This article was downloaded by: [109.162.208.108] On: 30 June 2014, At: 06:21 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Sport in History Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsih20 The Rise and Fall of Professional Soccer in Holyoke Massachusetts, USA Brian D. Bunk a a University of Massachusetts Published online: 23 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: Brian D. Bunk (2011) The Rise and Fall of Professional Soccer in Holyoke Massachusetts, USA, Sport in History, 31:3, 283-306 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2011.618697

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub- licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 Sport in History Vol. 31, No. 3, September 2011, pp. 283Á306

The Rise and Fall of Professional Soccer in Holyoke Massachusetts, USA Brian D. Bunk

During the first half of the twentieth century, the city of Holyoke Massachusetts and surrounding communities had a strong tradition of playing soccer, so much so that in 1921 one club was convinced to try and make it in the country’s first major professional league. I argue that the experiment failed mainly due to financial reasons brought on by an inability to draw fans to watch the team play. The cause of this failure was not necessarily because soccer was seen as un-American but rather because it was too closely identified with a single ethnic group Á British Protestants.

In September 1921 the American Soccer League (ASL) began its inaugural season of play. Touted as the first major effort to create a professional league in the United States, the competition featured some of the nation’s top teams and included representatives from New York City, Philadelphia, Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 and Fall River.1 The Bethlehem Steel team, one of the country’s strongest, was not a member of the ASL although most if its best players turned out for the Philadelphia squad.2 Bethlehem had originally been included in the league but withdrew after ASL owners decided that home teams would keep all gate receipts. As a result club officials moved the team to Philadelphia where they felt they could attract larger crowds.3 To replace Bethlehem and retain an eight-team competition the league invited Holyoke Falco Football Club to become one of its founding members. At first glance, Holyoke Massachusetts seemed an unlikely home for a

Brian Bunk, University of Massachusetts. Correspondence to: [email protected]

ISSN 1746-0263 print; ISSN 1746-0271 online/11/030283-24 # 2011 The British Society of Sports History http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2011.618697 284 B.D. Bunk professional soccer club. The town had neither the population advantages of some ASL cities nor a long history of success in top-level competitions like others. The curious inclusion of the team in the league prompted two questions: how did the Falcos become one of the ASL’s original teams and why did they drop out after only one season? The search for answers to these questions illustrates the challenges in researching the history of the sport in the US. Although scholars of English football have lamented the lack of source material, documentation for the early history of American soccer is even more lacking.4 No truly national organization existed before the formation of the United States Football Association (USFA) in 1913 and no major professional league had lasted much more than a single season until the ASL.5 The national sporting press generally devoted little space to soccer and one of the only major publications devoted to the sport, Soccer Pictorial Weekly began in 1927 and produced just eight issues.6 Because many of the clubs, leagues and organizations founded before 1940 no longer exist, institutional records that might prove helpful in exploring the origins and develop- ment of the professional game have not survived.7 The history of soccer in the US is a patchwork quilt of leagues, clubs and individuals tenuously linked through an appreciation for the game and a desire to see it become successful. The best way to understand the success and failure of the sport is to examine soccer’s development in specific localities.8 In many ways the rise and fall of the Falcos serves as a representative case explaining both the success and the failure of soccer in the US before 1940. During the first half of the twentieth century, the city of Holyoke and surrounding communities had a strong tradition of playing the game, so much so that one club was convinced to try and make it in the country’s first major professional league. I argue that the experiment failed mainly due to financial reasons brought on by an inability to draw fans to watch Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 the team play. In many ways, Holyoke fits the general explanation offered by Andrei Markovits and Steven Hellerman that professional soccer failed to take hold due in part to ‘the overwhelming self-identification of American soccer with ethnicity’.9 Such a sweeping claim, however, tends to obscure the specific details of local circumstances. In larger cities like Chicago, New York, and Boston the sport quickly moved beyond its roots in communities from the British Isles and incorporated immigrant groups from a variety of nations as well as native-born Americans.10 Such growth also took place in Western Massachusetts but not in Holyoke where the game failed to expand its base of support beyond its original adherents. The cause of this failure was not necessarily because soccer was seen as Sport in History 285 un-American but rather because it was too closely identified with a single ethnic group Á British Protestants.

Soccer in Holyoke before 1921 Holyoke Massachusetts is an industrial community about one hundred miles west of Boston situated next to an abundant source of electricity thanks to the South Hadley Falls of the Connecticut river. As the city grew it became known for textile and paper production, earning the nickname the Paper City. It is not known when organized soccer first began to be played in the city but by 1889 squads from Holyoke competed with groups from the nearby city of Springfield. The teams emerged out of English and Scottish communities and had names such as Caledonian Football Club, Springfield Scots, and Holyoke Englishmen.11 In 1904 clubs from Holyoke and neighbouring towns organized the first regional competition called the Western Massachusetts League. The names of Holyoke’s two entries, Caledonians and Celtic, confirmed that it was primarily Scots who played and supported the game in the city.12 Indeed, virtually all the early players who can be identified with some degree of certainty were born in Scotland (see Table 1). Peter Murray, founder and owner of one of Springfield’s largest department stores and a native of Scotland donated a cup to be presented to the league’s winning team.13 A few years later the league grew to include entries from other local communities along with a new outfit called Holyoke Rangers; eventually a second club from the city named Clan MacLaren was added.14 Initially teams played from September to November but over time the league expanded the length of the season to include games in the fall, winter and spring.15 For most of its early history the league retained a British flavour and in addition to the

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 Holyoke clubs similar organizations from nearby cities sponsored teams including Clan Murray, the Sons of St. George, Clan McLennan, and Ludlow Thistle. Farr Alpaca football club, predecessor to the Falcos, began play in 1909 and was named after the textile mill that employed most of the team’s players. George Randall and Herbert Farr founded the company in 1873 after moving operations to Massachusetts from Canada. The Farr, as it was known, specialized in the production of mohair coat linings and between the 1880s and 1920s held a virtual monopoly claiming up to 80 per cent of the overall market.16 The connection between the sport and the company may have existed from the start. A lack of skilled labour in Holyoke meant that roughly half of the company’s initial workforce of 286 B.D. Bunk two hundred came from Canada or England. Although a minority in the city as a whole, English, English-Canadians and Scots remained a substantial part of Farr Alpaca’s early workforce and the company was long known in the city as ‘an English mill’.17 It may be that these workers brought soccer with them to the city and because its employees wanted a space to play soccer and rugby the firm levelled a company owned plot.18 Such a pattern of development mirrored the emergence of association football in England. Tony Mason describes how most clubs emerged from church groups, existing organizations or places of employment. The men who tended to play football and became the first professionals were skilled workers and clerks who enjoyed regular work, higher salaries and more leisure time.19 The first Holyoke clubs follow this model, emerging from Scottish associations like Clan MacLaren and the Caledonian Club. In the case of Holyoke, club and company may have overlapped as Farr Alpaca employed several of the players on the earliest Holyoke sides like Caledonians, Rangers and Athletics (see Table 1). Throughout the early twentieth century, however, Farr Alpaca, the ‘English mill’ had the only company-sponsored soccer team in the city.20 Farr Alpaca football club joined the Western Massachusetts league taking the place of Rangers for the 1909Á1910 season. The Holyoke Daily Transcript reported that although Farr Alpaca was a new outfit it was ‘made up of a large number of the cracks that have shown on other teams in the city in the past’. The squad demonstrated its quality from the start by defeating four-time league champions Ludlow in the season’s opening match.21 Beginning in 1909 the team also played Clan MacLaren for the Chaloux Cup Á a Thanksgiving Day game designated as the city championship (Figure 1). The competition seemed quite popular with residents and in 1911 the game drew a crowd reported at two thousand.22 A year later the league, now called the Western New England Soccer

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 Association, had grown to eight teams and Farr Alpaca emerged as the circuit’s dominant squad. After finishing second in their initial campaign the club won the championship four straight seasons between 1910 and 1914. The team did not lose a league game for five years and during the 1912Á1913 season netted an incredible 87 goals while conceding just ten.23 Since its foundation the team seemed determined to field a quality squad, first by signing local talent and later by adding outsiders when the opportunity presented itself. Near the end of the 1909 season the Farr Alpaca squad included Harry Campbell, a fullback who played for the New York Amateur Association Select team that had drawn with the visiting English Pilgrims that summer.24 Although he lined up for the Sport in History 287

Figure 1 Farr Alpaca Football Club and Clan MacLaren play for the Chaloux Cup, c. 1910. Image courtesy of Harry Craven, Highland Hardware and Bike Shop, Holyoke Massachusetts.

club, it does not appear that Campbell worked at the Farr Alpaca mill. Nevertheless, the company employed most of the squad’s players and seven of the 11 players in a photograph of the 1911Á1912 title winners worked for the Farr that season25 (Figure 2). In her book on the company Frances Cornwall Hutner references an interview with a Farr Alpaca Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 employee who confirms that people were indeed hired because of their athletic abilities.26 The side’s best players including Jock Mckinstrie and Patty McManus had previously worked elsewhere but by 1912 were on Farr Alpaca’s payroll. A year later the local newspaper reported that the club had brought in a player named Frank Hirst to reinforce the team and the Holyoke City Directory lists him as an employee of Farr Alpaca.27 The key figure in such actions may have been the President of the club John P. Arnold. Born in England in 1869, Arnold worked as an overseer at the Farr Alpaca mill. The position carried a great deal of power including the right to hire workers, set wages and control working conditions.28 Bringing reinforcements into the team may have been necessary as the 288 B.D. Bunk club began to take part in national competitions against better teams. Notice of Hirst’s signing appeared only days before Farr Alpaca faced Bethlehem Steel in the second round of the American Cup competition. The match was played in Holyoke and Farr Alpaca actually led 1Á0 at half time before losing 1Á3.29 The Bethlehem Globe called it ‘the best exhibition of soccer ever seen at Holyoke’ and singled out Hirst as one of the hometown side’s best players.30 Without access to better documentation it is difficult to know the extent to which the company supported the club financially. Evidence from newspapers can be inaccurate, contradictory and difficult to interpret. Several years after the club’s founding the Springfield Republican implied that the players organized themselves and took the company’s name only because so many of them worked there.31 Still, the Farr’s treasurer Joseph Metcalf, a native of Yorkshire, served as the club’s honorary president and reportedly backed the team ‘because the members of it were a set of gentleman and whom he liked to have in his employment’.32 Apart from giving jobs to talented players, something that could have been done independently by men like John Arnold, the company may not have provided much in the way of direct funding. When Farr Alpaca reached the final of the Massachusetts state cup in 1915 they needed to raise a guarantee of several hundred dollars in order to play the match in Holyoke. Instead of getting the money from the company, the club approached the city’s Chamber of Commerce who rejected the request despite the fact that the team’s success had ‘done much to advertise the name of the city’.33 Attempts to convince a group of businessmen in Springfield also failed and it looked like the game would be played elsewhere. In the end, the team’s manager Charles Burnett personally put up the money so that the game could be played at the club’s home ground.34

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 By 1914 soccer enthusiasts in Holyoke had reason to be optimistic about the development of the sport in the area. Farr Alpaca won the Northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire state cup and reached the final of the Massachusetts state cup. Although the Holyoke eleven lost the final to General Electrics FC, the game reportedly drew a crowd of three thousand who paid nearly $600 to see the match.35 The local league showed signs of increasing competitiveness and a record twelve teams signed up to challenge for the 1914Á1915 title.36 Most of the league’s sides reflected the continued dominance of clubs linked to the British Isles and the competition included Caledonians, Ludlow Thistle, Sons of St. George, Clan Murray, and Clan MacLaren.37 As the circuit entered its eleventh season and more local squads competed for regional and national Sport in History 289 honours, the sport also seemed to be developing an institutional foundation in the region. In April the Holyoke Water-Power company announced that it had purchased the city’s Berkshire Street grounds and would rent the facilities for a modest fee thus insuring that Holyoke’s soccer clubs would have a place to play. Later that year the league’s officials formed a referees’ association. Within two years plans were made for both a junior circuit, in which each league club would field a second squad, and a school boy competition designed ‘to boom soccer’ in the area.38 Despite such positives the increasing competitiveness also forced officials to directly confront the thorny issue of professionalism. Although Farr Alpaca had been giving its players jobs with the company, the Western New England league remained an amateur competition. In the spring of 1916 one of the league’s clubs accused Chicopee Rovers of ‘professionalizing its players’ although an investigation by the state association turned up no proof to sustain the allegation.39 At the same time, local and state officials investigated other charges against two local players. Samuel Lowe was suspended for receiving $1.50 for work time lost while playing for Ludlow even though he had no legal contract with the club. The league declared the second man ineligible because he had been a professional who had failed to re-register as an amateur before signing with Chicopee Rovers. Cases such as these created a considerable stir among league members with many expressing their strong desire to maintain ‘a clean sport’.40 Issues of professionalism played a key role in the conflict that ultimately ended with the expulsion of the Western New England League from both the state association and the USFA. The first indication of trouble came when the league met in August 1916 to organize the season’s competition. Reports indicated that Farr Alpaca and Chicopee Rovers might not field teams because ‘the Fisk and Westinghouse shop teams and the Ludlow

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 club of the Western New England Association have signed up nearly all the players of the Rovers and Alpacas’.41 Although Rovers managed to find enough players to form a side, Farr Alpaca seems to have dissolved. The dispute centered on the desire of the newly organized Fisk Rubber Company Red Tops to join the league for the 1916Á1917 season. After consideration the league twice voted unanimously to reject the club on the grounds that allowing a ‘shop team’ would upset competitive balance and lead to the commercialization of the game.42 Although the representatives claimed that at present the Fisk squad was not of sufficient quality to compete in the league, members feared that with company money the team could eventually buy up the best talent. They also felt that charging admission to games would give the club an advantage over those 290 B.D. Bunk

Figure 2 The Farr Alpaca Football Club, 1911Á12. Image courtesy of the Holyoke Public Library History Room and Archives, Holyoke Massachusetts.

sides that did not have enclosed grounds. Furthermore, the leaguers believed that charging admission would be a determent to the growth of the game because ‘people in this section are not so crazy over the game that they are going to pay an admission fee to see a game which they do 43 Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 not half understand’. The state association disagreed with the local league and asked them to reconsider Fisk’s petition. A month after the organization reaffirmed its decision to bar the club from competition the state association ordered them to accept the Red Tops or face expulsion. The league once again rejected the petition and felt confident that the USFA would back the decision. Meanwhile the league’s referees sided with the state association and refused to work any games if the clubs were suspended. When the state association’s deadline for acceptance passed, the league was officially expelled from the organization. Ultimately the USFA also backed Fisk and ordered the league to allow the side to join the competition.44 Although the league, now reduced to just four teams, completed its schedule in the Sport in History 291 spring of 1917, the competition was unable to reorganize for the fall. Instead newspaper reports indicated that several clubs, including the Red Tops, hoped to form a ‘shop league’ to replace the now seemingly defunct Western New England league.45 It is unclear if the industrial league proposed in September 1917 came to fruition since newspaper coverage of the sport over the next two years remained inconsistent. While the Fisk squad played matches against a variety of local sides there appeared to be no organized competition in the region.46

Holyoke in the American Soccer League The effects of war in Europe and the local battle over professionalization led to a reorganization of the sport in Western Massachusetts.47 Both Farr Alpaca, arguably the region’s most successful club, and the Western New England League itself had been casualties of the two conflicts. Despite such setbacks the established history and institutional foundation of the competition combined with growing interest among industrial concerns helped the sport recover somewhat after the end of the war. During or after the conflict industrial firms including Fisk Rubber, Rolls-Royce, Hendee Manufacturing, and the American Writing Paper company had formed clubs.48 Such initiatives were part of the general expansion of recreational activities at the companies during this period. Fisk, for example, created a social and athletic association that sponsored teams and organized recreational outings. One such event in September 1916 included soccer and baseball games as well as races (foot, auto, motorcycle and bicycle), refreshments and even a wrestling match.49 In 1914 Farr Alpaca employees, backed by company funding, launched a similar organization called the Falco Athletic Association. The group sponsored baseball, basketball and cricket teams and in 1920 formed the Falco

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 Athletic Association Football Club. Other activities included a band, drama club and the construction of an auditorium and recreation hall in 1921. The increased attention to cultural undertakings coincided with a general rise in welfare initiatives at the company between 1916 and 1921. The activities were motivated by employee requests, changing state laws, and a desire to promote worker happiness and avoid labour strife.50 Also in 1920, the Western New England Soccer League reformed and included ‘shop’ teams from Farr Alpaca, Rolls-Royce, and Hendee Manufacturing. The competition also featured Ludlow Portuguese, one of the first non-British ethnic clubs to join the competition.51 The presence of the industrial teams indicates that the pre-war debates over profes- sionalism had been resolved in favor of allowing teams to contract and 292 B.D. Bunk pay at least some of their players. It is doubtful that the teams were entirely made up of professionals but newspaper reports make it clear that the clubs were investing money to increase their competitiveness.52 The Falcos won the league title and also captured the state championship in convincing fashion defeating the Eastern Massachusetts titleholders 8Á1.53 The team also had one of the state’s best players: inside left forward James Downie. When the Scottish Third Lanark team arrived in 1921 as part of a Canadian and American tour, he was one of only three players assured of a place in the state’s starting eleven.54 Downie played well against the visiting Scots, directly contributing to two goals and setting up his teammates for excellent chances on several other occasions.55 When the announcement was made of the formation of the ASL in March 1921, there was no indication that league officials were considering the Falcos as one of the eight original teams. Eventually it became clear, however, that the disagreement over gate receipts meant that Bethlehem Steel would not field a club under that name. According to the Springfield Republican ASL officials offered a franchise to the Holyoke team some time around 1 August. Club officials and members of the athletic association met on 9 August to consider the proposal and to hear from Thomas Cahill, the ASL’s secretary, who attended the meeting. After ‘discussing the project from every angle’ the members voted to accept the franchise.56 The league soon returned Bethlehem’s $500 deposit and within 10 days announced that the Falcos would be joining the ASL.57 Reports differed as to the quality of the newcomers: the New York Tribune called them a ‘first class combination’ but the Bethlehem Globe deemed them unworthy replacements for the paper’s hometown club.58 Charles A. Lovett in Spalding’s Official ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide declared that ‘The organization [ASL] is an out-and-out professional one and with but few exceptions the players of the eight clubs are registered with the 59 Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 United States Football Association on professional forms.’ The New York Tribune wrote that all ASL teams had been ‘fortified’ in anticipation of the upcoming league.60 The Holyoke Daily Transcript announced two new signings for the Falcos: Joseph Coleman described as a ‘star player’ and Tom Foster who came from Accrington in England. Despite his advanced billing, Coleman appears not to have played in any ASL game for the Falcos while Foster appeared in just eight.61 The decision to participate in the ASL represented a substantial expenditure for the company. The league demanded a guarantee of $500 plus a 50 dollar entrance fee from each club and required that they play in a ‘modern park’.62 The Falcos had such a facility at their Berkshire Street grounds, which the company had purchased in 1920 precisely with Sport in History 293 the intention of using it for soccer.63 Several factors, however, make it nearly impossible to determine exactly how much money the company was spending on the club. From its inception Farr Alpaca had followed a conservative financial policy based on minimizing reported profits and undervaluing assets. The result was the building up of large reserves that the directors believed would allow them to maintain financial equilibrium even during the roughest economic periods while also discouraging competition from rival firms. The company’s financial reports included only those figures that were minimally necessary and contained little specific detail. No effort was made for example to precisely define or explain routine financial report categories such as ‘debts’ and it was standard practice for the company to hold large ‘secret’ reserves of funds.64 Undoubtedly the firm was spending money on the club including wages, facilities upkeep and travel but such expenditures leave no trace in the company’s account books.65 The season began for the Falcos with a tough away game at Fall River on 17 September 1921. If some had doubted the Holyoke side’s quality going into the season, the Falcos proved their worth by beating United 2Á 3 before a crowd of 1,500 people.66 Unfortunately for the Falcos and their fans the match would prove to be the highlight of an otherwise dismal league season. The home opener, scheduled against Fall River a week later, included plans for having the Holyoke Kiltie Band lead a parade through town to the pitch before kick off. The success of the opening week vanished however, as Fall River beat the Falcos 0Á2.67 The team won only one other game in open play during the season, and since it came against Jersey City, the league nullified the result when the Celtics withdrew from the competition.68 The squad finished in last place with 2 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws while being outscored 64Á17.69 On the bright side the club retained the Massachusetts state title in May,

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 defeating the Eastern champions 3Á2 in a replay match that went to overtime.70 After finishing bottom in its initial campaign the club did not continue in the ASL for the following season. Obviously the team did not have the talent to compete effectively in the league and the company did not seem to be willing to invest in recruiting better players. In addition to constant losses on the field, the results were probably no better on the balance sheet. In a pair of articles from the Boston Daily Globe in the summer of 1926 George M. Collins reported that attempts were being made to bring professional soccer to Springfield. Collins wrote that previously the Falcos ‘had a try at it, but lost a lot of money and gave up’.71 The new club would play its games in Springfield and hoped to draw fans from surrounding 294 B.D. Bunk communities including Holyoke. The region had plenty of fans, although most were immigrants, and Collins couldn’t help asking ‘Will Springfield rally after deserting the old Falcos?’72 Perhaps it is not surprising that the team had struggled financially, especially in a city whose population in 1920 numbered just over 60,000.73 Despite being a far more popular game in England, as early as 1911 one club director there believed that no city below 250,000 could support a major professional team and a big club would struggle even in a town of 150,000.74 Indeed the cancellation of the final two games of the season ‘by mutual consent’ was a result of the teams not wanting to pay travel costs for meaningless contests.75 Farr Alpaca may have determined that it did not wish to invest more money, especially considering that the company had just committed to building a new 75,000-spindle mill at a cost of 2.5 million dollars.76 Since clubs depended on home gate receipts the financial problems likely stemmed from an inability to attract crowds to the Berkshire Street grounds. It is nearly impossible to determine attendance figures for the games since newspaper reports often failed to give specific numbers. For the 14 home games played in 1921 to 1922 the local newspapers gave only four concrete figures: crowds of 700, 800 and ‘about 1000’ saw ASL matches while just 250 watched the team’s first round match in the National Cup. For other dates the papers gave vague estimates such as ‘One of the largest crowds seen here in many years’, ‘A good-sized crowd’ and alarmingly ‘One of the smallest that ever watched a football game here ...’.77 A few years later a match between the Falcos and another Holyoke team attracted 1,200 paying customers, a crowd the Springfield Republican called the largest ever in the city.78 If reports from previous years are to be believed, however, soccer in Holyoke had once attracted crowds of 2,000 to 3,000 spectators. Whatever the real numbers it seems clear that during its time in the ASL the club never attracted more than

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 1,000 fans to any single match and most likely attendance numbers were routinely much lower.79 Such figures did not compare favourably with other ASL clubs who often drew several thousand supporters to each game. Even in Fall River, an ASL city of comparable size to Holyoke, the games attracted significantly more fans. With admission prices probably set at 50 cents, Holyoke could at best reach a gate of around five to six hundred dollars, a sum that was unlikely to cover the team’s expenses.80 Why didn’t Holyoke support the Falcos? Part of it could have been bad luck as several games in Holyoke were played during terrible weather conditions including rain and snow. In addition, it was against Massachusetts state law to play games on Sunday, the one day of the week that most workers had off. Another issue may have been the declining Sport in History 295 economic situation of the region following the boom times of the Great War. In the first year after the conflict even the Farr experienced one of its least profitable years spurring treasurer Frank Metcalf to write in his official report ‘the year just finished has been a most trying one’.81 Many of the city’s firms never fully recovered from the recession of 1921 and by the end of the decade companies had cut their workforces by 18 per cent and lowered wages by 27 per cent.82 A key factor, especially in Holyoke itself, was that interest in soccer never expanded beyond the Scottish and English communities who first played the game in the city. The problem with soccer may not have been that it was seen as a foreign game, as a good percentage of Holyoke’s population was born outside the country, but rather that it was seen as a British game. An analysis of the national origins of the players from 1905 to 1922 reveals that most of the players were born in Scotland or were perhaps second generation Scots born in the United States (see Table 1). People of English and Scottish descent had never been a large segment of the overall population of the city although the percentage peaked at around 10 per cent between 1890 and 1900, near the time when soccer may have been first introduced into Holyoke. In the following decades the total numbers of British or British Canadian residents remained constant at about 3,000 but the overall percentages declined until by 1920 they composed less than five per cent of the city.83 The lack of ethnic diversity among the squad may also have meant that the German and Portuguese residents of Springfield and Ludlow, who had begun to form their own teams, were never really drawn to support Holyoke’s professional club.84 The bulk of Holyoke’s population consisted of Irish and French Canadians although the city also included a smaller number of Germans. These residents formed tightly knit communities where ‘each ethnic

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 group staked out its own territory and attempted to preserve its cultural heritage’.85 The result of this ‘enclave consciousness’ was the development of different social and cultural institutions for each group. Religion also served to separate the city’s different groups and between Catholics and Protestants there was ‘no widespread mingling’.86 The French Catholic churches for example functioned as community centres where people participated in theatre groups, orchestras and card parties.87 German immigrants to the city brought their own athletic traditions, the first Turners Hall was constructed in 1873 and it quickly emerged as the centre of the community’s social life.88 The distinctions were especially strong in precisely those areas, such as schools and clubs, where shared athletic experiences might be found. By 1890 40 per cent of school aged children 296 B.D. Bunk attended Catholic schools and popular recreational groups such as the Canoe Club excluded Catholics from the organization and from its tennis courts and ball fields.89 Playing and supporting soccer may have performed an important function in maintaining a separate sense of cultural heritage for English and Scottish immigrants. Such notions were certainly true a few decades earlier when the Springfield Scots refused to merge with a city club whose membership was open to all nationalities.90 Scottish and English immigrants had their own social clubs and historian William Hartford characterized their relations with other ethnic groups as ‘not amicable’.91 It was precisely these organizations, however, that sponsored the first known soccer teams and the games between them consistently drew the largest crowds. In addition, the players seem to have socialized with one another off the pitch and by 1913 teams of different players were competing against each other in a local bowling league.92 Holyoke was a city where distinct ethnic groups lived in defined geographical spaces. Plotting the location of known soccer player residences shows that most lived outside the ‘ethnic enclaves’ populated by Irish, French Canadian and German residents. An additional factor may also help explain why soccer never achieved much of a following outside the British community. In the development of the game in England during the nineteenth century, many of the earliest players emerged from the ranks of skilled workers rather than the unskilled working class.93 In Holyoke we also see that many of the players worked at jobs that would designate them as skilled workers, including loom fixer, superintendent, machinist, clerk, and engineer (see Table 1). The presence of several loom fixers over time is especially noteworthy considering that they were ‘the most skilled and indispensable workers in [the weaving] departments’ of textile mills. Such men often viewed

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 themselves as superior to regular weavers and an 1899 pamphlet from the National Loom-Fixers Association discouraged them from becoming too friendly with their subordinates.94

Conclusion Although they no longer played in the ASL the Holyoke Falcos continued to field a semi-professional squad in a variety of competitions including the old Western New England league.95 In 1924 they took part in a statewide competition called the National Soccer League although, as with the ASL they withdrew after only one season. In citing the decision not to compete the following year George Collins wrote that playing without the Sport in History 297 Falcos would save the other clubs an expensive trip to Holyoke.96 Once again financial considerations may have required that the club withdraw from competition. By the middle of the 1920s the fortunes of the company and of the city itself seemed to be in decline. Profits, sales and production at the Farr fell every year after 1923 until the mill was operating at only 15 per cent capacity by 1932.97 In addition to the economic changes, the city also was experiencing demographic shifts. After peaking in 1917 the city began losing population and the composition of the residents also shifted until by 1920 only about a third of them were foreign born.98 The 1925Á1926 season was perhaps the club’s last great accomplishment. Once again they finished at the top of the Western New England League table and once again went through the campaign undefeated.99 By the fall of 1927 the Springfield Republican reported that the Falcos would no longer compete in the league because they ‘found it difficult to assemble a strong team and thought it best to withdraw’. Perhaps fittingly the club that replaced them in the league was a newcomer from Ludlow called Lusitano. Founded in 1922 the club still exists to this day.100 In the book Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism, Markovits and Hellerman argue that the popularity of other sports, especially baseball, effectively ‘crowded out’ soccer from the nation’s sporting space.101 Although it may be generally true on a national scale, in certain areas including Western Massachusetts soccer remained a vibrant if not a dominant pastime throughout the early twentieth century. The same could be said for professional baseball where in Holyoke, although local teams and leagues thrived, the city’s professional team withdrew from competition in 1914.102 Baseball, however, offered something that soccer did not: a sporting space that all ethnic groups in the city could enjoy. Unlike soccer with its close connection to Protestant Britons, baseball

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 drew fans from across the city’s neighbourhoods. A 1913 complaint about games being played on Sunday in violation of state law illustrates the broad appeal of the game:

Picture the condition there: a crowd of twenty-five hundred people, ten to fifteen different nationalities, men and women from the shops and mills, each a partisan of the nines ... eight such situations each Sunday demanded by law-abiding, self-controlled crowds and by nine citizens out of ten, and especially by the mothers of boys over fourteen.103

Perhaps something like this is what soccer’s adherents had hoped would happen once the Falcos turned professional. Although it’s impossible to 298 Table 1 Identified soccer players in Holyoke Massachusetts, 1905Á1921. ..Bunk B.D. Immigration Year Club Name Occupation Employer Residence Born Birthplace Date 1905 Caledonians Andrew P. Campsie Papermaker George C. Gill 22 Mosher 1882 Scotland 1902 Paper Co. 1905 Caledonians David Coutts Loom Fixer Farr Alpaca Co. 470 Maple 1885 Scotland 1904 1905 Caledonians David Stalker Superintendent Parsons Paper Co. 29 Linden 1885 Scotland 1895 1905 Athletics William Carson Employee1 New England 1884 Massachusetts n/a Telephone and Telegraph Co. 1905 Athletics Willard A. H. Cutler Finisher Farr Alpaca Co. 406 Maple 1871 Canada 1895 1906 Rangers William E. Beattie Conductor Holyoke Street 136 Pine 1874 New York n/a Railway Co. 1906 Rangers Robert Young Finisher Farr Alpaca Co. 81 Jackson 1881 Scotland 1904 1908 Clan MacLaren Hugh Beattie Finisher Farr Alpaca Co. 34 Jackson 1885 Scotland 1906 1908 Clan MacLaren Alexander Cathro Painter 470 Maple 1882 Scotland 1908 1908 Clan MacLaren Robert Hynd Machinist Machine Shop 28 Davis 1889 Scotland 1904 1908 Clan MacLaren Hugh Weir Laborer 69 Hampshire 1889 Scotland 1907 1908 Clan MacLaren James Weir Book Keeper Baker-Vawter Co. 272 Sargeant 1887 Scotland 1906 1909 Clan MacLaren John Carlon Employee Deane Steam 272 Sargeant 1887 Scotland 1907 Pump Co. 1909 Clan MacLaren Alexander Houston Mechanic 1888 Scotland 1909 Clan MacLaren Robert Lytzen Singer2 Cloth Mill 206 Sargeant 1883 Scotland 1907 1909 Farr Alpaca Hugh Beattie Finisher Woolen Mill 173 Jackson 1885 Scotland 1906

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 June 2014 30 at 06:21 by [109.162.208.108] Downloaded 1909 Farr Alpaca Harry Campbell Electrician Thread mill 470 Maple 1888 Scotland 1909 1909 Farr Alpaca Robert Young Employee Farr Alpaca Co. 81 Jackson 1909 Farr Alpaca William Clubb Dyer Farr Alpaca Co. 106 Newton 1890 Scotland 1909 1911 Farr Alpaca Frederick Arnold Employee Farr Alpaca Co. Hillside Ave. at 1884 Massachusetts n/a N. Westfield Rd. Table 1 (Continued )

Immigration Year Club Name Occupation Employer Residence Born Birthplace Date

1911 Farr Alpaca John P. Arnold Overseer Farr Alpaca Co. Hillside Ave. at 1869 England 1890 (President) N. Westfield Rd. 1911 Farr Alpaca Charles S. Burnett Master William Skinner 162 Walnut 1875 Scotland 1893 (Manager) Mechanic & Sons Silk Manufacturing Co. 1911 Farr Alpaca George S. Burnett Machinist 81 Hitchcock 1886 Scotland 1893 1911 Farr Alpaca Daniel Cruickshank Singer Farr Alpaca Co. 80 Hamilton 1888 Scotland 1907 1911 Farr Alpaca John McKinstrie Presser Farr Alpaca Co. 83 Jackson 1885 Scotland 1902 1911 Farr Alpaca Patrick McManus Employee Farr Alpaca Co. 3 Franklin 1911 Farr Alpaca John Moody Employee Farr Alpaca Co. 805 High 1889 Scotland 1911 Farr Alpaca Thomas Moody Pressman Farr Alpaca Co. 805 High 1888 Scotland 1907 1911 Farr Alpaca (Trainer) W. Rough Platerman Paper Company 1876 Scotland 1908

1911 Farr Alpaca Harry Turner Clerk Thread Mill 223 Maple 1888 England 1905 Street

1913 Farr Alpaca Frank Y. Hirst Employee Farr Alpaca Co. 11 Commercial History in Sport 1913 Farr Alpaca Patrick McManus Employee Farr Alpaca Co. 141 Pine 1921 Falcos G. Dowdall Employee 360 High 355 Dwight 1894 Massachusetts n/a 1921 Falcos Walter M. Dowdall Dyer Farr Alpaca Co. 25 Brown Ave. 1886 England 1914 1921 Falcos William Dowdall Clerk Post Office 355 Dwight 1890 England 1902 1921 Falcos James Downie Engineer 150 Sargeant 1898 Scotland Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 June 2014 30 at 06:21 by [109.162.208.108] Downloaded 1921 Falcos William Gray Paper Maker Nonotuck Paper 13 Gilman 1894 Massachusetts n/a Co. 1921 Falcos William Hall Brick Layer 30 St. Jerome 1889 England 1910 299 Table 1 (Continued ) 300

Immigration Bunk B.D. Year Club Name Occupation Employer Residence Born Birthplace Date

1921 Falcos Rene Fredette Employee Holyoke Street 106 Newton 1903 Massachusetts n/a Railway Co. 1921 Falcos Ernest Logan Foreman Gun Shop 1895 Massachusetts n/a 1921 Falcos Joseph Marriott Loom Fixer Farr Alpaca Co. 85 Newton 1879 England 1896 1921 Falcos Donald McKechnie Brick Mason Contractor 1892 Scotland 1913 1921 Falcos Alexander Moir Employee Farr Alpaca Co. 10 Bristol Pl. 1921 Falcos Albert Owen Woolsorter 858 Hampden 1873 Massachusetts n/a

1 Sometimes the City Directory would not list a specific occupation but did list the employer. 2 The job is part of the process of manufacturing cloth and is not musical in nature. A lack of information about the players makes it difficult to identify many of them with any certainty. Generally, newspaper accounts only published surnames but occasionally a player’s full name would be printed. Examination of the City Directory and Federal Census records provided the rest of the information for those players who could be identified with some degree of certainty. Sources: Holyoke Daily Transcript, Springfield Republican; Holyoke City Directory (1906Á14; 1921Á22); Ancestry.com, 1910, 1920, 1930 United States Federal Census [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2006. Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 June 2014 30 at 06:21 by [109.162.208.108] Downloaded Sport in History 301 know for sure, it seems unlikely that such a diverse crowd ever turned up for a match in Holyoke.

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Roger Allaway and Steven Apostolov for their generous comments on a previous draft of the article. I am also grateful to the staff and volunteers at the Holyoke Public Library History Room and Archives for their help. A Visioning Grant from the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts provided funding for some of the research in this article.

Notes

1. The ASL opened with eight clubs: Philadelphia Football Club, Jersey City Celtics, Coats Football Club, Falco Football Club, New York Football Club, Harrison Soccer Club, Fall River Football Club, and Todd Shipyards FC. Charles A. Lovett, ‘First Big Professional League Launched’,inSpalding’s Official ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide, ed. Thomas W. Cahill (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1921), 37. A statistical record of the league along with summaries of each season can be found in Colin Jose, The American Soccer League, 1921Á1931: The Golden Years of American Soccer (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998). 2. On Bethlehem Steel see Roger Allaway, Corner Kicks and Corner Offices (Haworth, N.J.: St. Johann Press, 2009) and Dan Morrison, ‘Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club’, http://bethelehemsteelsoccer.org/ (accessed April 7, 2011). 3. ‘A Swing Along Athletic Row’, Bethlehem Globe August 31, 1921. Available online at http://bethlehemsteelsoccer.org/1921.html (accessed April 7, 2011). 4. Tony Mason, Association Football and English Society, 1863Á1915 (Brighton: The Harvester Press, 1980), 6Á7. 5. Dave Wangerin, Distant Corners: American Soccer’s History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011), chapter 2. The first attempt to organize a league came in 1894 with the

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 formation of the American League of Professional Football by baseball owners in the Midwestern United States. It folded after only 17 days: Dave Wangerin, Soccer in a Football World (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006), 31. 6. Soccer Pictorial Weekly was created by influential publisher Nat Fleisher the founder of the ‘world’s foremost boxing magazine’, The Ring. 7. The ASL league records have never been recovered and for some of the major industrial clubs such as Bethlehem Steel and J&P Coats, no corporate records involving soccer club operations have been found. The single best source for the history of American soccer is the Spalding’s Official ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide published annually between 1903 and 1924. 8. Examples include James Robinson, ‘The History of Soccer in the City of St. Louis’ (PhD thesis, St. Louis University, 1966); Roger Allaway, Rangers, Rovers, and Spindles: Soccer, Immigration, and Textiles in New England and New Jersey (Howarth, NJ: St. Johan Press, 2005), and Gabe Logan, ‘Lace Up the 302 B.D. Bunk Boots, Full Tilt Ahead: Recreation, Immigration, and Labor on Chicago’s Soccer Fields, 1890Á1939’ (PhD thesis, University of Northern Illinois, 2007). 9. Andrei S. Markovits and Steven L. Hellerman, Offside. Soccer and American Exceptionalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 102. For a critique of an earlier version of Markovits and Hellerman’s thesis, see Nathan D. Abrams, ‘Inhibited but Not ‘Crowded Out’: The Strange Fate of Soccer in the United States’, International Journal of the History of Sport 12, no. 3 (1995), 1Á17: . 10. For Chicago see David Trouille, ‘Association Football to Fu´ tbol: Ethnic Succession and the History of Chicago-Area Soccer, 1890Á1920’, Soccer & Society 9, no. 4 (2008): 455Á76, and for the Boston area Steven Apostolov, ‘Everywhere and Nowhere: The Forgotten Past and Clouded Future of American Professional Soccer From the Perspective of Massachusetts’, Soccer & Society 13, no. 3 (forthcoming 2012), 1Á47. 11. ‘Springfield’, Springfield Republican, April 26, 1889; ‘To-Day’, Springfield Re- publican, November 28, 1889; ‘Springfield’, Springfield Republican, December 26, 1889. 12. ‘New Football League’, Springfield Republican, August 26, 1904, and ‘Will Present a Cup’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, September 19, 1904. 13. In later years the teams competed for the Walter Scott Cup: see ‘Will Present a Cup’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, September 19, 1904. 14. ‘Football League Organized’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, September 10, 1906, and ‘Soccer League Standings’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, October 7, 1907. 15. In 1911 to 1912 the teams also competed for the Wolohan Cup donated by a Holyoke publican. The competition was held in the spring and was governed by ‘Scottish cup tie rules’: ‘Schedule of Soccer League’, Springfield Republican, September 26, 1911. 16. Frances Cornwall Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company: A Case Study in Business History (Northampton, MA: Smith College History Department, 1951), 3Á5, 23. 17. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, 57. 18. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, 68. It is unclear when this originally happened. Hutner discusses the company’s granting of the pitch in the context of the creation of the Falco Athletic Association in 1914. As noted, however,

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 the soccer club had existed since 1909. 19. Mason, Association Football and English Society, 21, 90Á91. 20. Later the American Writing Paper Company would also field a team but only for the 1919Á1920 season. 21. ‘Champion Ludlow Beaten’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, September 27, 1909. 22. The cup was donated by William Chaloux who owned a billiards room called the Pleasure Hour Club. ‘Big Soccer Game Tomorrow’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 24, 1909. ‘Retain Chaloux Cup’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 29, 1911. The first two editions of the challenge ended as draws but Farr Alpaca won the cup each of the remaining years. After 1913 the teams no longer played on Thanksgiving Day. 23. In 1911 to 1912 the club won a local treble, capturing the league title as well as the Chaloux and Wolohan cups. ‘Farr Alpacas Nail Title’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 28, 1910; ‘Alpacas take the Lead’, Holyoke Daily Sport in History 303 Transcript, December 2, 1912; ‘One loss in three years’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, February 2, 1913; ‘Alpacas clinch title’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 28, 1913. 24. ‘Big Soccer Game Tomorrow’, Holyoke Daily Tribune, November 24, 1909; ‘Pilgrims in a Tie’, New York Tribune, November 15, 1909. On the tour see Gabe Logan, ‘Pilgrims’ Progress in Chicago: Three English Soccer Tours to the Second City, 1905Á09’, Soccer & Society 11, no. 3 (2010), 198Á212. 25. Holyoke City Directory 1912 (Holyoke: Transcript Publishing Co., 1912). Photograph available at the Holyoke Public Library History Room and Archive, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke Massachusetts. 26. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, note 59, p. 68. 27. ‘Big Game Arranged for Saturday’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 21, 1913; Holyoke City Directory 1914 (Holyoke: Transcript Publishing Co., 1914). 28. William F. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke: Class and Ethnicity in a Massachusetts Mill Town, 1850Á1960 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 42. 29. ‘Alpacas Eliminated’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, November 24, 1913. 30. ‘Bethlehem Teams Wins at Holyoke, Mass. Home Eleven Eliminates Bay State Team from American Cup Competition’, Bethlehem Globe, November 24, 1913. Available at http://bethlehemsteelsoccer.org (accessed April 7, 2011). 31. ‘Big Game for Alpacas’, Springfield Republican, October 25, 1912. 32. Wording as in original: ‘Champion soccer team’, Springfield Republican, December 31, 1911. 33. ‘Holyoke Springfield’, Springfield Republican, April 22, 1915. 34. Some reports put the amount at 200 and others at 300 dollars. ‘Sporting Comment’ and ‘Farr Alpacas turned down’, Springfield Republican, April 29, 1915; ‘Holyoke gets match’, Springfield Republican, May 4, 1915. Burnett worked as a master mechanic at the Lyman Mills: Holyoke City Directory 1916 (Holyoke: Transcript Publishing Co., 1916). 35. Albert Keane, ‘Soccer in New England’; George M. Collins, ‘Soccer in Massachusetts’; James E. Scholefield, ‘The Northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire State Association’, all in Spalding’sOfficial ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide, ed. Thomas W. Cahill (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1915), 64, 70, 73.

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 36. ‘Soccer league schedule’, Springfield Republican, September 21, 1914. 37. The remaining sides were Gilbert & Brown, Athletics, Farr Alpaca, Three Rivers, Ludlow, Chicopee and West Boylston: ‘Soccer League Schedule’, Springfield Republican, September 21, 1914. It seems that not all the clubs completed league play. 38. ‘Joy Reigns in Holyoke’, Springfield Republican, April 18, 1914; ‘Football Standing Announced’, Springfield Republican, December 14, 1914; ‘Junior Soccer League’, Springfield Republican, September 25, 1916; ‘To Boom Soccer’, Springfield Republican, March 6, 1916. 39. ‘Ludlow Man Suspended’, Springfield Republican, March 7, 1916. 40. ‘S. Lowe a ‘‘pro’’’, Springfield Republican, April 19, 1916; ‘Ludlow Man Sus- pended’, Springfield Republican, March 7, 1916; ‘Fredette Barred’, Springfield Republican, April 3, 1916. 41. ‘Soccer League to Meet’, Springfield Republican, August 18, 1916. 304 B.D. Bunk 42. Since the league obviously had not objected to the Farr Alpaca team, it may be evidence that it was not a true ‘shop’ team but rather a collection of workers. 43. ‘No Worry Here’, Springfield Republican, November 17, 1916. 44. The league countered by petulantly declaring that they could not be expelled since they had already voluntarily withdrawn from the state organization. ‘Again Bars Fisks’, Springfield Republican, October 9, 1916; ‘Sporting News’, Springfield Republican, November 3, 1916; ‘Soccer League Not Worried Over Fisks’ and ‘No worry here’, Springfield Republican November 17, 1916; ‘Stand By State’, Springfield Republican, November 25, 1916; ‘Soccer Men Meet’, Springfield Republican, November 27, 1916; ‘Backs the Ruling’, Springfield Republican, December 5, 1916. 45. ‘Plan Shop League’, Springfield Republican, September 16, 1917. 46. ‘Burnett Out for Soccer Presidency’, Springfield Republican, June 19, 1921. 47. For details on the war’s effects on soccer in the country see Spalding’sOfficial ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide, ed. Thomas W. Cahill (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1918). 48. Fisk was based in Chicopee, Massachusetts; American Writing Paper was from Holyoke and the others came from Springfield. 49. ‘Big Field Day’, Springfield Republican, September 3, 1916. 50. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, 67, 68. 51. ‘Western Mass Soccer Schedule’, Springfield Republican, October 22, 1920. 52. ‘Soccer To-day’, Springfield Republican March 19, 1921. 53. Grey and Davis represented Eastern Massachusetts. ‘Falco Takes Title in Soccer Final’, Boston Daily Globe, April 24, 1921. 54. ‘Our Best to Go Against Third Lanark on July 19’, Boston Daily Globe, July 5, 1921. 55. Third Lanark won the game 3Á6. George M. Collins, ‘Massachusetts Scores Inside of Two Minutes, But is Beaten by Third Lanark’, Boston Daily Globe, July 17, 1921. 56. ‘Falcos May Enter League Tonight’, Springfield Republican, August 9, 1921; ‘Falcos Vote to Join New League’, Springfield Republican, August 10, 1921. 57. ‘Soccer League Returns $550 to Bethlehem Team’, New York Tribune, August 22, 1921. The 50 dollars was an additional entrance fee. 58. ‘Professional Soccer Facing Greatest Crisis of Its Career’, New York Tribune,

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 September 4, 1921. ‘A swing along Athletic Row’, Bethlehem Globe, August 31, 1921. Available at http://bethlehemsteelsoccer.org/1921.html (accessed April 7, 2011). 59. Charles A. Lovett, ‘First Big Professional League Launched’,inSpalding’s Official ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide, ed. Thomas W. Cahill (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1921), 37. 60. ‘Professional Soccer Facing Greatest Crisis of Its Career’, New York Tribune, September 4, 1921. 61. ‘Falcos get Coleman, Star Soccer Player’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, October 4, 1921, and ‘Changes in Soccer Teams’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, October 5, 1921. Jose, The American Soccer League,21Á2. 62. ‘Professional Soccer Facing Greatest Crisis of Its Career’, New York Tribune, September 4, 1921. Lack of regular access to adequate facilities contributed to the withdrawal of the Jersey City Celtics in November 1921: see ‘Jersey City Sport in History 305 Team Surrenders Berth in Soccer League’, New York Tribune, December 11, 1921. 63. ‘Old Baseball Grounds Sold’, Springfield Republican, August 28, 1920. Information on the transaction can be found in Item 21 Deed Book 1873Á1929 The Farr Alpaca Company Records (1873Á1945) American Textile History Museum, Lowell Massachusetts. 64. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, 49, 50, 51. 65. The company records in the American Textile History Museum are not complete and some may have been disbursed after the company folded in 1940 while other materials may have been destroyed in a fire. For details on the collection see ‘Farr Alpaca Finding Aid’, American Textile History Museum. 66. ‘Soccer Results’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, September 19, 1921. 67. ‘Falcos to Open Season’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, September 21, 1921. 68. Jose, The American Soccer League, 23. 69. The second win came as a result of a forfeit when the clubs agreed to cancel the final two games of the season. Spalding’sOfficial ‘‘Soccer’’ Foot Ball Guide, ed. Thomas W. Cahill (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1922), 57, and Jose, The American Soccer League, 21. 70. ‘Falcos Defeat Abbots’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, May 8, 1922. 71. George M. Collins, ‘Soccer Due For A Big Year’, Boston Daily Globe, July 23 1926. 72. George M. Collins, ‘Soccer Teams Ignore Natives’ and ‘Soccer Due For A Big Year’, Boston Daily Globe, June 29 and July 23, 1926. 73. Constance McLaughlin Green, Holyoke Massachusetts: A Case History of the Industrial Revolution in America (Archon Books, 1968; reprint 1939), 367. 74. Steven Tischler, Footballers and Businessmen: The Origins of Professional Soccer in England (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1981), 81. 75. ‘Games Called Off’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, May 19, 1922. 76. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, 73. 77. ‘Todd’s Defeats Falcos by 4 to 1’, Springfield Republican, October 30, 1921; ‘Falcos Defeated by New Yorkers’, Springfield Republican, November 20, 1921; ‘Falcos Advance By 5Á2 Victory’, Springfield Republican, November 27, 1921; ‘Phillies Beat Falcos by 5Á3’, Springfield Republican, December 4, 1921; ‘Falcos Get Tie With Coats Team’, Springfield Republican, March 12, 1922;

Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 ‘Coats Show More Endurance in Very Last Soccer Game’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, April 17, 1922; ‘Todds Show Real Championship Speed in Holyoke Game’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, April 20, 1922. 78. ‘Falcos and Locals in ‘‘No-Decision’’’, Springfield Republican, October 28, 1923. 79. The grounds may have limited crowd size since originally the facility had been built in 1904 as a baseball stadium with seating for just 1,250 fans. ‘Work begins today’, Holyoke Daily Transcript, March 30, 1904. The field was sold in 1914 and supposedly the grandstand was removed: see ‘Joy Reigns in Holyoke’, Springfield Republican, April 18, 1914. It is unclear what facilities were in place by 1921, in a photograph of the Falcos from this period what appears to be a grandstand can be seen in the background so it is possible that the structure had either been rebuilt or was never torn down in the first place. 80. Within a few years ASL games would regularly draw 5,000 and sometimes as many as 10,000 fans: ‘American Soccer League’,inThe Encyclopedia of 306 B.D. Bunk American Soccer History, ed. Roger Allaway, Colin Jose, and David Litterer (Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2001), 10. Fall River opened a new stadium for the 1922 season that had a capacity of 15,000: Alan Foulds, Boston’s Ballparks and Arenas (Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2005), 155. For ticket prices see Apostolov, ‘Everywhere and Nowhere’, 6, note 20, p. 41. 81. ‘Treasurer’s Report Read at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders June 22, 1921’, Records Book 1914Á1928, The Farr Alpaca Company Records (1873Á1945), American Textile History Museum. 82. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke, 157, 158. 83. The population figures are: 1880: 1,085; 1890: 2,175; 1900: 2,945; 1910: 2,957; 1920: 2,917. The percentages are: 1880: 4.95%; 1890: 9.92%; 1900: 8.26%; 1910: 5.12%; 1920: 4.85%: Green, Holyoke Massachusetts, 367. 84. ’s face the same challenge: see Miguel Moniz, ‘Adaptive Transnational Identity and the Selling of Soccer: The New England Revolution and Lusophone Migrant Populations’, Soccer & Society 8, no. 4 (2007), 467Á71. 85. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke, 35. 86. Green, Holyoke Massachusetts, 375. 87. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke, 49, 137. 88. Ella Merkel DiCarlo, Holyoke-Chicopee: A Retrospective (Holyoke: Transcript- Telegram, 1982), 191, and Green, Holyoke Massachusetts, 371. 89. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke, 59, Green, Holyoke Massachusetts, 374. 90. ‘Springfield’, Springfield Republican, March 6, 1890. 91. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke, 36. 92. ‘Stunts of Candlepin’, Springfield Republican, January 17, 1913. 93. Mason, Association Football,90Á1. 94. Hartford, Working People of Holyoke,43Á4. 95. The club continued to sign players and in 1922 was victimized by ‘an old- country soccer player of considerable experience ‘‘gone bad’’’. The con-man vanished after receiving ‘a small advance in cash’ from the club: ‘Confidence man hits Falcos’, Springfield Republican, December 17, 1922. 96. George M. Collins, ‘‘‘Hubs’’ Enter Soccer League’, Boston Daily Globe, October 23, 1925. 97. Hutner, The Farr Alpaca Company, 73, 74. Downloaded by [109.162.208.108] at 06:21 30 June 2014 98. Green, Holyoke Massachusetts, 366, 368. 99. ‘Falco Manager Asks For Release After Six Years’, Springfield Republican, February 21, 1926. 100. ‘Falco Soccer Team Drops Out of Triple A Loop’, Springfield Republican, October 8, 1927. Lusitano’s website is at http://www.gremiolusitano.com/ 101. Markovits and Hellerman, Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism, 52. 102. This was one reason for the sale of the stadium, see note 75 above. ‘Holyoke: Sports Were Always Important’, Holyoke Daily Transcript-Telegram, December 15, 1979. 103. Quoted in Green, Holyoke Massachusetts, 388Á9.