Association Football – Coming to America 1905
120 years ago, it was announced that an association football team would tour North America during late 1905. This team was named The Pilgrims FC.
Pilgrims had been established by Frederick Houghton Milnes a current Sheffield United player (previously also Sheffield FC) who was born in Wortley near Sheffield, England.
His own amateur touring team had the ambition of spreading the association game beyond Britain. They firstly toured Austria during April 1905 & later the same year played 17 matches across Canada & the United States. John Hudson of Brightside, Sheffield, a former England International who played for many teams in Sheffield but is most strongly associated with The Wednesday, was the coach for the tour.
The first Pilgrims FC tour of North America inspired discussions regarding the establishment of an American Association football league during December 1905. Association football was seen as popular by President Roosevelt & many east coast colleges who had concerns regarding the violence displayed in the form of football played especially in the States at the time. An American association team made plans to visit England in late 1906 to play an international such was the level of interest generated by the tour.
The Pilgrims still under Milnes leadership returned in 1909 to play a further 22 matches pushing still further the attraction of the association game over the pond.
Many historians refer to these 2 early 1900’s Pilgrims FC tours as being the spark behind the growth of the game’s popularity in America. In his book Soccer in American Culture, G Edward White (University of Missouri) notes that ‘American observers of the game regularly ascribed to the English players (of the Sheffield inspired Pilgrims touring team)..’controlled passing, a superior style of play to the hosts’. It was these tours 1905-1909 that ‘ greatly helped to popularise the game in America’ according to the Society for American Soccer History. The Corinthians toured too but the ‘Pilgrims had the greatest effect’.
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