American soccer writing, history & data.
During the offseason before the 1920-21 California Football League season, it was thought that four shipyard teams would break away from the California Football Association and play as professionals. Edgar Pomeroy and other soccer officials came out against the suggestion partially because the availability of grounds would provide a handicap for those teams that remained amateur. Pomeroy had infor...
The California Football League met on September 2, 1919 to decide which eight teams would take part in the league for the 1919-20 season. Ten teams applied: Olympic Club; Burns Club; Barbarians; Celtics; Alameda Union Iron Works; Union Iron Works of San Francisco; Moore Shipyards; Rangers of Alameda; Thistles; and Allandale. Following a vote, the Alameda UIW and Allandale teams were left out of th...
Due to the number of soccer players in the military, during the offseason before the 1918-19 California Football League season, it was thought that several of the CFL clubs would not field teams and their places would be taken by teams from the various shipbuilding companies in the Bay Area. During the season, over 50 members of the Barbarians were fighting in France and 90% of the Olympic players...
The California Football Association initially thought the soccer season would not be seriously affected by the United States' entry into the Great War. The majority of club managers thought they would not lose many players to the draft or enlistments because a majority of active players were over draft age and a very large percentage were married with children. But the affect was larger than that....
During the annual meeting of the California Football Association held at the end of July of 1916, the association's old guard was completely swept out of office with the exception of secretary Bill Crawford. E. H. Sinclair of the Olympic Club was elected president. Harry Maloney, the coach at Stanford University, was elected to chairman of the executive committee, a position that Donald Morrison h...
The California Football Association held their annual meeting on July 31, 1915 in the Pacific building. Charles Wright was elected president. Applications for membership from a number of teams, including the Union Iron Works team of San Francisco, were held up by a ruling of the executive committee that no proxy votes would be allowed. The Union Iron Works team was eventually admitted to the CFA. ...
The California Football Association held its annual meeting on August 8, 1914. Three new clubs were admitted: Clan Fraser; Caledonian Club; and Union Iron Works. All three clubs planned to apply to join the California Football League. Frederick Birdsell was elected president. The CFL held its annual meeting in the Pacific building on August 15. The three new clubs plus the Olympic Club of San F...
The California Football Association held its annual meeting on August 16, 1913. Fifteen clubs and leagues were represented. The Coalinga District Football Association, consisting of three clubs was admitted. James P. Booth was re-elected president - a post he had occupied for the prior four years. That same week the California Association Football League held its annual meeting. The Argonaut cl...
The Independents disbanded during the offseason before the 1912-13 California Association Football League season. During the league's annual meeting two teams from the Bay Counties Soccer League, the Rangers of Alameda and Alameda F.C., were admitted to the CAFL bringing the total number of teams to 10. The old Croll's grounds in Alameda, which had been used for soccer and cricket the past 15 y...
On August 15, 1911, a meeting was held at Lily Hall, 133 Gough Street in San Francisco, jointly by the officers of the California Football Association, the California Association Football League, and the Bay Counties Soccer League to try to bring peace among the organization. Nearly 50 attendees took part in the discussion. No concrete actions were taken but there was discussion to merge the bodie...
During the early months of 1910, Professor H.W. Maloney, instructor of physical training, formed a soccer team at Stanford University. That team, the newly organized Pastime Club of San Francisco, a team of U.S. Soldiers from the Presidio, along with Oakland F.C., another new club, were admitted as new members of the California Association Football League for the 1910-11 season. That meant the lea...
During the offseason before the 1909-10 California Association Football League season the Building Trades A.A. and Scotia F.C. clubs disbanded. A majority of the defunct Scotia club moved to a new club, United Caledonians, which was an offshoot of the Caledonian Club. The United Caledonians replaced the Scotia club in the CAFL. A bigger shakeup in the league involved the Oakland Hornets. The Ba...
The annual meeting of the California Football Association was held on September 1, 1908. The organization voted in favor of re-joining the Pacific Amateur Athletic Association. That body had reorganized and interested soccer people had become involved. Dr. F. W. D'Evelyn was elected the new president. Soon after the California Association Football League met and added the Building Trades Athlet...
On September 7, 1907, the California Association Football League held its annual general meeting at Croll's Gardens in Alameda. Three teams from San Francisco, Burns Club, Scotia F.C. and Thistles, joined the five returning clubs. All three teams were made up of Scottish players made possible by the influx of foreign worker into the Bay Area as the region continued to rebuild. The eight clubs w...
The annual meeting of the California Association Football League was held on October 26, 1906 at Croll's Hall in Alameda. Retiring president, Taliesin Evans, presided as chairman and Alexander G. Rhodes, donor of the league pennant, was elected the new president. The sport saw a tremendous influx of players from the Eastern U.S. as well as Europe due to the amount of labor needed to rebuild the re...
The annual meeting of the California Association Football Union was held on September 23, 1905 in Foresters' Hall at 102 O'Farrell Street in San Francisco. Membership grew from seven to thirteen teams as the reach of soccer grew throughout northern California. The attendees agreed that amateurism was a priority and no club would attempt to evade amateur rules in order to gain players. It was agree...
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 annu...
The annual meeting of the California Association Football League was held on September 4, 1903 in the British American Union rooms in San Francisco's Emma Spreckels Building (now the Central Tower). Taliesin Evans was re-elected president, Henry Roberts was re-elected secretary, and Edgar Pomeroy was elected treasurer. The San Francisco club had disbanded soon after the 1903 season ended. The four...
The game of association football was adopted in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1890s. The Pacific Coast Association Football League organized in 1892 with five clubs but disbanded in 1893-94. The game of soccer was played on and off by a few independent clubs until around 1900 then went somewhat dormant. This changed when Edgar Pomeroy organized the American-British Rifles team of San ...
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