TUeUgnjcIyOv5g9TTPGx9Tvmv/s1600/1959-06-07+No+Goal+for+this+Pole+pS1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pompei goalie Cyril Hannaby in action vs. Legia Warsaw in 1959.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The 1,000 partisan fans that crowded the field in Beadling in
a steady rain were silenced after Bob Swinski struck
in the 20<sup>th</sup> minute for Pompei. Beadling recovered during halftime,
however, and their star forward from the University of Pittsburgh, Jerry
Bressanelli, poached a goal at the 62<sup>nd</sup> minute to tie the game. Ever
present in the goalmouth, he fired home another shot from in front of goal in
the 76<sup>th</sup> minute. Pompei had no response, and left the field with a
one-goal deficit to overcome in the return leg in Baltimore two weeks later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
Eastern Final – Pompei vs. Beadling SC – Game Two<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If Baltimore was not aware of the success that Pompei was
having, it learned about it on May 10<sup>th</sup>. Cyril Hannaby, Larry Surock, and Granny Kraft
were invited to appear that evening on WJZ at 8 pm to talk about their Cup run,
which was the deepest since the Baltimore Soccer Club went to the final in
1940, with no winner ever declared. Meanwhile, the local soccer leadership was
in negotiations with the school board to use Kirk Field for the final, having
failed to convince them to allow Pompei access for their ASL season. If Pompei
advanced, Gene Ringsdorf of the US Soccer Federation tentatively agreed that
the final would be played in Baltimore if Kirk Field could be secured for the
match.<o:p></o:p><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZaaN71MG4vXe3jA7B8xqwi6Lyr9VjrxOJh91Dy-TqiooawN0muyI_mQAkCK-_N_DiT0U4-PfD0Nfv2soAFIeiRYM7CZkaJikNFoXLwr9VQn-tkUQ_nekHxSYKDAhCmwTWna50fP4Oslec/s1600/1958-05-19+Photo+Pompei+Sandwich+pS18.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZaaN71MG4vXe3jA7B8xqwi6Lyr9VjrxOJh91Dy-TqiooawN0muyI_mQAkCK-_N_DiT0U4-PfD0Nfv2soAFIeiRYM7CZkaJikNFoXLwr9VQn-tkUQ_nekHxSYKDAhCmwTWna50fP4Oslec/s1600/1958-05-19+Photo+Pompei+Sandwich+pS18.JPG" width="279" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Pompei Sandwich" - <a href="https://twitter.com/luigishampden" target="_blank">Luigi's Deli</a>, you need to add one to your menu!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The East final return leg in Baltimore, meanwhile, still had
to be played. Pompei still had injury issues, mainly with Bill Bryant, who
sustained a leg injury against Ludlow in an ASL game the week before. Pompei
were also concerned about Jerry Bressanelli, whose brace stung them in
Beadling. Tom Quaranta was given the job of stifling the wily striker, and
Beadling may have tried a similar strategy to contain Larry Surock, who didn’t
tally in either leg of the East Final series.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Surocks were not contained, however, but Ray emerged as
the hero on this day. His first goal came at 10 minutes, when he met Larry’s cross to
direct the ball towards the Beadling goal. The Beadling keeper, Wassyl Klemish,
deflected the shot, but Ray pounced on it to give Pompei the lead and tie the
series. Beadling found the equalizer in
the game, and retook the series lead, when Joe Speca handled the ball in the
box and a penalty was awarded. Even Hannaby was unable to stop the spot-kick to
the dismay of the home fans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The second half opened with both teams pressing
for a goal. Jimmy Cross lived up to his name early in the period, centering a
ball that found Jojo DeFonso in front of the net for a header that put Pompei
ahead. The series remained tied, however, and the pressure was on Pompei to
find a third goal. DeFonso had a hand in the goal, firing another shot that
Klemish could not contain in the 78<sup>th</sup> minute. The rebound dropped in
the box and Ray Surock put it in the back of the net. Pompei held off the
Pennsylvanians for 12 more minutes and sent the Kahler’s Field crowd home
happy, and with the hope that the national soccer
final would probably be played at home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Read more about Pompei's road to the final:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">First round</a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national_21.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Eastern Round of 16 and Quarterfinals</a> <a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national_25.html">Eastern Semifinal</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Find more photos in the Baltimore Bohemians's Twitter feed:<br />
https://twitter.com/BaltimoreBohs/media</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/05/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national_7.html">NEXT: Pompei in the national final</a></span></h3>
</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-56705638142059474872015-04-25T08:00:00.000-04:002015-05-16T10:02:15.702-04:00Baltimore Pompei and the 1958 National Challenge Cup: Eastern Semifinal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
April 20th, 1958: Pompei vs N.Y. Eintracht – Game One</h3>
</div>
<h3>
<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei next took on New York’s <a href="http://www.sceintracht.com/index.php/" target="_blank">Eintracht Club</a>, from the
powerful German-American League of New York (now the <a href="http://cosmosoccerleague.com/" target="_blank">Cosmopolitan League</a>). The teams played a home and home
series, with the first leg in Baltimore at Kahler’s Park. Pompei took advantage
of playing at home, winning 4 to 2 against the visitors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Surock’s hat trick in front of 1,500 attendees at Kahler’s
Park gave Pompei the lead in advance of the away leg, but Jimmy Cross set the
tone with a goal off a rebound in the first minute. Surock’s first came when Eintracht keeper
John Rademacher failed to control a header by Pompei’s Jojo DeFonso, which
Surock then netted. Later in the first
period, Alan King halved Pompei’s lead when he received a rebound in front of
the Pompei goal which Hannaby had vacated. His shot went off Massaroni who was
trying to fill in for the keeper.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZLvT5cx3otV5Vnt1qX2Gj5VAvH9pfYv3kYHGpp08NfRfQHGDTebCqLNV3Zu9zhffzx8UsR8sXuNr8MJqFvL_h6mUR23tTO4Rr5M8SqUsWtS1LSIKd_Z40HXDzIZ_oQi2X-NVrbB2ZHzew/s1600/logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZLvT5cx3otV5Vnt1qX2Gj5VAvH9pfYv3kYHGpp08NfRfQHGDTebCqLNV3Zu9zhffzx8UsR8sXuNr8MJqFvL_h6mUR23tTO4Rr5M8SqUsWtS1LSIKd_Z40HXDzIZ_oQi2X-NVrbB2ZHzew/s1600/logo.png" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei clinched the match halfway through the second half
with a pair of goals two minutes apart. The first came off a shot by Surock,
who split Eintracht’s fullback and goalie and lofted the ball into the corner
of the net. Surock’s brother Ray then struck a corner kick to the far post,
finding his brother Larry for Pompei’s fourth goal. Eintracht’s King then
halved the host’s lead again on a strange shot that dribbled past three Pompei
players in front of the net before going in on the far side. The scoreline
didn’t tell the whole story of the game, though, as Eintracht took 29 shots,
forcing Hannaby to make 12 saves, while Pompei took 25 and only forced 6 saves
from Rademacher.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Pompei arranged for two busses to take fans to Astoria, Long
Island for the second game on April 27<sup>th</sup>. Fans could buy a ticket
for the bus and entry to the game for $8.50. They would be outnumbered, though,
in the crowd of 5,000 fans who saw the match. By this time, Surock had 26 goals
on the season, with half in ASL competition and half in Cup play. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Granny Kraft was wary of the Eintracht squad, but felt that
they would be the toughest test for his team in the tournament. After the first leg match, he told the
Baltimore Sun, “If we win up there next week, we’re going all the way.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
April 27th: Pompei at N.Y. Eintracht – Game Two<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 1958 Eastern semifinal must have be one of the more
thrilling Challenge Cup matches played if you consider the number of goals
scored and the closeness of the series result. Cup rules, however, must have
left uninformed fans completely befuddled after what appeared to be a clear
victory was followed by not one, not two, but three overtimes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Pompei travelled to New York on an eight-game winning streak
across all competitions, in third place in the ASL. Larry Surock entered the game having scored
in each of their previous four Challenge Cup games, and had 26 total goals
between Cup and ASL matches. The winner of the Eintracht-Pompei match was
slated to play Beadling PA for the Eastern title, while Los Angeles, winner of
the Western title, already awaited the Eastern champion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
In retrospect, Edward C. Atwater’s match preview in the
Baltimore Sun practically predicted how the match would proceed: “Should there
be a tie in total goals at the end of regulation, an extra period of 30
minutes, divided up into 15 minute halves, will be played. Other extra periods
will be added, if needed, until darkness.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Could there have been a more thrilling and exhausting match?
Five thousand fans watched in Astoria, Long Island as Pompei’s hopes were dealt
a stunning blow in the first three minutes. Cyril Hannaby, their star English
keeper, suffered a kick to the head; the Sun notes that “he also suffered hand,
eye, hip, and leg injuries due to his aggressive on the feet of oncoming
forwards to smother shots.” The partisan home crowd applauded his play on
several occasions, but his aggression would come back to haunt him in overtime.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Despite the abuse that Hannaby was suffering in goal, or
maybe to avenge it, Bill Bryant netted for the visitors in the 25<sup>th</sup>
minute. Pompei must have felt they were
standing on an insurmountable lead as the first half came to an end, but
Eintracht struck in the 43<sup>rd</sup> minute through Gene Grabowski.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The goal clearly invigorated Eintracht. Dominic McCarten and
Per Torgessen brought them back into the game, but Cross pulled one back for
Pompei to put them back into the series lead. Desperate to send the game into
overtime, Eintracht threw its entire team into the Pompei defensive third. The
ploy worked, as fullback Dieter Grossman found the magic goal in the dying
minutes of regular time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At this point, the head injury that Hannaby suffered in the
opening minutes of the game forced him to leave the field. Substitute forward
Jojo DeFonso also suffered a kick to the head during the game and was knocked
out cold. With few substitutes and no replacement keeper on the bench, Granny
Kraft deputized his leading scorer Larry Surock to fill Hannaby’s shoes. Surock
quickly showed his shortcomings, allowing Ed Tatoin to net in the first several
minutes for Eintracht. Still suffering,
Hannaby decided to re-enter the match. With all we know now about concussions,
who knows now what risk he was assuming? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The Baltimore side was on its back foot, but Bob Swinski
struck in the 7<sup>th</sup> minute of the first overtime to retie the series. The
match went into a second overtime. Neither team, as fatigued as they were,
could unknot the game.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
As Atwater had explained to his readers, a third overtime
period was played. How long could they go on? How long could Hannaby continue
his valiant defense of the Pompei net? How long could Larry Surock continue his
fruitless efforts to probe the Eintracht defense for the winning tally?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The first question was answered after ten minutes. Tatoin
scored again for Eintracht, dealing what must have seemed a final blow to
Pompei’s hopes. Like a punch-drunk prizefighter with nothing left to lose,
Pompei nonetheless mustered enough energy to score only two minutes later
through Bill Bryant. The see-sawing match was there for the taking. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
With 13 minutes to go in the third period, Pompei sub Dick
Malinowski launched a long high ball into the box. Swinski fearlessly
challenged Rademacher, the Eintracht keeper. Both men launched themselves into
the air, and Swinski arrived just before the opposing netminder. Rademacher
strained towards the ball, stretching his body desperately towards Swinski’s
header, willing every sinew in his upper body to extend a fraction further.
Swinski collided with Rademacher as the goalie’s fingers touched the ball, and
clawlike sought to stop its trajectory. The pair fell together, strangely
melded together for one stunning instant in time, a poetry in motion as their
bodies met and fell towards the Eintracht goal line. Swinski lost sight of the
ball after bracing for the collision but felt his momentum taking him forward.
Rademacher, clutching at air, saw the ball falling back and his heart sank in
his chest as fast as his body collapsed to earth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Both men hit the ground, while the ball rolled away from
them and into the goal. Swinski picked himself up while Rademacher lingered on
the ground in frustration. Both knew, though, that the game was far from over.
Thirteen minutes separated Pompei from the Eastern final. Eintracht continued
their relentless attacks against the exhausted Baltimore side, knowing that
Hannaby was compromised. But it was not
enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei ended up losing to Eintracht in the second game of
the series by a score of 6 to 5, in three overtimes. However, Pompei managed to
advance on total goals in the series, 9 to 8.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Read more about Pompei's road to the final:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">First round</a> <a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national_21.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Eastern Round of 16 and Quarterfinals</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Find more photos in the Baltimore Bohemians's Twitter feed:<br />
https://twitter.com/BaltimoreBohs/media</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="color: #741b47;"><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/05/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national.html">NEXT: The Eastern Final vs. Beadling of PA</a></span></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-83619111722452236342015-04-23T15:00:00.000-04:002015-05-03T09:12:22.781-04:00Roots spread in Cleveland: 1905-1906<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="650" src=" http://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed/index.html?source=12VFJyX4nPwVd1NHgxx85UNyIdu2lNWwhPhdbxrDMhBg&font=Bevan-PotanoSans&maptype=toner&lang=en&height=650" width="100%"></iframe></div>
<a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-timeline-of-early-soccer-in-cleveland.html">Check out the 1889 - 1905 timeline here.</a></div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-7286306555256320892015-04-21T23:40:00.000-04:002015-05-16T10:02:26.665-04:00Baltimore Pompei and the 1958 National Challenge Cup: Eastern Round of 16 and Quarterfinals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3>
March 2, 1958, Eastern Round of 16 at Philadelphia Ukrainians</h3>
<h3>
<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei’s next game <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1783130202880147293#editor/target=post;postID=7407903188010359557;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=1;src=postname" target="_blank">after the first round</a> was against the Philadelphia Ukrainians,
who led the ASL at the time. However, the Ukes had only managed to tie
Pompei in their two league meetings, but the game was in Philadelphia and
pitted Pompei with what may have been the toughest possible opponent on paper.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The game was to be played on February 2, but was postponed
three times due to snow. Meanwhile, an ASL All-Star game in New York that was
to see Larry Surock line up against First Vienna Soccer Club of Austria was
also cancelled due to snow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the game was finally played on March 2, Pompei had been
idle for six weeks, but had good reasons to be confident. Pompei entered the
match unbeaten in their past five games and in third place in the ASL. Larry
Surock’s 12 goals in one week vs. the Kickers and Uhriks was declared a modern
American record by the editor of the American <i>Soccer News</i>. Pompei fans were invited to travel to the game on
charter busses organized by the club, at a cost of $6.25 including entry to the
match. The Ukrainians, for their part, were still in first place in the ASL and
entered the match on a six-game unbeaten stretch. This was before their run of
Open Cup victories in the 1960s (1960, 1961, 1963, 1966), but they were still a formidable team as
their record indicated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Sztv_Z-eH0YB-alHoZRu7q2r7556LB-xK1glFDhVcXyriXpSDd9i1A595cvtCW7ek_DU5XMDrTNrtvkftFxVDneS_7PBjC5ORxyeEUXgCAZcFnk2Bc-6qthmY8S7Fk-OVT1ZR7IjhI7t/s1600/1958-02-03+Pompei+Game+is+Postponed+p17.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Sztv_Z-eH0YB-alHoZRu7q2r7556LB-xK1glFDhVcXyriXpSDd9i1A595cvtCW7ek_DU5XMDrTNrtvkftFxVDneS_7PBjC5ORxyeEUXgCAZcFnk2Bc-6qthmY8S7Fk-OVT1ZR7IjhI7t/s1600/1958-02-03+Pompei+Game+is+Postponed+p17.JPG" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Larry Surock was in torrid form for Pompei in late 1957 and early 1958.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe Speca put Pompei on the board in the 16<sup>th</sup>
minute with an unassisted 25 yard blast, and Larry Surock tallied in the 66<sup>th</sup>
minute, assisted by Bob Swinski and Jim Cross. In the 76<sup>th</sup> minute,
Al Massaroni and Ray Surock aided Swinski on a 15 yard goal. The Ukrainians
played catch-up, as they had in their two previous ASL ties with Pompei, as
star forward Sam Falk beat Pompei netminder Cyril Hannaby in a one-on-one with
34 seconds remaining.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
March 9, 1958, Eastern Quarterfinal vs Elizabeth Falcons<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pompei’s next Challenge Cup match saw them face the
Elizabeth Falcons, who stood 4<sup>th</sup> in the ASL with a 4-4-1 record, at
Kahler’s Park in an Eastern quarterfinal on March 9<sup>th</sup>. Larry Surock entered the game second in the
ASL in scoring, and had netted a remarkable total of fifteen goals in all
competitions during his previous five games. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pompei again won 3 to 1, with Surock
contributing two goals to the total, with one by Bill Bryant. Surock’s first
goal came early in the match on a penalty after a defender handled the ball,
and the first half ended without any further scoring. Noel Wilson of Elizabeth
then tied the game in the 60<sup>th</sup> minute as Hannaby let the ball slip
through his hands only to see Surock head the ball past the Elizabeth keeper
after receiving a headed pass from Bryant. Bryant finished the scoring, tearing
up the left flank and crushing the ball towards the back post “so hard that it
went through the net.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Read more about Pompei's road to the final:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;"> </span><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">First round</a></h3>
<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Find more photos in the Baltimore Bohemians's Twitter feed:<br />
https://twitter.com/BaltimoreBohs/media</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national_25.html">NEXT: Baltimore Pompei enters the 1958 Eastern Semifinals</a></span></span></h3>
</div>
</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-74079031880103595572015-04-19T12:01:00.000-04:002018-07-18T16:51:24.226-04:00Baltimore Pompei and the 1958 National Challenge Cup: The First Round<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Baltimore Pompei was a professional soccer club in the ASL from 1953 to 1961. </h3>
They were called the Rockets from 1953 until 1957. Their greatest season was in 1957-58, when they were 3rd in the America Soccer League and reached the final of the U.S. Open Cup (alternately known was the National Challenge Cup)*.<br />
<br />
Over the next few weeks, I'm going to tell the story of Pompei's 1958 cup run, game by game, as it played out in the pages of the Baltimore Sun. I'll be posting a full bibliography of the articles I used for anyone who'd like to delve more deeply into Pompei's history for themselves.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxT3SzVRUa1kRuJPcTcmHJzHztBnn9T-8dIxyJS7XP7o592botKGjR79P4ARsidRSra5D12S3C1wcdHoF5cOi0WN4fzUCp6-f9aSo5H_IDehmXZ9yjRye5KD2f3vJvpCdgVoXeBckM7eRW/s1600/1957-05-06+Pompei+Wins+Opener+in+Finals+3-2+pS17.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxT3SzVRUa1kRuJPcTcmHJzHztBnn9T-8dIxyJS7XP7o592botKGjR79P4ARsidRSra5D12S3C1wcdHoF5cOi0WN4fzUCp6-f9aSo5H_IDehmXZ9yjRye5KD2f3vJvpCdgVoXeBckM7eRW/s1600/1957-05-06+Pompei+Wins+Opener+in+Finals+3-2+pS17.JPG" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pompei in action against Rochester in the 1957 National Amateur Cup.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The team was started by a group of friends in Baltimore, <a href="http://theclassical.org/theclog/bohemians-rhapsodizing-the-joy-and-pain-of-starting-a-minor-league-team" target="_blank">including a police officer whose family went on to launch the Baltimore Bohemians.</a> The team was coached by Maryland soccer legend Raymond G. "Granny" Kraft, who went on to <a href="http://thecup.us/the-open-cup-final-1914-present/" target="_blank">referee the 1962 and 1963 Open Cup finals</a>, and was <a href="http://www.oldtimerssoccermd.com/about/" target="_blank">credited (with Gene Ringsdorf) with reviving the Old Timer's Soccer Association of Maryland</a>, In fact, the Old Timers, who founded and oversee the Maryland Soccer Hall of Fame, <a href="http://oldtimerssoccer.net/kraft.php" target="_blank">named their annual referee service award after him</a>. Pompei had some success in national competitions before
1958. They reached the Eastern finals of the National Amateur Cup in 1957
before meeting the Rochester Ukrainians in a home and home series.
Pompei took the first match in Baltimore 3-2 but dropped the second match in
Rochester by 4-1, for a cumulative two-game score of 6-4.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Because they were a professional ASL team, Pompei entered
the competition after the local amateur teams played two preliminary rounds of
qualifiers. The MD/DC championship to decide the area representative in the
full Open Cup was a single elimination contest, as were the next two rounds
(Eastern round of 16 and quarterfinal). The next two rounds – the Eastern semifinal
and final – were both two game home and away series. The national final in 1958
was to be decided with a single match.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3>
Preliminary round in Baltimore/DC:<o:p></o:p></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the 1958 Open Cup competition began, Pompei was given a
bye for the preliminary rounds. A relatively new German club called the Kickers (<a href="http://www.baltimore-kickers.org/" target="_blank">now a Baltimore institution after over 60 years of competitive play</a>) battled Spike’s, while the Olympians traveled to D.C. to play the Washington
Sports Club. Kickers beat Spike’s 4-2,
and the Olympians fell to the Sports club (note: not sure about the date or
score). The Kickers went on to edge WSC 5 to 4 at Clifton Park in overtime on December 15, 1957.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h2>
First Round: Pompei vs. Baltimore Kickers</h2>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pompei entered the competition when it played the Kickers on
December 22, 1957, at Kahler’s Park at Old Philadelphia Road and Kenwood
Avenue, near what is now Rosedale Park. The Kickers entered the game with an
8-0-1 record in unlimited league play and had scored 60 goals in its 9 previous
games. Pompei was fourth in the professional American Soccer League with a
5-3-1 record and had only registered its first road win the weekend before in a
2-1 win over Fall River.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRe6vF_RQNExFHIeAV2yjWq35dVyLLsPjc4BjAlzgJd2hoajAfaHIZK9HtSPPIrkq5blMfexpKOmtsfWwA4I39vHOireG7eOrzFuzTWjma1qdYaDH_AS2N_vC4p4uvv9iuv_1_yhj1MKCr/s1600/1957-12-23+Larry+Surock+Scores+Seven+As+Pompei+Routs+Kickers+pS17.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRe6vF_RQNExFHIeAV2yjWq35dVyLLsPjc4BjAlzgJd2hoajAfaHIZK9HtSPPIrkq5blMfexpKOmtsfWwA4I39vHOireG7eOrzFuzTWjma1qdYaDH_AS2N_vC4p4uvv9iuv_1_yhj1MKCr/s1600/1957-12-23+Larry+Surock+Scores+Seven+As+Pompei+Routs+Kickers+pS17.JPG" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Larry Surock had a fairly good outing against the<br />
Baltimore <span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Kickers in Pompei's first 1958 Open Cup game.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Pompei needn’t have worried, as it was a good day for Larry
Surock, who scored seven times in a 9 to 0 shellacking of the Kickers. Surock was described by Edward C. Atwater in <i>The Sun</i> as “an All-American at Baltimore
U. in 1951, [who] played for the U.S. Olympic team in 1952 and now coaches the
sport at his alma mater,” and the seven goals were a single-game record for him.
In fact, he had only scored 3 goals that season in ASL play. The high-scoring Kickers, by contrast,
weren't even able to tally when they received a penalty kick. In the dying minutes of the match, Ed Plitko had a chance to redeem the amateurs when he stepped up to the spot. However, he saw his shot smack off the
left goalpost and the Kickers were shut out.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The win preceded a boost for Pompei in ASL play, as they went on to beat
Philadelphia Uhrik by 5 to 2 on a five-goal game by Larry Surock, and then tied
league leaders Philadelphia Ukrainians 2 to 2. Surock apparently lost his mojo
as he failed to net a penalty, sending the ball over the crossbar, and Tom
Quaranta sent another penalty straight at the keeper.<br />
<br />
* The rules and even the name of the national cup tournament varied from year to year during the 20<sup>th</sup> century. The rules about when teams at different levels enter the tournament still change from year to year, but the name is now the US Open Cup, meaning that the tournament is open to any team in the country regardless of professional or amateur status. The competition began as the Challenge Cup, signifying a cup that teams challenged one another to win from year to year. Because of confusion between the Challenge Cup and the national Amateur Cup, the USSFA decided to change the name of the national pro/am tournament to the Open Cup. However, the federation, state and local associations, and journalists used the term “Challenge Cup” for years after it was supposedly phased out.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Find more photos in the Baltimore Bohemians's Twitter feed: </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
https://twitter.com/BaltimoreBohs/media</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-pompei-and-1958-national_21.html">NEXT: Pompei meets the Philadelphia Ukrainians.</a></h3>
</div>
</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0Baltimore, MD, USA39.2903848 -76.61218930000001139.0937408 -76.9349128 39.4870288 -76.289465800000016tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-69347023093799725392015-04-13T22:03:00.001-04:002015-05-07T21:54:43.092-04:00Soccer on the rise - again - or is it?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5wKT3ziwuGyentH9NLfgWzYZGRpWJtzoJVtJ3nh7MZjCJrcIDO-zzJBKDCMMn2pJpem8IWJuwUFfQHQUyqm0UfbEhlGBccoBSuFW8DXfVPZF-dcFOf-ymoiXQVUQMcp1nnyPHVMmxktJ/s1600/Socker+men+expect+game.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe5wKT3ziwuGyentH9NLfgWzYZGRpWJtzoJVtJ3nh7MZjCJrcIDO-zzJBKDCMMn2pJpem8IWJuwUFfQHQUyqm0UfbEhlGBccoBSuFW8DXfVPZF-dcFOf-ymoiXQVUQMcp1nnyPHVMmxktJ/s1600/Socker+men+expect+game.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.</h3>
After the World Cup in Brazil, the feeling was that it was great time to be an American soccer fan The sport is growing, both in terms of participation and attendance. Soccer is getting more and more attention in the media, despite the competition from other sports. And soccer has a lot of advantages over those other sports – it’s more physical than baseball, less violent than football, and the pace and duration of the game can be appreciated by the audience more than those other games.<br />
<br />
Problem is, that’s been the case for a long time. From the moment soccer was cast as an alternative to football, sockerites have been optimistic about the coming soccer explosion. It happened when MLS launched in 1996 (only for hopes to fade with league contraction in 2000, damping spirits after the US national team success in the 2002 World Cup); it happened when the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994; it happened in 1990 when the US qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 50 years; it happened when the youth soccer boom and unprecedented growth of the NASL coincided in the late 1970s; it happened when foreign teams playing in summer leagues in the US drew curious fans in the late 1960s; and, going back a bit further, it happened when US pro leagues first started to thrive in the 1920s. And, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/04/08/398059884/deford-americans-dont-care-about-major-league-soccer" target="_blank">as Frank Deford recently reminded us</a>, the recent boom has its shortcomings and detractors.<br />
<br />
But it happened much before that.<br />
<br />
Let’s go back to 1907. In the fall of that year, a highly optimistic opinion piece appeared in the <i>Cleveland Plain Dealer</i> claiming that socker (soccer) was poised to make great gains in a mere dozen years. "Socker," the anonymous editorialist argued, "is a splendid game, and the zest with which it has been taken up in American cities at the start promises a speedy fulfillment of the golden dreams of the game's supporters." The language isn't the same, but doesn't the sentiment sound familiar?<br />
<br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Parallels with 1907</b><br />
<br />
If the World Cup is soccer's big event in the late 20th and early 21st century, foreign tours by English teams were the big event at the turn of the 20th. The first major North American tour by a high-profile English soccer team occurred in 1905 when a team of British all-stars known as the Pilgrims trekked across the US and Canada, taking all comers. In 1906, the most famous amateur team of all, the Corinthians, made a similar trip, leaving in its wake a stream of defeated expatriate and homegrown American teams.<br />
<br />
Cleveland was going through a tremendous growth spurt, attracting immigrants from all over the world, including Britain. In the spring of 1906, probably inspired by news of the 1905 Pilgrims tour which did not reach Cleveland, a group of English and Scottish expats formed teams and began playing “the association game” in a more formal way than the city had seen since the early 1890s. They formed the Cleveland Association Football Club, and when the Corinthians announced their tour, convinced the visiting Englishmen to stop on the banks of Lake Erie for a match.<br />
<br />
The Clevelands were beaten 8-0 on that day, but that fall they managed to start a four-team league, including, somewhat unusually given the era, a Hungarian team. The league expanded in 1907, encouraging this sanguine editorial in the <i>Cleveland Plain Dealer</i>.
<br />
<br />
Besides the appeal of the big event, there were other ways in which soccer was attractive to the athletes and sports fans in similar ways to day as it was in 1907. Soccer was a physically demanding sport, but one that did not disproportionately favor heavier players due to the amount of running it required. And because it was not well-entrenched, it was not tainted with betting scandals, controversies over sham amateurs, and the mass hysteria that seemed to infect fans when rivals such as Harvard and Yale faced off.<br />
<br />
It was also not as violent as football, at a time when the public were shocked at the horrific injuries that players sustained in that sport. Today concussions and subsequent brain trauma grab the headlines, but a the turn of the 20th century players were regularly killed. Obviously protective equipment was not well-developed at the time, but the rules also did not adequately discourage extremely rough and sometimes sadistic play. Because of this, large players tended to dominate, and teams were often organized based not on age but on weight, as in contemporary scholastic wrestling, so as to allow smaller players an outlet to play without being mangled by their oversize contemporaries.
<br />
<br />
In other words, by those measures soccer then and now seem to be in a similar position. On further examination, though, soccer then may have had a greater chance of taking on then than it does now. Soccer promoters today measure the progress of the sport against the "Big Four" of football, baseball, basketball, and hockey.<br />
<br />
What about 1907?
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Competition from other sports</b></span>
<br />
<br />
At the time, baseball was an entrenched sport in the US and attracted mass audiences. Would it not conflict with soccer? No, the writer argued, for it was a sport that was played mainly in the summertime. "When baseball is done, the baseball fan figuratively goes to his winter sleep, like the groundhog, until he is roused by the roar of the base hit." The baseball fan was a common man, as well: "he interests himself not at all in football... in the United States college football is the game of the classes and baseball the sport of the masses. Moreover, the baseball and soccer seasons did not overlap. "In fact, socker rather fills a long felt want and clashes with no other sport..."<br />
<br />
What of American football, now the most popular sport in the U.S.? At the time, football was still mainly a college game, though increasingly played in high schools as well, in the fall. But, the writer argued, "college football is essentially a game for students to play and student's friends to watch." Football was "a game for a class, just as golf is a game for a class, just as golf is a game for the blue bloods and croquet for maiden ladies and mollycoddles" And, despite the writer's association of "class games" with "mollycoddles," the violence of the game was undeniable. <br />
<br />
And while the game was seen as foreign, the writer argued that the only truly American game was baseball (never mind its roots in the English game of rounders): "It is argued that socker is a foreign importation, and that in free America we prefer a purely American game. But is not rowing, tennis, college football, boxing, wrestling, foot racing and in face almost every other sport an importation?" Who thinks of boxing or tennis as a foreign sport in the US anymore?
<br />
<br />
Sockerites were, therefore optimistic. The opinion piece in the <i>Cleveland Plain Dealer</i> asked, rhetorically, "What will a dozen years bring forth [for soccer]? The socker men say they know. They have visions of great things which are about to come to pass. Visions of great ampitheaters which will hold their tens of thousands. Visions of strongly intrenched [sic] professional socker leagues, as great in scope perhaps as the present major leagues of baseball."<br />
<br />
The writer had dreams of soccer growing as popular in the US as in Britain: "Crowds at socker matches in England often number 100,000 at a single contest," the writer stated, somehow expecting that such audiences were inherent to the sport (this was a common argument at the time). After all, he continues, 20,000 fans showed up in St. Louis that same year to see a game, "square, sport-loving Americans of the show me state - and [they] pronounced it good." Baseball was being played in England, so he felt there was no reason to reject soccer in the U.S.
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Looking back</b></span>
<br />
<br />
Soccer did grow in Cleveland, and in the rest of the U.S., for a while. It may not be a coincidence that the high water mark for soccer until the 1990s was 1930. In 1930 the US reached the semifinal of the World Cup with a Cleveland player, Mike Bookie, on the team. In the same year, the Bruell Insurance team of Cleveland contested the final of the Open Cup (then the Challenge Cup) against Fall River from Massachusetts. Cleveland soccer had relatively more high points after that than US soccer, particularly in the 1970s when another Cleveland team, the Inter-Italians, made it to the Open Cup final, other Lake Erie League teams regularly made it to quarterfinals, and Cleveland State was at its peak. <br />
<br />
But soccer has never achieved the greatness that its supporters have chronically said is just around the corner. I'd like to think conditions are different, but it begs the question: If not 1907, why now?</div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-91303420296181544242014-09-24T09:15:00.001-04:002015-05-16T10:05:23.077-04:00A timeline of early soccer in Cleveland: 1889 - 1905<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="650" src="http://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed/index.html?source=0AoTP7YATMtsvdEFMYlZsbzJRVXh0b053T2hILWU2Rmc&font=Bevan-PotanoSans&maptype=toner&lang=en&height=650" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://thesockerite.blogspot.com/2015/04/roots-spread-in-cleveland-1905-1906.html">Check out the 1905-1906 timeline here.</a></div>
thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783130202880147293.post-11626634900080992302014-09-18T22:41:00.002-04:002014-09-24T09:13:43.297-04:00What is a sockerite?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">By <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSockerite" target="_blank">@TheSockerite</a></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">There's a lot of jargon in sports. This jargon changes over time and from place to place. But what American sports fan doesn't know where they would go to find a gridiron or a diamond, hoops or the links? Or what sport is played by a cager, or more recently, a baller? Or what it means to net, round the bases, or enter the red zone? I'm not sure English-language learners think about all these terms, but once you've learned them, you've become a member of a club of sports aficionados. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
In the U.S., English-speaking soccer writers and fans don't have a rich language to use in talking about soccer (this is probably different for Spanish-speakers in the U.S., whose relationship to futbol and its media is closer). Is this one of the reason why traditional American sportscasters tend either to sound dry when talking about soccer? Or why some seem fake if they borrow British terms and expressions to add color to their narratives? British announcers often seem more natural, colorful, and even knowledgeable as they draw on the rich vocabulary of football from across the pond. Unfortunately, we don't have a handy term for "soccer people" (and I'm not talking about "soccer moms," who exist more in the minds of marketers and political strategists).</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br />
<b>Enter sockerites</b>. <br />
<br />
I first encountered sockerites in reading early 20th century newspaper reports on the game in the U.S., around the time when British amateur teams like the Pilgrims and Corinthians toured the U.S. American audiences learned that the British didn't use talk about "association football" in everyday speech. At Oxford, Cambridge, and other elite schools students often used the term to "soccer" to refer to the game, its players, and its equipment. (They did the same with "rugby," coming up with "rugger"). But Americans hadn't often seen the term "soccer" written, so some journalists adapted the spelling of the verb "to sock," creating the term "socker." Going one step further, some writers dubbed the game's players "sockerites." (Ed Farnsworth had <a href="http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2009/11/19/the-word-of-soccer/">a nice piece about the term</a> "soccer" in the Philly Soccer Pages).<br />
<br />
I haven't found the term "sockerite" or "soccerite" in any British papers. Even in the U.S. it seemed to be particularly popular in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is the paper I read as a kid (though by the time I was born the term was long since forgotten). "Sockerites" were players, fans, and managers of the sport. Sockerites showed up for practice, came to team meetings, stood in the cold and wind during mid-winter cup matches, and spent their spare time coaching high schoolers. Sockerites policed the field with whistles in their hands, haggled for fields in the local parks, wrote league rules, and recruited players from their new backyards to the old country. Sockerites, in other words, built the game in the U.S. <br />
<br />
And yet, here we are, over a hundred years later, with Kia using the term "futbol" in advertisements. ESPN has recently put all its soccer coverage under the "Planet Futbol" umbrella. Why are we trying to adopt the term "futbol"? Not to connect to Brazil, where the game is referred to as "futebol." Why "futbol"? To reach out to the Latin market? To suggest that U.S. fans of the beautiful game are as sophisticated as the rest of the world? What gives? <br />
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Where are you, sockerites? Yes, I mean YOU. Why? Because if you're reading this, you are a sockerite.</div>
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Anyone can be a sockerite if they recognize the game's history both in the U.S. and abroad, and is proud of the game's long if tenuous roots in the U.S. Anyone can be a sockerite who celebrates the tremendous strides the sport has taken over the past 30-40 years and sees how far the game can still go in this country. Above all, anyone can be a sockerite who's not ashamed to publicly embrace the beautiful game as part of their authentic American identity.<br />
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thesockeritehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738348160541325763noreply@blogger.com0