GO Indoor

The Early Days of US Indoor Soccer Part I of II ndoor has been well established in many countries since the early part of the 20th century, but in the United States it was not established as a serious professional sport until the 1970s. This does not mean that indoor soccer was entirely absent from the American sports scene during those early years. In fact, indoor 11 on 11 games were played as far back as the 1880s and reappeared at various times through the decades, but the games were no more than exhibitions, and often were mere training regimens. The National Soccer League of Chicago played full-sided exhibition tournaments during the 1920s, as did the American Soccer League, whose games were played at Boston's Commonwealth Armory. The matches were seen as an oddity more than anything else. It was not until February 1941 that a serious effort was made to promote "professional" indoor soccer. The directors of Madison Square Garden were looking to develop new revenue-generating sports and settled on two "noble ventures": "honest" wrestling and indoor soccer. Ironically, soccer was seen as having greater revenue potential. In an arrangement with the American Soccer League, four teams from the league would play a triple-header and a championship match. In order to fit into the Garden (designed for hockey), the field size was reduced considerably, with 2yard walls running along the sidelines and a 35-foot wall behind either end. The goals were 14 feet wide and 7 feet high, compared to the 24 x 8 outdoor goal then in use. With the smaller field and walls, few balls would go out of bounds, and action was expected to be fast and furious. Fast and furious it was. In the opener, fists flew with wild I abandon, and when the free for all ended, there were several bruised faces and bloody noses. Ironically, after all the action, the score was Brookhattan 2, St. Mary's Celtics 0. A far cry from the high scoring matches we're accustomed to today. In the second match, Brooklyn Hispano defeated New York Americans 3-1. Lacking the fisticuffs of the first match, this one exhibited a quality brand of soccer. With the hour running late, the final match was cut to two ten minute halves, with Brookhattan and Hispano crawling to a 1-1 draw, both goals notched in overtime. The experiment went well enough for the Garden to stage a match the following season, in November 1941, but the novelty had worn off and attendance was spotty. The lukewarm reaction and outbreak of war led to the demise of pro indoor soccer for the time being. Indoor soccer continued, however, at a low key level in many cities. In St. Louis, club teams played frequent exhibitions, often in church basements under rules G O A L I n d o o r • June-July 2002• 8 to to the ASL News, there were "thrills, similar FIFA's Futsal chills, spills, excitement, boos, f o r m a t . cheers, heroes and goats." The New By Dave Litterer Teams would York Hakoah opened by beating often have to Brooklyn Italians 3-0 and went on to contend with ceiling beams and win the tournament, defeating the water pipes in their cramped Italians again, this time 4-3. venues, adding interesting strategic Iggy Malinkowski scored a hat twists, which affected the flow of trick as Brookhattan defeated the the game in amusing ways. Falcons. Pasquale Pepe scored four Tournaments were also becoming in the Uhrik Truckers 8-6 victory over frequent among Newark Portuguese, and a coin toss the college ranks broke the 2-2 semifinal draw and in numerous between Uhrik and Brooklyn. The amateur leagues, players and fans had a great time, but they were but the crowd of 6,121 was considalways secondary erably less than the 14,000 anticito the "real" pated, and despite hopeful words, outdoor league this tournament proved to be a oneseasons. time event. The ASL was starting to Indoor Soccer enter a period of decline, which did land on fertile would only get worse through the soil in the 60s. Outside of the NSL games in Midwest. The Chicago, the indoor game would go National Soccer back to the basement exhibitions League of Chicago, and training regimens. remembering its The dawn of the modern era of early forays in the indoor soccer can be traced to 1971 1920s, established when the North American Soccer a full-fledged League began toying with the game. indoor season in That year, the league held an indoor 1950, a U.S. first. exhibition tournament, won by the Twelve teams Dallas Tornado. This event was lowparticipated that key and not much noticed, but it did first year in a 13- mark the first of many indoor week regular championship crowns won by season, plus coach Ron Newman, who would playoffs, broadcast figure so prominently in the early on local radio. days of pro indoor soccer. (… to Similar to the ASL be continued!) game, the NSL had a field of 60 x 42 yards with play-off boards, 7-man teams and two tenminute halves. The playing surface was dirt with only gym shoes permitted. Goalkeeper Gino Gardassanich won the MVP and traveled to Brazil with the US World Cup squad but did not play. The season was so ABOUT THE AUTHOR: successful that 17 teams played Dave Litterer has been an active the following season in two researcher into the history of American divisions. The indoor seasons Soccer since high school. Starting in 1995, continued at least through the he built the American Soccer History 1962 season but was gone by Archives (http://www.sover.net/~spectrum), the largest repository of American soccer 1968. history and statistics on the Internet. He The next major attempt to has co-authored the Encyclopedia of professionalize indoor soccer American Soccer History (available from occurred, once again, at Scarecrow Press at scarecrowpress.com). Madison Square Garden in He is also the office manager at the 1958. On November 12, an allCampus Recreation Department at the day, six game tournament University of Massachusetts. involved ASL teams. According

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