Philadelphia was central to the formation of the first two pro soccer leagues in the US, the National League baseball-backed American League of Professional Football, and the American Association of Professional Football, which played its first games before, and outlived, the ALPF.
After the quick demise of the Philadelphia Phillies pro soccer team in 1894, Philadelphia’s other pro team would return to the amateur ranks before going on to win Philadelphia’s first national soccer championship in 1897.
The decline of Philadelphia’s first organized league is followed by the appearance of the first professional soccer teams in the city.
Our series continues with the start of Philadelphia’s first organized soccer league, the Pennsylvania Football Union, in 1889.
The origin of soccer in Philadelphia rests squarely on the shoulders of the city’s 19th Century British immigrant population. British immigrants came to work in Philadelphia’s bustling steel and shipbuilding industries but large numbers came to work in the city’s textile trades. The soccer/textile connection can be found both in […]