Featured image: The Bethlehem Steel FC victory float after winning their second US Open
Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup, on May 6, 1916. (Photo: (Photo: University Archives
& Special Collections Department, Lovejoy Library, Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville)
Tuesday night will be the first time that the Philadelphia Union has hosted a US Open Cup
match.
Featured image: The Bethlehem Steel FC victory float after winning their second US Open
Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup, on May 6, 1916. (Photo: (Photo: University Archives
& Special Collections Department, Lovejoy Library, Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville)
Tuesday night will be the first time that the Philadelphia Union has hosted a US Open Cup
match.
Philadelphia Athletics historian Rich Westcott writes of Columbia Ball Park, "The park
functioned as a major league stadium for just eight seasons starting in 1901. During that period,
however, it helped to give birth to a new league, was the site of one World Series and was the
ballpark in which numerous future Hall of Famers launched their careers.
When, a year after it had won the American Cup, Tacony FC traveled to St. Louis in 1911, they
came back from two goals down to draw 4–4 with St. Louis champion St. Leos in what newspapers
called a "blue ribbon" match to decide the "national championship." With the draw, talk of a
national champion ended.
The Bethlehem Steel FC tour to St. Louis in December of 1916 for the unofficial title of
"Champions of America" was not the first time a Philadelphia-area team had made a trip out West.
Five years before, Tacony FC, the winners of the American Football Association's American Cup
tournament in 1910 and a semifinalist in the tournament in 1911, had made the same trip in what
would be the first of a series of exhibition matches between St.
The Bethlehem Steel FC tour to St. Louis in December of 1916 for the unofficial title of
"Champions of America" was not the first time a Philadelphia-area team had made a trip out West.
Five years before, Tacony FC, the winners of the American Football Association's American Cup
tournament in 1910 and a semifinalist in the tournament in 1911, had made the same trip in what
would be the first of a series of exhibition matches between St.
Featured image: Courtesy Dan Morrison and bethlehemsteelsoccer.org
The 1913-14 season saw the launch of the National Challenge Cup, the competition now known as
the US Open Cup, by the recently founded United States Football Association. While the National
Challenge Cup would quickly become the singular competition for the title of Champion of the United
States, the American Cup tournament had been founded in 1885 by the American Football Association,
the first soccer governing body in America.
On June 9, 1916, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, "Word was received in this city yesterday
that all arrangements had been completed for an All-American soccer team to tour Sweden and Norway
in July. The Sweden Football Association, through its secretary, C.L. Kornerup, has cabled a
guarantee of $4000 to cover the expenses of the trip.
By 1916, exhibition soccer games on Christmas Day were a Philadelphia tradition that dated back
at least to the inaugural season of the city's first organized league, the Pennsylvania Football
Union, in 1889. As was the case then, the exhibition game in 1916 took place at the grounds of one
of Philadelphia's professional baseball teams, this time at the Phillies Ball Park.
The recent release of the designs for the new Philadelphia Union home and away kits got me
thinking about the evolution of the kit designs of other teams in Philadelphia soccer history.
Today, the regular release of new jerseys is an important part of the marketing of a professional
team, not to mention a lucrative source of revenue.
Featured image: Bethlehem Steel in 1915 displaying their already impressive trophy
collection. They would add their first US Open Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup, on
May 3, 1915 when they defeated Brooklyn Celtic in the final.. (Photo: Courtesy of Dan
Morrison.)
Tuesday night will mark the 98th edition of the US Open Cup.
Featured image: Bethlehem Steel in 1915 displaying their already impressive trophy
collection. They would add their first US Open Cup, then known as the National Challenge Cup, on
May 3, 1915 when they defeated Brooklyn Celtic in the final.. (Photo: Courtesy of Dan
Morrison.)
Tuesday night will mark the 98th edition of the US Open Cup.
