Soccer: An American History - Part One: Origins and Challenges
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of It Was What It Was, Rob Draper and Jonathan Wilson dive into the early history of soccer in the United States.
They look at efforts to establish professional leagues, the influence of immigrant communities, and the geographic and cultural factors that made it difficult for football to gain a foothold - compared to rival American sports.
This episode is the first of a three-part series. Join us on Friday as the story continues!
If you’re enjoying the podcast, please subscribe and consider leaving a five-star review to help others find the show.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to American Soccer
01:08 Early History of Soccer in the USA
02:00 Challenges and Attempts to Establish Soccer
02:38 Soccer's Struggle for Popularity
06:06 The Role of Universities in American Football
17:16 Immigrant Influence on American Soccer
17:43 Regional Hotbeds of Soccer
24:18 Formation of Early Soccer Leagues
27:43 The Rise of Fall River and Early American Football
28:31 Economic Challenges and League Suspensions
29:18 Comparing Football Cultures: UK vs. US
33:11 Baseball's Influence on Early American Soccer
38:53 The Birth of the US Football Association
41:36 Challenges and Growth of Early US Soccer
46:52 Bethlehem Steel and the Industrial Influence
51:01 The Challenge Cup and Regional Rivalries
52:09 Concluding Thoughts and Future Prospects
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | agent soccer is more American than mum's apple pie driving a pickup or spending Saturday afternoon channel surfing with the remote control |
| 0:14.3 | hello and welcome to it was what it was with me Rob Draper and with Jonathan Wilson. And that was Tom Weir, writing in USA Today, |
| 0:23.1 | American sports writer dismissing soccer as a terrible sport. And it was the day before the draw of |
| 0:31.8 | the 1994 World Cup in December 1993. Soccer was about to invade America. He wasn't having any of it. |
| 0:39.5 | He dismissed soccer as the biggest sport in Cameroon, Uruguay and Madagascar, i.e. countries that I guess on |
| 0:45.7 | his radar really don't matter. However, Jonathan is going to re-educate us. We know better. Soccer does |
| 0:52.2 | have a long and rich history in the United States |
| 0:55.0 | America. It's fascinating why the men's game has never taken root in the way that the women's |
| 1:00.5 | game has, although maybe there are signs we shall find out from Jonathan that that is now happening. |
| 1:06.4 | But Jonathan, can you just fill us in? Gives a little bit of a tee up for this series, a three-parter really on the early history of soccer or football, as we would say, in the United States of America. |
| 1:18.5 | Because it's much richer and more diverse and deeper, I think, than most people will appreciate. |
| 1:23.3 | Yes, so I think a lot of people don't realize that USA was the first country outside of the UK to have a professional league. |
| 1:30.7 | So before Austria, which is the first European country, before Argentina, which is the first South American country, |
| 1:36.6 | but actually been two attempts to start a US professional league. |
| 1:40.5 | The National Challenge Cup, which exists as the US Open Cup, is found as long ago as 1914, to 110 year history. |
| 1:48.6 | So it's a very, very well-established competition. |
| 1:51.6 | Not many countries still have competitions ongoing that are that old. |
| 1:54.9 | And the American Soccer League predates the NFL. |
| 1:58.5 | Certainly, NFL, as we would understand it today, |
| 2:00.4 | the American Soccer League being the first real attempt |
| 2:03.1 | to launch a professional league, |
| 2:05.3 | actually the second attempt. |
... |
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