One of the most highly regarded amateur soccer teams in New England during the late 1920s and early 1930s were the Black Cats of New Bedford. The team’s entire roster was made up of second generation Americans in their early twenties. The players were sons and grandsons of whalers and sailors from Poland, England, Portugal and France. Almost all of the players worked in the New Bedford textile mills.

Known as the Pirate Juniors in their earlier years, by 1929 the team was backed by Adelard Chenette the proprietor of the Black Cat Filling Station located in New Bedford. The team bore the name of the company on the front of their jerseys which also had a large black cat logo on the back.

In the fall of 1929, the team officially entered qualifying for the 1930 National Challenge Cup under the name Black Cat Filling Station F.C. In early October, the Black Cats beat Tessier’s Chevrolet of New Bedford and Braga & Silva F.C. of Fall River in the first two rounds of qualifying.

The Black Cats had years before been known as the Pirate Juniors. They were a top notch outfit having won New England competitions such as the Grey-Norman cup, the Junior League cup, the New Bedford Soccer League cup, and being runners up in the New Bedford Times Soccer League itself. On April 23, 1927, Philadelphia lost to J. & P. Coats 2-1 in an American Soccer League match in Pawtucket. The league quickly suspended the Philadelphia franchise because they had played nine unregistered amateurs from New Bedford and Fall River in that match. At least six of those nine amateur players were part of the 1931 Black Cat team. But, their opponents in the next round of the National Challenge Cup were on another level.

The last hurdle for the Black Cats to qualify for the tournament proper would be a match against Lusitania Recreation. Located in East Cambridge, the Lucy Recs were an amateur soccer powerhouse during soccer’s golden age. The club drew the best local players from the area’s Portuguese community including greats such as Billy Gonsalves and Bert Patenaude.

Lusitania Recreation had easily beaten the Black Cats of New Bedford 9-1 just a few weeks before. The final NCC qualifying match was held on November 10, 1929 at Blake Field in East Cambridge. The Lucy Recs were again the better team beating the Black Cats 4-0 and qualifying for the First Round of the National Challenge Cup. The Black Cats also took part in the 1930 National Amateur Cup but were knocked out prior to the semifinals by the Raffles team of Fall River.

The next fall the Black Cats focused solely on the 1931 National Amateur Cup. The competition began in November of 1930 when 73 teams entered the knockout competition. The Black Cats beat Jackson Motors F.C. of Fall River and Tessier’s Chevrolet F.C. in their first two NAC matches. On January 18, 1931, the Black Cats traveled to Lynn where they beat Riverside F.C. 2-1 before 1500 at General Electric Field.

That victory put the Black Cats in the Eastern Semifinals against Victoria Mills F.C. of Thornton, R.I. The Black Cats hosted Victoria Mills on February 22, 1931 and beat the Rhode Island team 2-1 at Battery Park.

The Black Cats hosted the Eastern Final at Battery Park on March 29, 1931 against First German F.C. of Newark, N.J. The match went scoreless through the first 75 minutes until Joe Perry scored to put the Black Cats up 1-0. Steinbrenner scored for the First Germans just five minutes later to tie the score. The game ended regulation at 1-1 so the teams played two 15-minute extra periods. John Trznadel scored off a free kick seven minutes into the first extra period and the Black Cats held on through the remaining overtime to win 2-1.

The Black Cats won the right to host the National Amateur Cup final against the Goodyear Wingfoots of Akron, Ohio. On May 10, 2500 fans in Battery Park saw the Black Cats’ Joe Perry score less than 10 minutes into the game. The scoreline held until halfway into the second half when Blackburn tied the match for Goodyear. Neither team scored through regulation nor two extra 15-minute periods which meant a replay had to be scheduled.

On June 7, the Black Cats traveled to Akron to face the Goodyear Wingfoots at Seiberling Field. Even with a hard rain, a crowd of 5,000 showed up for the replay of the National Amateur Cup final. Goodyear’s team was made up mostly of English and Scottish men who played the classic patient, possession style of their homelands. The Black Cats, though, were known for their dashing attacking style which centered on sending long passes upfield to create shots as often as possible.

The wet conditions suited Goodyear’s tactics which saw the Black Cats’ speed bogged down by the soggy pitch. But the Black Cats were still able to send a barrage of shots at the Akron goal. As in the first match, Goodyear’s goalkeeper, Davey Pearson, had an excellent match and was able to stifle the Black Cat attack. Goodyear scored once in the first half against the run of play then scored again in the second half off a penalty kick to win the 1931 National Amateur Cup 2-0.

The following season, the team would lose Black Cat Filling Station as a sponsor but the players would end up being backed by Club Santo Christo of New Bedford. Santo Christo would play in the New England Inter-club League for the 1931-32 season and again take part in the National Amateur Cup with almost the same rosters as the prior year.

In February of 1932, Santo Christo would beat Fairlawn Rovers 1-0 before 1500 at Battery Park off a goal by Joe Perry to win the right to play in the National Amateur Cup Eastern Semifinals. Over the next month, Santo Christo blanked Babcock & Wilcox of Bayonne, N.J. 4-0 and beat Upper Darby, Penn. 3-1 on the same field to reach the 1932 National Amateur Cup final.

On May 1, 1932, Santo Christo would travel to Ohio for the second straight year to determine the National Amateur Cup title. The New Bedford team was hosted by the Shamrocks of Cleveland at Slavia Field. The crowd of 2500 was not disappointed as the Shamrocks beat Santo Christo 2-1 to keep the NAC trophy in Ohio.

In the fall of 1933, most of Santo Christo’s players joined the Defender and Tessier clubs of New Bedford when those teams joined the reorganized New England Division of the American Soccer League. Santo Christo would continue as a top New England amateur soccer club through the middle of the 20th century. While it never made another run at the National Amateur Cup, its best showing in the National Challenge Cup was 1936 where Santo Christo made it out of qualifying. The team went on to win its First Round match before losing in the Second Round 4-1 to St. Mary’s Celtic of Brooklyn from the American Soccer League.

by Dan Creel