Did You Know: In the early 1920s the Pawtucket, RI branch of the J. & P. Coats Thread Company formed its own works soccer team and won the ASL league championship—one of the high points of Pawtucket's early professional soccer history.
Meanwhile, the nearby Fall River Marksmen began play in the ASL with home games at Mark's Stadium in Tiverton, RI. And on March 30, 1924, the Marksmen went on to become champions of the American Soccer League.
Perhaps the oldest extant professional U.S. soccer footage--is snippets from the 1924 U.S. Open Cup final, the Fall River Marksmen traveled to St. Louis to face Vesper Buick. Before a crowd of 14,000 at High School Field, the Marksmen completed their "double" with a 4-2 win.
Video footage is courtesy of the University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collection. Special thanks to Dave Coleman in obtaining this footage and rendering it in HD.
