ASL at 100 is a joint history project between Soccer Almanac and Protagonist Soccer. Dan Creel (a contributor on both platforms) will look back over the history of the American Soccer League, month by month, as the centennial of the league is celebrated in 2021. Please check out the Protagonist Podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and most other platforms for the audio version of this article, released on the same day as this publishes.

October 1921

Philadelphia F.C. & Harold Brittain

October brought the first full month of league play in the American Soccer League. And Philadelphia F.C. continued their winning streak. On Saturday, October 1, the Phillies hosted New York F.C. at Northeast High School Field at 29th and Cambria Streets. Harold Brittain scored both goals for Philadelphia as they edged New York 2-1. Brittain again scored a brace the next day when Philadelphia traveled to south Brooklyn and beat Todd Shipyards F.C. 2-0 at Todd Field. That gave Philadelphia four straight wins to start the season and put Brittain at 6 goals on a three-game streak of scoring two goals per game.

The return match with Todd Shipyards scheduled for the following Saturday had to be postponed by the Philadelphia club’s inability to obtain use of their home grounds. And, the next day, Sunday, October 9, Philadelphia F.C. finally dropped points drawing New York F.C. 3-3 at New York Oval but Harold Brittain scored yet another brace bringing his total to 8 goals over 5 matches.

October 7, 1921 Photo of Todd Shipyards.

Englishman Harold Brittan started his professional football career in the 1913-14 season with Chelsea F.C. of the English First Division. He found only limited playing time during his first two seasons with the club before joining the British Army for service during World War I. He rejoined Chelsea in 1919 but, dissatisfied with his lack of play, left the club and moved to join family in the United States.

Brittain would be signed by Bethlehem Steel F.C. late in the 1919-20 season, and joined the club for their final game of the season. On June 6, 1920, he would score the first goal for Bethlehem in their 3-0 win over Robins Dry Dock F.C. That victory secured the National Association Football League title for the Steelworkers.

Playing center forward, Brittain would be Bethlehem Steel’s primary goalscorer the following season helping the club win their third straight NAFL title. In late January of 1921, rumors began circulating that Chelsea F.C. had offered $15,000 to Bethlehem for certain of their players one of which was Harold Brittain. According to the January 26th, 1921 edition of Bethlehem’s The Globe newspaper, terms offered to Brittain was a benefit game to the equivalent of about 5 to 7 thousand dollars if he would return to the club. After considering the offer, Brittain decided to stay with the Bethlehem Steel F.C. Along with most of the Steel Worker players, Brittain was signed by the Philadelphia F.C. club prior to the inaugural 1921-22 ASL season and continued his torrid scoring pace.

Mid-October Standings

After the first two weeks of October, Philadelphia topped the ASL table with 9 points off four wins and one draw. Todd Shipyards, at the core the Phillies’ old enemies the Robins Dry Dock F.C., were in second with 6 points but were on a streak of 3 scoreless games including two nil-nil draws against J&P Coats and Falco F.C. Fall River United and the Falcos of Holyoke sat tied for third with 5 points each. With ideal weather conditions, Falco reportedly drew 6000 fans to Falco Field in Holyoke on Saturday, October 1st for their 3-1 defeat of Jersey City’s Celtic F.C. New York F.C. and Harrison S.C. sat tied for fifth place with 4 points each and Pawtucket’s J&P Coats 7th on 3 points.

That left the newly-organized Jersey City Celtics at the bottom in 8th place with no wins and no points after 4 matches in the league. The club had given up 20 goals while only scoring 5. Three of those were by their center forward, John Fitzpatrick. On Saturday, October 8, Celtic F.C. visited Fall River United. 1500 were in attendance at the Athletic grounds hoping to see a victory for their home side but they were in for a surprise.

According to the October 10, 1921 edition of Fall River’s The Evening Herald, the Celtics started off in possession. John Fitzpatrick received the ball from the kickoff and dribbled down the field. The Fall River defense allowed him to proceed down the field expecting him to pass the ball to one of his teammates. Fitzgerald hadn’t proceeded far when QUOTE “he lunged out with a wicked boot that took everybody by surprise, particularly goaltender Chick Albin. The shot went clear into the curtains. The score was applauded for it was a fine piece of work everything considered.” Fitzgerald had scored a goal only 17 seconds from the start of the match. But, as was the case, the Celtics could not hold the lead and lost 4-2 to Fall River.

Jersey City had yet to have a home match. Their prior match on Sunday, October 2nd, was due to be played against Fall River United at the Jersey City International Ball Park (also known as West Side Park) but the park was unavailable due to baseball games. The other New Jersey club, Harrison S.C., had the similar issues as Harrison Field was unavailable for soccer due to baseball for the club’s Sunday matches scheduled on October 2nd against Falco F.C. and October 9th against J&P Coats.

National Challenge Cup

The third weekend of October had been set aside for First Round National Challenge Cup matches. Now known as the U.S. Open Cup, the National Challenge Cup was the U.S. Football Association’s knockout competition to crown the country’s soccer champion. Robins Dry Dock F.C. had won the cup the prior season and Bethlehem Steel F.C. was a four-time champion winning it in 1915, 1916, 1918 and 1919. As such one of their progeny, Todd Shipyards F.C. and Philadelphia F.C. respectively, were expected to take home the cup in the 1921-22 season.

Unlike the modern era U.S. Open Cup, the structure of the National Challenge Cup was somewhat different at the time of the initial ASL season. At that time clubs would compete in the initial rounds with clubs from their local state associations. The last club standing from a state association in the National Challenge Coup would be considered the champion of that association for the year. Those winners would be drawn against each other until the semifinals would determine the Eastern and Western champions. Those two teams would face off in the grand final to determine the National Challenge Cup winner and that season’s soccer champions of the United States.

Also unlike the modern era, at this time, the major league ASL clubs would join the tournament in the first round just like the other clubs that entered from their regions. One hundred and 12 teams total took part in the 1921-22 National Challenge Cup with 6 more not making it out of that year’s Preliminary Round.

Fall River United and J&P Coats took part in the 14-team Southern New England District part of the competition. On Wednesday, October 12th, Fall River hosted a Columbus Day match at the Athletic Grounds against Prospect Hill F.C. from Lonsdale, Rhode Island. A small crowd saw the home side blank Prospect Hill 4-0 with Hughie Weir getting a brace.

On Saturday, October 15, J&P Coats got a visit from the 1917 National Challenge Cup winners and their old Southern New England league rivals the Fall River Rovers. The Threadmen took care of business in front of 1,800 at Coats Athletic Field beating the Rovers 3-0.

Philadelphia F.C. team photograph from October 3, 1921.

Philadelphia F.C. competed in the 10-team Eastern Pennsylvania District. On Saturday, October 15th they hosted another Philadelphia club, Kingsessing F.C. based out of a neighborhood on the west side of the SKOO-kel River. The game was the first home match for the ASL club at their new home, the Philadelphia National League Baseball Park. Located at Broad and Huntingdon Streets, the Phillies Ball Park (soon to be better known as the Baker Bowl) became available to the Philadelphia F.C. after the last Phillies National League games on October 1st. Philadelphia F.C. easily beat Kingsessing F.C. 8-2 to move on to the Second Round.

Falco F.C. was one of 4 clubs representing the Western New England District. On Sunday, October 16th, the club traveled to face Manchester F.C. at the Adams Street ground in South Manchester, Connecticut. The Falcos blanked Manchester 2-0 off a brace by Mackneckie.

That same day Todd Shipyards and New York F.C. competed in the 10-team Southern New York District. 1500 saw New York F.C. crush West Harlem Catholic 7-0 at the New York Oval with Hardy getting a hat trick. Todd Shipyards drew a reorganized Brooklyn F.C. and had a similarly easy time winning 8-2 at Todd Field with Scottish-born George McKelvey getting a hat-trick.

Finally, both New Jersey clubs competed out of the 8-team New Jersey District and both had to wait a week later to play their First Round matches at home. But it was worth the wait for both. On Sunday, October 23rd, Harrison S.C. played their first home match at Harrison Field facing Trenton’s Napier F.C. Nicknamed “Rabbit” Harrison’s John Heminsley scored a hat-trick to lead Harrison to a 4-0 victory. Over at the Jersey City Baseball Grounds, Celtic F.C. also had their first home game and their first victory blanking Kearny’s Federal Ship F.C. (a former member of the National Association Football League) 5-0.

The End of October

The last two weekends of October saw Philadelphia rack up two more victories and Harold Brittain scoring another brace in the first and his 11th league goal in the next. But Todd Shipyards went on a tear winning all four of their matches, including a 6-2 drubbing on Sunday, October 30th over Fall River United before 3000 at Todd Field to vault into first place by a point over the Phillies. The Fall River club went on a skid after their first round National Challenge Cup win losing their four ASL matches including another crushing defeat, 6-1 at New York F.C., on Sunday, October 23rd. And, the Jersey City Celtics also couldn’t follow-up their National Challenge Cup win as they were blanked by J&P Coats 4-0 on Saturday, October 29th at Coats Field in Pawtucket in which Bob Millar scored a brace.

Next month, November starts off with more National Challenge Cup action and schedule congestion becomes an issue for league play.