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.
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.
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.