The Globe -- Bethlehem
Thursday, August 17, 1920
Bright Outlook For Coming Soccer Season

The coming soccer season should be a most successful one. This is predicted in view of the great strides made in the sport last several years, the attendance figures showing an increase each year which naturally indicates that the game is creating more interest. The organization of Industrial Leagues is going to greatly boost the sport and at the same time will have a tendency to develop a larger number of players from which the clubs registered in the more important competitions can select players. One of the most potent factors regarding the majority of these new teams and which indicates that they will be heard from on the playing pitch is the support that they are receiving from the various industrial plants. It is hoped that when the season opens the sport lovers in Bethlehem will rally to soccer and give the local team the support worthy of a championship aggregation. Secretary Thomas W. Cahill of the National Challenge Cup Competition, has sent the following notice to the various clubs regarding entering the tourney:

"A new season of soccer football, filled with new promise, soon will be upon us. There is every indication that the game, which experienced a phenomenal grown last season, will bound even further ahead in 1920-21.

"Last season the sport reached out into many new districts. Practically every old State association reported large increases in leagues and clubs and in public following. In 1920-21 the scope of the new recognized fall-to-spring sport will further expand, and the National Challenge Cup Competition or national championship of soccer, will undoubtedly reach proportions hitherto unknown.

"An even hundred clubs entered the national title quest in 1919-20. For the first time in the competition's history the championship eliminations were divided down to the final game into two sections, Eastern and Western, and the fight for the $1,000 trophy, emblematic of the soccer championship of the United States, finally narrowed down to a battle between the Fore River Football Club, of Quincy, Mass, and Ben Miller A. C., of St. Louis, Mo. The Ben Millers won the game and the title by 2 goals to 1 before a record-breaking crowd at Federal League Baseball Park, St. Louis, on may 9. Both finalists were in the title game for the first time and t he Ben Millers never before had entered the competition. Their triumph took the National Challenge Cup from the East to the Middle West for the first time in the history of the competition.

"Attendance throughout the competition testified to greatly increased interest in soccer generally and in the National Challenge Cup play in particular.

"Again in 1920-21 the survivors from the semi-finals to the two divisions, Eastern and Western will come together in this final match, the cup emblematic of the championship going to the wining club. As in former years twelve gold medals suitably inscribed will be awarded to the players of the championship team. Twelve similar medals, in silver and gold, will go to the runners-up.

"The National Challenge Cup Competition rules will govern the play in the competition which is directly under the United States Football Association auspices. Numerous changes in the N. C. C. C. rules have been made since the close of last season, from many of which advantages accrue to clubs entering the championship. The entry fee is $10 and entries, accompanied by the fee, must be in the office of the national secretary at 12 o'clock noon on September 25. The first drawings will be conduced on September 26.


1920-1921
Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club