The Globe-Times – Bethlehem
April 28, 1926
A Swing Along Athletic Row

A Real Soccer Classic Here
While other soccer games arranged for the coming weekend will have their attractive features, the one, in our opinion, to produce the most classy performance will take place on the home lot of the Bethlehem Steel F. C. when the National champions oppose the Boston F. C. in an American League game. In meeting Boston, Bethlehem will contend with the team that tossed Fall River out of the running in the National Cup affair and which was itself caught napping when eliminated in the semi-final by J. & P. Coats. The game will see two of the highest class teams in the country in action, clubs that have adopted the scientific style of play and just enough of the rush and kick style to inject aggressive features. Both teams play the same kind of game and incidentally both lineups will present some of the foremost soccer players in the country.

Real Test For Jewish Tourists
Although skeptical regarding the ability of the Hakoah soccer club, the All-Jewish Vienna aggregation touring this country, it is only fair that opinion be reserved until after the game arranged for the Polo Grounds, New York, on Saturday afternoon, when the visitors face a real test against an aggregation of professional players. The Hakoah club displayed class in winning their game last weekend over a picked eleven, but the losing club did not possess the class of the team to be faced Saturday afternoon. The latter is selected from among players of the Indiana Flooring and New York Giants of the American Soccer League. Suffice it to say that the latter will have as one of its forwards Davy Brown, the crack Giant forward, who will be at the center position. Another player on the professional outfit who was formerly quite popular in this city will be Davy Ferguson, former Steel Worker, who this season figured in a transfer with the Indiana Flooring. Ferguson will be at right fullback. Should the tourists win, the main regret of soccer fans, not only locally but throughout the country, will be the failure of the championship Bethlehem Steel F. C. in getting a date on the visitors’ schedule. As a drawing medium no stronger opponent could have been secured and we wonder why the Steel Workers were omitted in the tourists’ schedule.

Attendance Figures Exceed Estimates
Usually several thousand are added for good measure in estimating an attendance at a sporting event. Rather than figure conservatively, the estimators feel safer in adding a few more. There are instances, however, where they slip up and one of these happened to be the opening game of the Hakoah soccer club in New York last Saturday. Twenty thousand was the more general estimate, while some ventured to boost their estimates to 25,000. The latter figure for a soccer game in this country seemed to be exaggerated and many soccer fans were include to doubt if the total attendance came within six or seven thousand of the 25,000 mark. But here we have it right. Instead of exaggerating, the estimates were decidedly conservative. Dr. Henry Moskowitz, treasurer of the Hakoah in this country, gave out the official attendance on last Sunday’s game. The total advance sale was 19,840 and 7,260 paid admissions at the Polo Grounds, for a total of 27,100 paid admissions.

Attendance Figures Establish New Record
Heretofore, attendance figures at a soccer game never reached the twenty thousand mark. They have reached ten and fifteen thousand and in a few instances, slightly above the latter mark. If recalled correctly, the record attendance up to the time of the Jewish game was established by the Bethlehem Steel F. C. – Ben Miller game in Brooklyn, N.Y., several weeks ago. The National Challenge Cup final attracted a crowd in the neighborhood of eighteen thousand. A Bethlehem Steel-Hakoah game is possible and, in spite of the baseball season conflicting, we believe it would establish a record attendance well over thirty thousand if played in New York.


Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club