Most Cleveland sports fans know about the city’s infamous sports curse. The superstition focused on the city’s major sports teams’ inability to win a championship for over 50 years. After the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship in 1964, the city went without a major league championship until the Cleveland Cavaliers finally broke the curse by winning the NBA title in 2016.

But, what if I told you that Cleveland had a longer championship drought in the sport of soccer? That, if we’re being generous, the drought lasted for 62 years? Or maybe 76 years? What if I told you that the drought may be about to hit 90 years and counting?

You can literally count the number of national soccer champions from Cleveland on one hand. AFC Cleveland won the adult amateur National Premier Soccer League in 2016. Before that, in 2008, the Cleveland City Stars won the USL Second Division, a now-defunct Division 3 professional league. And, during the nineties, the Cleveland Crunch won three indoor soccer championships in the National Professional Soccer League.

There is one more club on that list of champions. And perhaps the only one we should really consider a major national soccer title. For that one, we’ll need to go back to the 1931-32 season during the waning days of the so-called Golden Age of US Soccer - and the club’s name was Shamrock S.C.

The Shamrocks began their historic season in typical fashion by taking part in the Labor Cup. Sponsored by the Cleveland Federation of Labor, the competition was the traditional start of the Cleveland soccer season. The best teams in the area played in a knockout tournament with the final typically ending on or around Labor Day. Since the competition’s founding, the Shamrocks had never won the tournament. Even though the club was one of the city’s powerhouses, it had back luck in cup tournaments. The Labor Cup was no exception with the Shamrocks usually getting bounced in the first round.

But things seemed different for the 1931 competition. After a week’s postponement, the Shamrocks played the Sons of St. George in the first round. The match was held at Shamrock Field, located at W. 65th Street and Herman Avenue, with the home club winning 2-1. The Shamrock goals were scored by Ned Corrigan and James O’Brien.

While the club was made up of players mostly from playing fields of Scotland, England & Hungary, Edward “Ned” Corrigan, who had been with the Shamrocks for a couple of seasons at this point, possibly had the best pedigree. Corrigan was a 31-year-old veteran who had plied his trade in and around Glasgow. As an inside left, Ned signed for Celtic F.C. from Glasgow Junior League club Petershill F.C. in October 1924 at the beginning of the Scottish League Division One season. He debuted out of position at outside-left in a 1-0 defeat to Rangers F.C. on October 25 at Celtic Park. And, he would only play in three further matches during the rest of the season.

In the next season, he was loaned to Division Two clubs Ayr United F.C. and St. Bernard’s F.C. of Edinburgh. He left Celtic and joined Dundee United F.C. for the 1926-27 season as the club was struggling to stay in Division One. He returned to Division Two St. Bernard’s later that season and was let go by that club in the summer of 1927.

Ned Corrigan made his way to the United States and joined the Shamrocks. By the 1931-32 soccer season, Corrigan was primarily playing on the right at halfback or inside-right and, according to a contemporary report, was considered one of the outstanding players in the US. {SEE DEC 20 CINCY ENQUIRER}

The next Saturday,September 6, in the Labor Cup semifinals the Shamrocks defeated the Banat German Sports club by the same 2-1 score again at Shamrock Field. The first goal by Shamrocks was scored by center forward, Zoltan Megyery (often misspelled “Magyery” in the news accounts at the time). The 26-year-old was a recent addition to the club having played with Cleveland’s Magyar A.C. the previous season and had just immigrated to the US from Hungary in 1929. Known for a stifling defense, Megyery’s presence immediately took the Shamrock attack to the next level.

The win against the Banats put the Shamrocks into the Labor Cup final against the Rosenblum club. The Rosenblums were better known as Slavia F.C. While at no point did one team become dominant in Cleveland during the Golden Age, Slavia, was arguably one of the best two teams during the late twenties and early thirties along with Bruell Insurance F.C. (formerly known as the American Hungarian F.C.) Slavia was a fully professional team that won multiple league and cup titles in Cleveland and Ohio. Before the 1931-32 season, Rosenblum’s clothing store (owned by Max Rosenblum who also sponsored the Cleveland Rosenblum American Basketball League team) sponsored the Slavia club which changed its name to match. Two seasons later, Slavia would be sponsored by the Bartunek’s Clothes store and under that name would continue well into the mid-20th century. Starting this season, the Shamrocks themselves were sponsored, whether formally or informally, by the newly-organized West Side Irish American Club.

The Labor Cup final was held the following day at the newly-constructed Cleveland Stadium on September 7, 1931. The stadium opened on July 3, 1931 with a heavyweight boxing match. And, now soccer would be among the sports played at the stadium well before the Cleveland Indians would debut there on July 31, 1932. The match was played at night under the lights and it wasn’t very close. The Rosenblums controlled the match and easily won 2-0 taking the Labor Cup. The Shamrocks’ best chance of ever winning the competition slipped away as, after 20 years, this would be the last time the competition was held.

The league season started up that next Sunday with the Shamrocks facing Bruells Insurance (commonly known as Bruell’s American Hungarian) at Luna Park stadium. Megyery scored again but the strain of three matches over one week showed and the Shamrocks lost 3-1.

At the turn of the 1930s, the soccer league environment of Cleveland was in flux. But, for the first two decades of the 20th century, the Cleveland League (at various times called the Cleveland Association Football League, the Cleveland & District League, and the Cleveland Soccer League) was the only game in town. An earlier version of the Shamrocks played in the Cleveland League at an earlier point in time.

An Irish team called the Shamrocks started playing as a non-league junior team in the fall of 1909. The club launched a senior team that debuted on April 16, 1911. The club played in the old Cleveland League from then until disbanding on May 9, 1915. The Shamrocks never won a league title but in their first year were runners up for the Bowler Cup - the Cleveland League cup named for a former president of the league. The Shamrocks also managed to make the finals of the 1913 Labor Cup. The club lost its first three games of the 1915 season before folding.

A new team composed entirely of Irish players launched during the spring half of the 1924-25 Cleveland League season. The landscape of soccer in Cleveland had changed in the interim. The skyrocketing popularity of the sport meant more players, more clubs and more leagues. In 1923, the Cleveland League was joined by the International League. The latter competition was a regional wheel made up of clubs from Cleveland, Akron and Lorain. The Cleveland League itself had split into First and Second Divisions to deal with the number of teams interested in the game.

The new Shamrocks club took the Second Division title and was promoted to the First Division for the 1925-26 season. The next season saw a major shakeup in the area. The International League disbanded and was replaced by the Northeastern Ohio league. That league consisted of 10 teams from Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Lorain and was considered the major league for northern Ohio. The Cleveland league turned into the Class A, Class B and Class C leagues with relegation and promotion between those leagues and the Northeastern Ohio league.

The Shamrocks remained in the Class A League for the 1926-27 season. A major milestone for the club was the debut of their own field, Shamrock Field. A few bigger clubs had their own grounds, but most clubs at the time shared public fields in the area or used the grounds of the clubs that had them. Getting their own field was a big step for the club and represented how the Shamrocks were becoming one of the top teams in the region.

The club was also attracting top players from the area. A coup for the 1926-27 season was the acquisition of William Coyle who had played with the American Hungarians the prior season. Coyle was a stalwart at halfback and became the squad’s captain. It was also around this time that the Shamrocks took to wearing their classic kits. Green jerseys with a row of white hoops on both arms. A large white stripe across the jersey with a prominent green shamrock in the middle of the chest. The club had another good year winning the A. B. & C. league cup series and were promoted to the major division of the Northeastern Ohio league.

But a run to the Western Final of the National Amateur Cup may have been the biggest news. The Shamrocks beat the Detroit-area River Rouge Scots F.C. 3-1 at Shamrock Field before 1500 fans on March 13, 1927. The team had to face Heidelberg A.A. in the Western Final. The Pittsburgh-area club was one of the best amateur sides of the time and had lost the previous Amateur Cup final to the New Bedford Defenders. Heidelberg easily handled Shamrocks on April 10, 1927 beating the home side 2-0 at Shamrock Field. Heidelberg would go on to win the National Amateur Cup final that year and again two years later.

The Shamrocks spent two relatively uneventful years in the major league but their fortunes began to change during the 1929-30 season. The two main professional clubs, Bruell and Slavia, left to join the fully-professional Midwest Professional League along with clubs from Detroit and Chicago. The Shamrocks were now considered the strongest Cleveland team. The club had brought on outside-right Patrick McAuley to improve the attack and Joseph Toman to improve the defense. The Shamrocks took the Northeastern League title and made their best showing to date in the National Challenge Cup as they went five rounds deep to the Ohio/Western Pennsylvania Qualifying playoff round.

Following the disbanding of the Midwest Professional League, Bruell and Slavia returned and helped form a second top league, the Ohio International League. The new league took other area teams leaving the Northeastern Ohio league with only six clubs including the Shamrocks. The third Cleveland area league at the time was the Lake Shore League, considered a lower tier competition than the OIL and NOL.

The Shamrocks defended their Northeastern Ohio League title but lost in the semifinals of the Ohio State Cup to Slavia by a 1-0 score. In addition, at the end of the soccer season, Slavia, as champions of the Ohio International League, and the Shamrocks met in a two-out-of-three game series to determine the Cleveland city champions. It wasn’t a close affair with the Slavia winning the first two matches 4-2 and 5-0 with the second held at Shamrock Field.

In better news, the Shamrocks qualified for the National Challenge Cup for the first time. They ran through four qualifying rounds over other Ohio teams before facing the Pittsburgh-area Morgan F.C. in the First Round Proper. It was a rude awakening as Morgan defeated the Shamrocks 9-0 before 6,000 at Morgan Field on January 19, 1931. The Shamrocks protested the match due to the fact that the match was played on an unenclosed field. The U.S. Football Association upheld the protest and a replay was ordered to be played at Shamrock Field. The result was better but not by much with Morgan again defeating the Shamrocks 3-1 in overtime.

At the beginning of the 1931-32 season, the Shamrocks had faced their professional rivals in back-to-back matches and lost both matches. The club had left the Northeastern Ohio league to join the better competition of the Ohio International League. But the club’s manager, James B. Crilly, an immigrant from County Down in what is now Northern Ireland, had continued to improve the squad in the prior offseason. They had brought in former Magyar A.C. player, Paul Somogyi, in goal and Jimmy Fair, who had been with the Sons of St. George the prior season, in back. Along with Toman, the trio formed as stout a defense as could be found in the area. Joseph Sherwood and James Hackett combined with Coyle and Corrigan at half. And inside-left, William McNab, formed a formidable forward line in combination with Megyery and McAuley.

Luna Park, Cleveland, a well-known amusement park at the time, was also the home of a large stadium.

The Shamrocks won their next match on September 20, beating Banat German Sports by 2-1. Corrigan and Megyery scored the goals. The club had found its footing and went on a winning streak.They next traveled to Akron and defeated Goodyear F.C. 3-2 at Seiberling Field with Megyery scoring a brace. The Shamrocks scored a stunning win in their next match by defeating the Rosenblums 1-0. Megyery scored another goal and the team’s formidable defense stopped the favored professional side. The win put them in first position in the Ohio International League. The Shamrocks won their final match of the first half of the league season by defeating Magyar A.C. 4-1 at Shamrock Field.

The clubs moved from league play into national cup play. The Shamrocks took to Shamrock Field on October 18, 1931 for the Preliminary Round of the National Challenge Cup. They beat Sons of St. George 2-0 and then, two weeks later, easily defeated another Cleveland club, Clan Grant, 4-1 at home. A long break ensued until the club took to Shamrock Field again for a Second Qualifying Round match. The Shamrocks blanked Goodyear F.C. 3-0 on November 29, 1931 with another brace by Megyery.

Action then turned to the National Amateur Cup. On December 6, The Shamrocks defeated St. Stephens 1-0 at Shamrock Field via another Megyery goal and, a week later, destroyed Clan Grant at home by a 7-2 score with Megyery scoring a hat trick.

The following week found the Shamrocks traveling to Cincinnati for a National Challenge Cup final qualifying round match against the New Era club of that city. The teams played on December 20 at Kicker’s Field with the Shamrocks easily taking the match 4-1. Megyery scored yet another brace and the win put the Shamrocks into the First Round of the National Challenge Cup.

On December 27, the Shamrocks defeated Youngstown’s Mahoning Valley F.C. 5-2 at Shamrock Field in a Second Round Ohio State Cup match. Megyery scored another hat trick.

Two weeks later, the Shamrocks began their second ever National Challenge Cup. On January 10, 1932 the club faced Bruell Insurance F.C. at Shamrock Field. The Shamrocks were on an 11-game winning streak stretching back almost four months with Bruell being the previous team to beat them. This time the Shamrocks were ready and blanked Bruell 2-0 on goals by Megyery and Billy Coyle. The Shamrocks’s captain, Coyle, had moved out of the Cleveland area at the end of November and was not available for a number of matches before returning from the East before this match.

Shifting back to National Amateur Cup play, the Shamrock’s hosted the Sons of Malta from Detroit in a Fourth Round match on January 17 at Shamrock Field. The match was a rough affair and, with Sons of Malta leading 1-0, a riot halted play. US Football Association president, Armstrong Patterson, was in attendance and advised the game not to continue.

The following week the National Amateur Cup Commission ordered the match to be replayed on January 31. It was a much different affair with the Shamrocks winning on their home field 3-1 on another Megyery hat trick.

The win placed the Shamrocks in the Western Division Semifinals against their Cleveland rivals, Magyar A.C. On February 7 at Shamrock Field, Megyery continued his torrid pace with another brace and the Shamrocks defeated the Magyars 3-0.

The rivalries continued and the Shamrocks found themselves facing Rosenblum Slavia in the Second Round of the National Challenge Cup a week later at Slavia Field. The winning streak was at 14 games. And it ended with a resounding thud. The Rosenblums scored five minutes into the match and crushed the Shamrocks 7-0 to enter the Western Division Semifinals. A short break in the schedule gave the club the rest it needed and it made it through the Third Round of the Ohio State Cup.

Out of the national open cup, the next match for the Shamrocks was the Western Final of the National Amateur Cup. The Shamrocks would host Morry S.C. of Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania on March 6, 1932 at Slavia Field. The players on the Morry club had represented the Pittsburgh-area Gallatin club that defeated the Shamrocks on the way to the 1930 NAC final. The outcome was never in doubt with the Shamrocks blanking Morry 6-0 on braces by Megyery and William McNab. The Shamrocks had made it to the National Amateur Cup final.

The Shamrocks had one more match before the opening of the spring league season. On March 13, they met their nemesis, the Rosenblums, in a Fourth Round Ohio State Cup match. It was a close match but the Rosenblums edged it out 1-0 before a riot ensued at the end of the match.

The club got a month break before their league schedule restarted. On April 17 at Slavia Field the Shamrocks blanked Magyar A.C. 2-0 to continue their Ohio International League lead. The next week at Shamrock Field they hung another 2-0 score on Bruell’s American Hungarian. The Shamrocks were in the driver's seat to take the league championship as they moved toward the cup final.

On May 1, 1932, the Santo Christo club of New Bedford came to Cleveland to play the Final of the National Amateur Cup at Slavia Field. An attendance of 5,000 was expected but bad weather kept the gate to only 2,500. But those in attendance were not disappointed as the game was a very close, back and forth affair.

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Monday April 11, 1927

The Shamrocks scored first during the first 45 minutes. Toman hit McNab off a free kick and the inside-left deflected the ball past Santo Christo’s goalie, Mullins, for the score. The rest of the first half was scoreless. But, only four minutes into the second, Megyery, attempting to clear the ball, sent it to Perry and the Santo Christo player knocked it into the net.

But, late in the second half, Megyery made up for his defensive blunder by scoring a goal through a number of pressing Santo Christo players. The game ended 2-1 giving Shamrocks the National Amateur Cup and Cleveland’s first national soccer title.

But the season wasn’t over for the Shamrocks who had three remaining matches in league play. Two weeks after their cup victory, on May 15, the Shamrocks defeated Goodyear F.C. 4-2 at home. The cup heroes came through again with Megyery scoring a hat trick yet again and McNab the other.

With two games left to play the Shamrocks only needed a result from their final two games to take the title. But, the Rosenblums were in their way. Over 25 games, the Shamrocks had only lost four matches. Rosenblum Slavia had been responsible for three of them. The last one a 7-0 shellacking. A stumble in the next to last game would set up a must win in the final league match. Rosenblum was eager to take home a league title. In fact they were gunning for a state treble having already won the Labor Cup and Ohio State Cup and it showed. Megyery scored another goal but the Rosenblums took the match 3-1 at Slavia Field on May 29.

The Shamrocks had a must win in their final match against Banat German Sports. Anything less would give the Ohio International League title to the Rosenblums. On June 5, at Shamrock Field, the Shamrocks did what they needed to do, beating the Banats by a 4-2 score on another Megyery brace. Zoltan Megyery was the top scorer in Ohio for the 1931-32 season with a reported 35 goals. And, the Shamrocks completed an historic season becoming the only Cleveland club to take home a national championship.

In the following season, the Shamrocks did make it through National Challenge Cup qualifying for the second straight year but lost badly to Pittsburgh-area Curry F.C. 4-0 in the First Round Proper. The club made another run at the National Challenge Cup but was blanked again losing 5-0 to the Detroit Ramblers in the Western Semifinals. In fact, the 1932-33 season was a tale of two halves. In the Fall the Shamrocks were as strong as they were the prior season. But, by the spring, the club had lost most of its top offensive stars and the team struggled badly to score goals and win games.

The Rosenblum Slavia continued to be the club’s primary nemesis. The Shamrocks came in as runners up to Slavia in both the Ohio International League and the Ohio State Cup in the 1932-33 season. The latter may have been the most bitter pill to swallow. On May 14, the Shamrocks blanked the Rosenblums 2-0 at Luna Park Stadium to win the cup final. But, Slavia protested due to the Shamrocks’ goalkeeper, Petz, being an ineligible player. A replay was ordered and two weeks later on the same field, Rosenblum Slavia beat the Shamrocks 1-0 to take the Ohio State Cup.

As the economic ravages of the Great Depression rocked the country, the sport of soccer also felt the consequences of that. Even the best organizations felt that weight and the Shamrocks were no different. The club was still considered one of the best amateur teams in the country during the 1933-34 season, but the Shamrocks regularly needed to pad their lineup with players from other clubs for their national and state cup matches because they had lost almost half their regular squad to the newly organized Graphic Bronze club. Due to the continued decrease of clubs playing in the area, the Shamrocks were placed directly into the First Round Proper of the National Challenge Cup. But, on January 14, 1934, they were easily dispatched by the Cleveland Indians 2-0 at Luna Park.

The Shamrocks attempted another run at the National Amateur Cup. On Dec 24, 1933 at Shamrock Field, they crushed Magyar A.C. of Akron by a 7-1 score but padded their lineup with five Bartunek Slavia players. They were able to win two more rounds before losing to the Cincinnati Kickers 3-0 at Kickers Field on Jan 28, 1934.

Bartunek Slavia won the Ohio International League and the Ohio State Cup that season. The league itself folded before the 1934-35 season and so did the Shamrocks.

A new Shamrocks club was reorganized a few years later for the 1937-38 season and joined the only Cleveland area soccer league left standing, the American German League. While the club never managed to win a league or state cup title, it was able to do well in the national cups.

The Shamrocks made it to the Fifth Round of the National Amateur cup before losing to Bartunek Slavia 2-0 at Luna Park Stadium on February 27, 1938. Bartunek Slavia continued to be the best Cleveland club of the late 1930s. The next season was almost a carbon copy of the last. Bartunek-Slavia crushed the Shamrocks 5-1 on January 2, 1939 in a Second Round National Challenge Cup. The Shamrocks later made it to the Western Semifinals of the National Amateur Cup and, on April 9, 1939, and finally took revenge on their nemesis by blanking Bartunek 3-0 at Equestrium Field. In that year’s Western Final, the Shamrocks were defeated 2-0 at Equestrium Field by Gallatin F.C. on April 23, 1939.

The 1939-40 season looked to be the best yet for the reorganized Shamrocks.During that fall they made it to the Third Round Proper of the National Challenge Cup. That included a 2-0 defeat of Bartunek-Slavia in the Second Round on December 10, 1939 at Equestrium Field. But, in the Third Round, on Christmas Eve, they lost to Chrysler Motors S.C. at Mack Park in Detroit by a 3-0 score.

That spring, the Shamrocks were leading the five-team American Soccer League and making another run at the National Amateur Cup. On March 10, 1940 the club took down the Chrysler Motors club 2-1 at Detroit in a Fourth Round match. In the Western Final, they faced the Pittsburgh-area Morgan Strasser S.C.. At home at Equestrium Field, the Shamrocks lost 3-2 on March 31, 1940.

But the club still held the lead in the American Soccer League as the season wound down. On April 14, 1940, the Shamrocks drew the Bayern club 1-1 at Edgewater Park. The result kept the Shamrocks at the top of the table. A week later, the Shamrocks hosted the Natural Set-Ups of St. Louis in an intercity friendly. The St. Louis club blanked the Shamrocks 2-0 at Woodland Hills Park. The next week, the Shamrocks were due to host Bartunek at Woodland Hills Park in an ASL league match. A Bartunek victory would tie the teams for first in the league. The Shamrocks failed to appear for the match. The club had apparently folded and would never play another game.

What of the question about the length of the Cleveland soccer drought of major national championships? The Shamrocks won the National Amateur Cup in 1932. Has that drought ended? The Cleveland Crunch might have ended that drought in 1994 by winning the National Professional Soccer League. They won that league again in 1996 and 1999. But that was in indoor soccer - a different sport than association football.

What about the Cleveland City Stars? They won the old USL Second Division in 2008. That was an outdoor soccer league and technically a national competition. But the majority of the 10 teams in the league sat on the Eastern seaboard with Cleveland being the westernmost one. And the USL Second Division was a division 3 league a tier below the USL First Division and two tiers below MLS. Can we call that a major national championship?

The final possible challenge to the drought is from 2016. That year AFC Cleveland won the 2016 National Premier Soccer League championship. That was an outdoor soccer league that definitely had a national footprint. But the league was not sanctioned as a professional league. Can we call a semi-pro competition a major national championship?

There may be no answer to those questions. But, no matter what, any answer would not lessen the historic importance of the Shamrock’s accomplishments. And, any answer would still lead us to the same conclusion - the Shamrock S.C. is still one of the greatest clubs in Cleveland and Ohio soccer history.

- Dan Creel