Fall River

 Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, associated with the textile industry. In 1880 the population was 48,961. The American Soccer History Archives list no fewer than 30 Association  football teams being formed in Fall River during the period 1882-87. Many of these appear to be 'works' teams.

1882-83
Fall River East Ends Fall River Old Roads Fall River North Ends
1883-84
Fall River Bowenville Globes Fall River County St. Rovers Fall River Flint Mills Fall River Rovers
1884-85
Fall River Barnaby Mills Fall River Canonicuts Fall River King Phillips Fall River Lindsay St. Rovers Fall River Main Streets  Fall River Mechanics Fall River Merry Boys Fall River Osbornes Fall River Parks Fall River St Patricks
1885-86
Fall River Chace St. Rovers Fall River Rangers
1886-87
Fall River Allarounds Fall River Chelseas Fall River Harrisons Fall River McLaughlins Fall River Pilgrims Fall River Pleasant St. Rovers Fall River Pleasant Views Fall River Shrove Wanderers Fall River Tower St. Rangers Fall River Tremonts Fall River Wamsuttas Fall River Weetamoes

Between 1888 and 1892 teams from Fall River won the American Cup five times in succession.

American Cup Winners:

1888
Fall River Rovers
1889
Fall River Rovers
1890
Fall River Olympics
1891
Fall River East Ends
1892
Fall River East Ends

Rovers 

1896
Fall River Olympics - American Cup Finalists
1909
Fall River Rovers - New England League Winners Rovers played 2 matches against the Pilgrims (England) tourists- drawing 1-1 and winning 2-1.
1910
Fall River Rovers - Eastern Soccer League I Winners
1916
Fall River Rovers- National Challenge Cup Finalists Rovers’ Tommy Swords captained the USA in their first ever international.

Swords

1917
Fall River Rovers- National Challenge Cup Winners, Times Cup Winners
1918
Fall River Rovers - National Challenge Cup Finalists
1921
Fall River Rovers dissolved
Fall River United founded Fall River United draw 2-2 with Third Lanark (Scotland)
1922
United become Marksmen

Marksmen

Sam Mark took over the ownership of Fall River United in 1922 and named them the Marksmen. He was also behind the construction of the Mark's Stadium, one of the first 'Soccer specific' stadiums in the USA. This venue was in North Tiverton, Rhode Island, as Massachusetts law prohibited the playing of  commercial sports on Sundays.
The Marksmen featured former Chelsea player Harold Brittan; Scottish born goalkeeper Lindy Kerr; James White, Tommy Martin ( both ex Motherwell), Bill McPherson (Beith) and Charlie McGill (Third Lanark).

Brittan

1924
Fall River Marksmen - American Soccer League I Winners, National Challenge Cup Winners
1925
Fall River Marksmen - American Soccer League I Winners
1926
Fall River Marksmen - American Soccer League I Winners Marksmen beat the touring Sparta Prague 3-2.
1927
Fall River Marksmen - National Challenge Cup Winners
1928
Marksmen played 2 touring sides. They defeated Brazil’s Palestra Italia 4-2 but lost 3-0 to Glasgow Rangers. Fall River Powers Hudson Essex shared the National Amateur Cup following a drawn final.
1929
Fall River Marksmen - American Soccer League I Winners

1930

Fall River Marksmen - Atlantic Coast League Winners, American Soccer League Winners, National Challenge Cup Winners. Fall River Rafferty - National Amateur Challenge Cup Winners

 Billy Gonsalves and Bert Patenaude  of the Marksmen were leading figures in the USA World Cup Squad in 1930,

The Marksmen played 2 Scottish touring teams in 1930: Kilmarnock were beaten 3-0 whilst Glasgow Rangers enjoyed 3-2 and 6-1 wins. 


The club also undertook a tour of Central Europe:

20.08.30	Slavia Prague	2	2	Fall River Marksmen	Prague
23.08.30	Wiener A.C.	6	0	Fall River Marksmen	Vienna
24.08.30	Austria Vienna	1	3	Fall River Marksmen	Vienna
28.08.30	Slavia Prague	4	0	Fall River Marksmen	Prague
30.08.30	SK Bratislava	0	3	Fall River Marksmen	Bratislava
31.08.30	Ferencvaros	6	2	Fall River Marksmen	Budapest

In 1931 The Marksmen relocated to New York City, merged with New York Football Club and became New York Yankees (although they still played Cup matches as Fall River Marksmen).

1931

Fall River Football Club ( #1) - National Challenge Cup Winners Fall River F.C.( #1) 5- Verez Sarsfield (Argentina) 2

The Yankees in turn moved to New Bedford where they merged with Fall River F.C (#1) to become the New Bedford Whalers. 

New Fall River based clubs emerged in the 1930s. In 1932 Fall River Football Club  (#2) won the 'fall' edition of the American Soccer League.
In the following seasons the New England Division of the American Soccer League featured Fall River Rovers and Fall River United.
The Fall River All-Americans reached the National Amateur Challenge Cup Final in 1935.
In 1937 Fall River Americans played in  the New England Division of the American Soccer League

The 1930s  also saw the development of another Fall River club that would go on to great success (but outside our chosen era)- the amateur Ponta Delgada Soccer Club, based in the city's Portuguese community. 

05.04.02

Full House- the game in progress

In July 1902 Alexander McDougall, a building contractor and timber merchant of Partick, appeared at Glasgow Circuit Court charged with Culpable Homicide.
In 1899  Glasgow Rangers had decided to invest £12,000 on ground improvements at Ibrox (the eventual cost was £20,000).  McDougall had submitted an estimate of £5280 to construct timber terraces in the ground. The charges were based on the assertion that McDougall had used inferior pine in the construction and had not built the beams and joists in the requisite manner. After a 2 day trial a unanimous verdict of not guilty was delivered.
This, of course, was a postscript to the Ibrox Disaster. The collapse of the terracing during the Scotland v England match on 05.04.02 had led to the deaths of 25 spectators and more than 500 people had been injured.

Remarkably, reports of the abandoned match appeared in the press. The opening line of the account below beggars belief. 

Incidentally- this was the first occasion on which both nations had fielded exclusively professional teams.
In the first half of the match Scotland were attacking the western end of the ground at which the accident occurred. There are conflicting accounts of the incident. It would appear that the terrace collapsed after about 15 minutes play, and that play was suspended for about 20 minutes before the decision was made to play on.
Officially the match is recorded as abandoned and does not count towards the official records of the Football Association of the Scottish FA.

A 'League Table' for 1885

Imagine the speculation over the relative merits of various clubs before the existence of leagues.
Cricket had come to terms (to some extent) of deciding which was Champion County, but in football the only honours available were cups decided on the knock out basis. (The challenge aspect of the Football Association Challenge Cup was short lived- Wanderers received a bye to the 1873 final).
On March 7th  1885, The Preston Chronicle  published a League table.
The selection is broad:  There are 34 teams: 8 of the original 12 League clubs (no West Bromwich Albion, Stoke, Everton, Derby County); The Universities; 6 Scottish clubs; 4 'Old Boys' clubs. 13 of the teams came from Lancashire.

Ingeniously the compiler devised a system ('average to 1') of goal ratio by which to rate the teams. So a stingy defence was rewarded.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	ave
Cambridge University	20	18	1	1	93	15	6.20
Wolverhampton Wanderers	25	17	6	2	103	18	5.72
Walsall	24	16	2	6	110	23	4.78
Preston North End	37	25	7	5	137	40	3.42
Hibernians	25	20	1	4	119	37	3.21
Oxford University	18	12	1	5	58	19	3.05
Bolton Wanderers	41	31	2	8	165	55	3.00
Great Lever	34	24	3	6	135	45	3.00
Queen’s Park	25	18	5	2	80	29	2.75
Blackburn Olympic	32	19	5	8	142	52	2.73
Notts Club (County)	29	20	4	5	90	34	2.61
Accrington	28	23	1	4	82	33	2.48
Blackburn Rovers	37	23	7	7	128	55	2.32
Upton Park	21	12	4	5	65	29	2.27
Vale of Leven	23	13	5	5	61	28	2.17
Glasgow Rangers	26	16	3	7	90	44	2.05
Church	27	16	4	7	80	45	1.97
Burnley	44	25	6	13	105	62	1.89
Walsall Swifts	29	14	7	8	70	44	1.89
Nottingham Forest	23	16	2	5	63	40	1.57
Old Foresters	25	13	3	9	66	42	1.57
Aston Villa	32	17	6	9	87	60	1.45
Darwen	30	10	7	13	68	48	1.41
Wednesbury Old Athletic	24	13	3	8	71	51	1.39
Halliwell	31	14	3	14	87	65	1.33
Pollockshields Athletic	20	14	0	6	45	34	1.32
Padiham	29	17	4	8	74	53	1.32
Old Carthusians	12	8	0	4	33	28	1.21
Old Westminsters	23	11	4	8	51	53	1.0
Wednesday	28	12	5	11	55	59	0.93
Blackburn Park Road	23	7	7	9	44	50	0.88
Witton	28	12	1	15	51	59	0.86
3rd Lanark RV	24	9	5	10	37	48	0.77
Old Etonians	17	5	3	9	36	51	0.70

One big name from this era not included was Corinthian FC. Granted, Corinth was still a relatively new outfit. I looked at their fixtures from September 1884 to March 1885. The figures were not impressive:

Corinthian FC

10

3

1

6

24

34

0.70

I have redone the table using a points system (3 for a win and 1 for a draw) and determined what percentage of the points available each team obtained. Cambridge still come out clear winners, but there are significant differences in the placements of some of the other teams.

%
91.66	Cambridge University
83.33	Accrington
81.33	Hibernians
78.66	Queen’s Park
77.23	Bolton Wanderers
76	Wolverhampton Wanderers
73.87	Preston North End
73.56	Notts Club (County)
73.52	Great Lever
71.66	Upton Park
70	Pollockshields Athletic
69.44	Walsall
68.51	Oxford University
68.46	Blackburn Rovers
66.66	Old Carthusians
65.38	Glasgow Rangers
64.58	Blackburn Olympic
64.19	Church
63.76	Vale of Leven
63.76	Nottingham Forest
63.21	Padiham
61.36	Burnley
59.37	Aston Villa
58.33	Wednesbury Old Athletic
56.32	Walsall Swifts
56	Old Foresters
53.62	Old Westminsters
48.80	Wednesday
48.38	Halliwell
44.44	3rd Lanark RV
44.04	Witton
41.11	Darwen
40.57	Blackburn Park Road
35.29	Old Etonians

The success of the team had an impact on the sporting culture of the Universities.  On 5.3.85 at the Cambridge Union Society's Debate it was agreed to promote Football to a 'full blue' (elevating the  game to the same exalted level as athletics, cricket and rowing).

This is the Cambridge team for the 1885 Varsity Match:

GK	M.J Rendall
FB	A.M Walters
	9 England appearances (1885-90)
FB	H. Buckley
HB	A. Amos
	2 England appearances (1885-86)
HB	T.W Blenkiron
HB	F.E Saunders
	1 England cap (1888) when playing for Swifts
F	B.W Spilsbury
	3 England caps, 5 goals (1885-86)
F	T.H Marsh
F	T.Lindley
	Later played for Nottingham Forest and won 13 England caps (1886-91) scoring 14 goals. England’s top scorer before Bloomer.
F	W.N Cobbold
	Also of Old Carthusians- 9 England caps (1883-87) scoring 6 goals.
F	F Marchant

I've scoured the newspaper archives in order to try and identify the 20 matches that the compiler had drawn Cambridge's record from ('up to the end of February 1885').
I could only find the following :

01.11.84	Cambridge University	13	0	Swifts
??.11.84	Cambridge University	2	0	Old Foresters
15.11.84	Cambridge University	6	2	Sussex
19.11.84	Cambridge University	5	0	Corinthian FC
22.11.84	Brentwood	0	2	Cambridge University
29.11.84	Cambridge University	12	1	Carthusians
11.12.84	Cambridge University	4	0	Middlesex
13.12.84	Aston Villa	3	1	Cambridge University
??.12.84	Cambridge University	5	2	Nottingham
04.01.85	Stoke	1	2	Cambridge University
08.01.85	Liverpool Ramblers	2	2	Cambridge University
12.02.85	Cambridge University	9	0	Brentwood
14.02.85	London	0	4	Cambridge University
16.02.85	Cambridge University	1	1	Aston Villa
21.02.85	Cambridge University	4	0	Clapham Rovers
25.02.85	Cambridge University	1	0	Oxford University

These results compute as:

P	W	D	L	F	A	ave	Points %
16	13	2	1	72	13	5.53	85.41

Which would still place Cambridge at the top of the table.