New-York tribune., 1918-03-31
Soccer Is Hit
Hardest Of All
Sports by War
In Some Cases Whole Teams
Have Entered the
Service
By c. A. Lovett

Soccer football has been hit harder
than any other major sport by the
nood OF young men into the nations
service. This, fer many months the
contention of leading authorities in
soccer IN this country, is borne out
by the early returns from all sections
oi the country in response to an an
peal ISSUED from the Office in this cjtv
ot lhomas w. Cahill, secretary of the
onieed States Football Association. for
sne names of those soccer piavers who
nave gone INTO the fighting ranks.
II the ratio indicated in the first
.~oScore lists to reach Secretary CahilI
IS Is sustained, it will be shown +ha+
from among the 42,50O PLAYERS Of a@
proximately $500 organized sooau ap
CUBS IN the United States before th;s
I'm ttIun'ry entrance into the war mora
80 80 io'oVo exponents of The kicking
wn,,ia ate IN government service. This
than uu'o mean That considerably more
S @n l'uov soccer clubs have ejthar
oeen forced to disband for the d,rat;ea
o. the war or to fill the nlaces nf
pss'riouc regular players with nlavers
VI 1ess experience
Some Entire Clubs Enlisted
;; IN IN some some sections of the country en-
IRE ciuos have joined the eolors Pa-
p p1rts TO this effect have coma from,
TThllcago, M st. Louis, Dallas and Buffalo
= ne Da las Soccer Club OF the Moth
tia eNas soccer otball League recentlv
ronn. sas nelo against powerful team
rIpresenting the Royal Flying Corns
whose aviation school fields a 70 no.ps'
eoring with the third eleven ORGANIZED
40 oo represent @ Dallas this season. Rv
taIiy december the entire Dallas cIuA
slas started the season in Septemhnr
haa gone to war. The last remain;nr
menoer or second team that renre.
sen1ed Dallas in midwinter ioinad the
.oiors 1ne hrst week in March.
Among the dozens OF nationally
prominent clubs to disband temporariiv
on account of the trek Of nlaueers ~ NY
army and navy were the cleveland
Anlsties and the Brooklyn Celtics.
-. Because nearly half of the assoc;a-
Cion Iootballers in the United States
are Canadian, Irish, Scotch or ENGLISH
born, or descended from such stock.
soccer football felt the effects of the
war long. before the entrance of this
country into the cataclysm. Clubs in
citles adjacent to Canada were par
.icuiariy affected as early as the 1914
10 football season.
1t is q strange fact that climbs =,
New England, where the PERCENTAGE
OF SUBJECTS of Great Britain is great
were less affected-indeed, even now
are not so hard pressed to maintain
team strength as clubs in Chicapo
Detroit, Cleveland, Rochester and otner
cities where the Canadian population
is fairly large and from which i },
out snort trip to a Canadian recruit
ing point.
Many Portuguese PLAYERS
There is. too, surprisingly large
number OF soccer players in the United
osaees porn IN Portugal, Italy or one
or another of the Scandinavian coun-
tries. The Joliet (Ill.) Steel Football
Club, which meets Bethlehem Penn
Football Club in the Western semi
hnal of the National Challenge Gun
competition at Bethlehem to-day. is
made up largely of Portuguese ath-
letes
The Eastern sem:-fnal in the nation
al competition is to be played next
Saturday at West Lynn, Mass, the ma
tlonal champion Fall River Rovers and
the Lynn Hibernians being the par
tlcipating clubs. Referee William Tay-
lor, of Boston, viii oficiate at this
game
Benefit games are being played in
many cities this month to swell the
Chain Letter Soccer Football Fund.
directed by a U. S. F. A. COMMITTEE.
which has supplied hundreds Of - balls all
goal nets and other soccer parapher-
MALTA to army and navy camps over
here and over there. Fortunately for
soccer, the army shoe with its broad.
blunt toe IS almost as good as the
specially constructed kicking shoe, and
the association game has gained wide
favor IN all service camps this past
winter.
The first L. s. F. A. president, Dr.
g. Randolph Manning. is now Captain
Manning, of the medical corps. attached
20 the 328th Field Artillery, Camp
Custer, Battle Creek, Mich Captain
Manning was transferred recently from
Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind, to Camp
Custer.
Seven members of the first inter-
national soccer team from this country,
which scored successive triumphs in
Norway and Sweden in the summer
of 1915 are in the national service.
Charles Ellis, a forward, well known
to New York soccer fans, is in the avia-
Ernest Viherg, {. member of the Z.
5 F, A. National Council. has enlisted
IN the .. S. y. submarine service. Hav-
ing been torpedo expert in the Swed-
ish Navy some years age, Viberg was
given the rating of chief boatswain 3
mate with the mark of expert torpedo
pointer.
The annual meeting of the Z S. F. A.
Council probably VIII be held in the
Middle West this spring 1t is under
stood that Cleveland, Detroit and Pitts
burgh, in addition to Chicago, have
asked to play host to the football legis-
lators. The last meeting was held at
Boston.
L. S. F. A. President P. J. Peel. Of
Chicago has offered trophy for the
army camp soccer team making the
best showing this season. An attempt
was made to arrange an intercamp
competition, but the plan. while meet
ing with the support Of army atn,st..s
authorities, WAS found mpracticabis
and the project abandoned