Media Credit: Macarena Munoz

6/6/06

With a few days to go before the ball starts rolling at the World Cup in Germany, few Bostonians realize the significance this city has for American soccer. A little monument at the Boston Common commemorates the first team that played the game in the States.

The monument is near the Frog Pond, where "the Oneida Football Club of Boston the first organized football club in the United States played against all comers from 1862 to 1865," the plaque reads.

The monument was erected in 1925 and in its back one can read the name of all the players who helped Oneida so that its goal "was crossed not once."

The National Soccer Hall of Fame in Onenonta, N.Y., has on exhibit the first American soccer ball used by Oneida and built in 1855 Charles Goodyear. It was made by vulcanized rubber.

According to soccerballworld.com, the ball "was used for a game between the Oneida Football Club, the first organized team in the US, and a team of players from Boston Latin and Boston English Schools."


But some doubt that what the Oneidas were playing was actually soccer as we know it today.

In an article published at the USA Soccer History Archives, Roger Allaway, co-author of The Encyclopedia of American Soccer History, says it can't be stated with certainty that the Oneidas were playing soccer as we know it today.

In the article Allaya says that although "the Oneidas have sometimes been called the first American soccer team," and that "their leader, Gerrit Smith Miller, has sometimes been called the father of American soccer....., we stop short of declaring that these labels are correct. We don't know whether they are or not."

These doubts are based on the origin of the sport itself. Soccer was first played in Great Britain and it was not until years later that the rules were settled so the rules under which the club played are unknown.

David A. Litterer, in the article "The History of Professional Soccer in New England" published at the USA Soccer History Archives, says that "the team commonly called the first regular soccer club in the country was the Oneida Foot Ball Club which played undefeated for most of its seasons between 1862 and 1967, and played many of its games on the Boston Common."

According to Litterer, the Oneida Club "consisted of a group of Boston secondary school students from fairly elite public schools in the area (Boston Latin, Boston English, etc.)."

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of soccerballworld.com

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