CAFL 1904-05 season

July 25, 2022 |  Categories:  CAFL  

During the offseason before the 1904-05 season, the California Association Football League champions, Scottish Thistle, disbanded. The team had been run in connection with the San Francisco Scottish Thistle Club but many players were not members of the club. The management insisted all players be members of the club and that requirement caused the team to fold. In September 1904, the combined annual meeting of the CAFL and the California Association Football Union was held. Taliesin Evans was re-elected president of both organizations and the Eagles A.F.C. of Alameda became a member of the CAFL. The Alameda Eagles were a new club consisting of members of the Hospital Corps of Alameda. A team of players under that name had organized the prior season and played other smaller clubs on Saturdays. It held the distinction of being the first soccer club formed by native Californians.

The six CAFL clubs played a 12 game round robin schedule starting October 30 and running into February 1905. The Albion Rovers secured Freeman's Park at 60th and San Pablo in Oakland as their home ground. As such the club had the first private and fully equipped soccer grounds on the West Coast. The Rovers agreed to share Freeman's Park with the Independents. The Oakland Hornets acquired Idora Park in Oakland as their home venue a month into the season and shared the grounds with the Pickwicks. The Vampires again made the Webster Street cricket grounds in Alameda their home.

Occidental A.C. secured the old National baseball park at 9th and Bryant Streets in San Francisco as their home. But the team lost the ground just a month into the season. The league engaged the ground at 9th and Harrison Streets for the club to use but the team never played a match their. At a CAFL meeting on January 26, 1905 the Occidental Club withdrew from the league complaining that the team had not received proper treatment from the referees. The club's nine matches player were removed from the standings.

The Independents ran away with the CAFL title. Thanks to their only loss of the season to the Occidentals being erased from the standings, the Independents had a perfect 10-0-0 league record with 50 goals for and only 8 against.

The CAFU cup competition took place in March and April of 1905. A new club, Santa Cruz A.C., was the first team not from the CAFL to take part. The Independents defended their cup title beating the Oakland Hornets 3-2 on April 23 at the Presidio Athletic grounds. As such, the club became the first team to win the California double.