History of soccer in America, The Ethnic Period, 1933-1960

After the demise of the first American Soccer League, the game continued primarily on
the semi-pro and amateur level, with many of the most successful teams being tied to
ethnic communities and service clubs. Major amateur leagues included the National
Soccer League of Chicago, the National Soccer League of New York, the new Jersey
Soccer Association, the St. Louis Soccer League (by now reverted to semi-pro status),
as well as numerous leagues in Southern New England and the greater New York and
Philadelphia areas and other metropolitan areas. Soccer took a back seat as other
sports shook off the depression and grew. Baseball was firmly established as the
premier professional sport, as was Football as the main college spectator sport.
Basketball continued as a series of regional semi pro leagues. Like Soccer, Basketball
had established an American Basketball League in the 1920's, their first truly national
league, only to see it fold during the early depression years to be revived as the ABL II
on a smaller scale. Although Basketball took off after World War II, with the
establishment of the NBL, and finally the NBA, soccer's new American League struggled
to win a following outside of the local ethnic communities until the 1960's.

The second American Soccer League was started in 1933 as a complete reorganization
of the remnants of the original league, but with a completely new lineup of teams. The
league confined its presence to the New York/New Jersey/ Philadelphia region, and
included mostly clubs long established at the amateur and semi-pro level, including old
NAFBL standbys as Kearny Scots and Kearny Irish. The league in essence took the
strongest teams from the local leagues and elevated them to a new competitive and
financial level, although they were at best semi-pro both players holding other jobs to
make ends meet. Former ASL I stars such as Billy Gonsalves and Bert Patenaude
continued their careers in the ASL II, joined by younger stars such as Fabri Salcedo
(goal scoring leader in 1938, 1941, and 1946), Nick Kropfelder and Walter Bahr. The first
dynasty of the ASL II was the Kearny Scots who won five consecutive league titles from
1937-1941. Some of the long-lived teams of the early years included New York
Americans, New York Brookhattan and Brooklyn Hispano.

On the International front, the US again made an appearance in the World Cup.
Although Italy wanted to accept the USA, they had submitted their entry late, and so
had to play a qualifier against the winner of the North American competition. That
winner was Mexico, who had previously beat Cuba. The qualifier was played in Roma on
May 24, 1934, and even though Mexico did not yet have full international standing, it
was a well played game from the US point of view, a 4-2 victory that established future
Hall of Fame inductee Aldo Donelli as one of the best American players of the era. The
World Cup itself was a quick exit for the US who got pounded 7-1 by host Italy. Donelli
scored the only US goal, but it should also be pointed out that Italy benefited from
immigration rules that allowed them to field three players who had previously played for
the Argentine national team. The US was thereby the only tam to play against both Luis
Monti of Argentina in the 1930 World Cup and Luis Monti of Italy in the 1934 World Cup.
Raimondo Orso, another Italy player, had also played for Argentina against the US in
the 1928 Olympics.

During this era, the amateur and semipro leagues remained almost on a par with the
ASL, as can be seen by their frequent victories in the National Open Challenge Cup. St.
Louis was particularly successful with Stix, Baer & Fuller winning in 1933 and 1934,
followed by Central Breweries in 1935. Later, Morgan Strasser of Pittsburgh became a
perennial in the national championships. One major attraction during this time was the
ASL sponsored tours by major foreign teams. These included the 1930 visit by Sportivo
Buenos Aires, Botafogo FC of Brazil in 1941, Audan S.C. of Chile in 1933, Charlton
Athletic in 1937, Liverpool in 1946, and 1948, Atlante FC of Mexico in 1940, Maccabi of
Tel-Aviv in 1927 and 1936, Manchester United in 1950, 1952 and 1960.and Glasgow
Rangers in 1928. Although the foreign teams usually won the games, the contests were
exciting and eagerly awaited by the fans as their best chance to see truly top-level
soccer.

All of the leagues were hard hit by World War II, with many players serving several
years in the war effort. Leagues compensated as best they could with depleted rosters
and players moving up from the amateur ranks. In 1945, the national governing body
formally changed its name from the United States Football Association to the United
States Soccer Football Association. After the war, there was a mini-boom among all
sports in the US. In soccer, this was seen first by the return of players from the war
effort, and also by the first modern attempt to create a professional soccer league on
anything approaching a national scale. That attempt was the North American Soccer
Football League, formed in 1946 by Fred Weiszman of Chicago, later replaced by
Chicago White Sox General Manager Leslie O'Connor. This league included teams in St.
Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Toronto. The league drew respectable crowds (in
the 2,000-4,000 range) and several top-notch players including Gil Heron and Hall of
Famer Nick D'Orio. The league only lasted two seasons due to financial difficulties, and
the inability of some teams to show up for games during 1947. The Chicago Vikings won
the National Challenge Cup in 1946, and they as well as the Pittsburgh Vikings
continued to have success at the amateur level.

The 1950's started off with a bang as the US National team returned to the World Cup
and stunned the world by defeating England 1-0 on a goal by Joe Gaetjens. Outside of
this triumph, the sporting boom largely passed soccer by, as the game continued to
lumber on at the local club level, with new dynasties being established by the Ukrainian
Nationals of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Americans, New York Hakoah and the Uhrik
Truckers, all of whom won multiple league championships during this decade. The 1950's
culminated with a move that would foreshadow the coming soccer boom -- the
recognition of soccer as a sanctioned sport by the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA), which proved to be a huge boom by pulling together the disparate
college soccer conferences and providing a truly national championship for the first time.
This move also spurred a continued boom in the college game as more and more
institutions were encouraged to add soccer, or promote their club teams to varsity
status.

Darrell Stuart . com
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History of soccer in America
The Ethnic Period, 1933-1960

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