SASH Sessions

EP 37: “Gil Heron and ‘Pito’ Villalon: Black Players Breaking Barriers in US Soccer”

On Friday, February 20, 2026, Jermaine Scott, professor of history at Florida Atlantic University, Maxwell Murray of Detroit City FC and the Urban Football League, and SASH board member Chuck Carlson presented a SASH Session about two Black soccer players who broke racial barriers in US during the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Murray and Carlson discuss the Jamaica-born Gil Heron. In addition to playing for Ontario, Detroit, and Chicago sides, Heron was the first Black player signed by Glasgow Celtic.
Scott discusses the American Soccer League’s first Black player, Jesus “Pito” Villalon, who was born in Cuba before playing in the US. You can see footage of Villalon in action playing for the Kearny All Stars against Scotland on June 5, 1949 on the SASH YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/QdXXEYZ9dy8.
The session includes discussion of Villalon and Heron’s lives on and off the field, and also explored broader issues of race in soccer in the US, including the team selection of the US Men’s National Team for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cCsZCxPAo
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 36: "Ranking the USMNT World Cup coaches"

On January 16, 2026 at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia, SASH hosted a discussion ranking the US World Cup coaches.
Eighteen members and friends gathered to discuss and debate “Ranking the USMNT World Cup Coaches.” Board member, Michael Lewis, providing opening remarks, followed by Dr. David Kilpatrick, who explained the game and its rules for the session: ranking the ten USMNT head coaches of the eleven teams to appear in FIFA World Cup Finals, based entirely on matches played in World Cup Finals (not qualification, other competitions, friendly matches, or any other achievements in their coaching careers).
A brief summary of the USMNT performances in World Cup Finals was provided as everyone in attendance was encouraged to make their own list from best to worst. Lewis gave his rankings, emphasizing his personal take from covering forty years of World Cups as a journalist, followed Dr. Joe Machnik, who declined to provide a list, explaining that because he was Bob Gansler’s assistant coach at the 1990 World Cup he had a bias and sense of loyalty, while providing unique insight to the issues faced coaching. Cosmos legends Boris Bandov, Fred Grgurev, Erhardt Kapp, and Ferdinando De Matthaeis were in attendance, offering invaluable perspective as players. Jack Huckel emphasized the role of trust in coaching, followed by Kilpatrick, who stressed style of play and aesthetic judgement.
The floor was then opened for attendees to share their opinions, with Roger Allaway, Charles Cuttone, and Remy Lupica sharing valuations before Lewis and Kilpatrick provided closing comments.
Of the eighteen in attendance, nine cast their ballots for best coach with Bruce Arena coming out on top. You can view a breakdown of the results of the vote at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/sash-session-at-the-united-soccer-coaches-convention-votes-bruce-the-best/
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cCsZCxPAo
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 35: "Memories of the First US Junior National Team, 1964" with Alex Popovich

On Friday, January 9, 2026, Alex Popovich discussed his time with the first Junior US Men’s National team.
The team was assembled to participate in the second CONCACAF Youth Tournament, which was staged in Guatemala City in April 1964.
Alex’s essay, “Memories of the first US Junior National Team: Guatemala, 1964,” was recently published on the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/memories-of-the-first-us-junior-national-team-guatemala-1964/.
The session was hosted by David Kilpatrick and several of Alex's teammates joined the discussion.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cCsZCxPAo
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 34: Conor Curran on "Blue Chippers from the Emerald Isle"

On Friday, December 5, 2025, Conor Curran discussed Irish male and female soccer players’ experiences of US soccer scholarships in the twentieth century and how valuable these scholarships were in terms of playing, education and post-university careers.
Curran’s Blue Chippers from the Emerald Isle: A history of Irish footballers and scholarships in the USA in the twentieth century was recently published by Peter Lang (https://www.peterlang.com/document/1493258). Curran was previously a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin and has taught sports history at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, Leicester and at the University of Giessen and University of Marburg. He has published extensively on the history of sport and society in Ireland.
The session was hosted by SASH president Kevin Tallec Marston.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cCsZCxPAo
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 33: Kevin Tallec Marston and Mike Cronin present, "Anniversaries, soccer origin stories, and the Oneida Football Club"

November 2025 is full of anniversaries which have shaped sporting memory and scripted a national history of all codes of “foot ball”. The Oneida Football Club of Boston celebrates three such events including the 100th anniversary of the monument in their honor. Replete with twists and turns, Kevin Tallec Marston and Mike Cronin explain how the surprising story of a handful of old Boston boys has become a foundational origin point for soccer in the USA.
Kevin Tallec Marston is Research Fellow at CIES (Centre International d'Etude du Sport / International Center for Sports Studies) and Visiting Researcher and Lecturer at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University. His writings on sports have appeared in edited collections and journals such as Contemporary European History and the International Sports Law Journal. Mike Cronin is Academic Director, Centre for Irish Programmes at Boston College, Dublin. His publications include Sport: A Very Short Introduction.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at https://youtu.be/YZFZuMHpkgQ
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/
Hosted by Tom McCabe

EP 32: Rachel Allison, Jen Cooper, and Tom McCabe discuss the 1985ers

On Friday, October 3, 2025, Rachel Allison, Jen Cooper, and Tom McCabe discussed the first US Women’s National Team, otherwise known as the 1985ers. 
Tom began the session with a discussion of the “Little Earthquakes” episode from the new soccer history podcast series, AN AMERICAN GAME. The subject of the episode is the Mundialito, the “little World Cup” women’s tournament played in Jesolo, Italy in 1985. Give the episode a listen here: https://anamericangame.buzzsprout.com/2519329/episodes/17739961-little-earthquakes-the-first-women-s-national-team
Then Rachel and Jen reflected on the legacy of the 1985 US Women’s National Team and its players. The team just celebrated part of that legacy in Seattle last month, on the 40th anniversary of the first official games ever played by a US Women’s National Team.
Rachel is an associate professor of sociology at Mississippi State; Jen is a women’s soccer historian and NWSL stats manager; and Tom teaches history at the University of Notre Dame (London). All are current or former SASH board members.
SASH president Kevin Tallec Marston hosted the session.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6cCsZCxPAo
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 31: Dave Lange and Ernesto Milani present "Commemorating St. Louis Italian American players on the 1950 World Cup team"

On Friday, September 5 at 12 pm ET,  Dave Lange was joined by Ernesto Milani for a SASH Session discussing the creation of a mural in Cuggiono, Italy commemorating five St. Louis players of Italian descent on the US team that competed in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.
Lange, author of book Made in St. Louis: A History of the Game in America's First Soccer Capital and member of the SASH Board of Directors, discussed the 1950 World Cup team while Milani discussed the work to commemorate the players from The Hill.
"Sport had an important role in the acculturation to the American way of life of the children of the Italian immigrants who resided in the enclave of St. Louis known as The Hill," Milani told SASH before the session. "It kept them out of trouble and helped iron out the differences between Northern and Southern Italians. It was a complex accomplishment that was achieved by YMCA people like Joe Causino and St. Ambrose’s parish. Memorable players like Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola emerged in baseball. However, it was soccer that involved most youths who had the chance to exit their close-knit neighborhood. In the end the end, the Italians became better Americans by playing soccer and baseball and observing the rules of the games and applying teamwork."
SASH vice president James Brown hosted the session.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5XdfSfCYFk
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/
 

EP 30: David Kilpatrick and Chuck Carlson present "Implementing an Historical Initiative for Your Club, League, or Community”

Whether it’s a club, a college, a supporter’s group or a professional team, history is an essential element for building strong, long-term soccer communities.
On January 9, 2025, at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Chicago, David Kilpatrick and Chuck Carson led a discussion titled, “Implementing an Historical Initiative for Your Club, League, or Community.”
David Kilpatrick, a former SASH board member, is professor of English and program director of Sport Management at Mercy University and club historian for the New York Cosmos. Chuck Carlson is Chicago House AC club historian and a current SASH board member.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at: https://youtu.be/P3LBfRWR3e8
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 29: Carly Adams presents, "Oral History Workshop"

On December 6, 2024, SASH hosted an Oral History Workshop with Carly Adams, a Board of Governors Research Chair (Tier I), Director of the Centre for Oral History and Tradition and Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Arrow Salkeld moderated the discussion.
The Oral History Workshop presented an overview of the basics of conducting oral histories while also delving deeper into how to make an oral history interview more conversational, how to bring out more analysis, and how to improvise rather than simply sticking to a script to only ask the participant predetermined questions.
Carly Adams is a Board of Governors Research Chair (Tier I), Director of the Centre for Oral History and Tradition and Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. As a social historian and an advocate for oral history, her research explores community, resiliency, and gender with a focus on sport, recreation, and leisure experiences. She co-leads the Nikkei Memory Capture Project, a community-based oral history project focusing on Japanese Canadian histories in southern Alberta (with Dr. Darren Aoki at the University of Plymouth, UK). She is the author of Queens of the Ice (Lorimer), editor of Sport and Recreation in Canadian History (Human Kinetics), co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Sport History (Routledge), and the editor of Sport History Review.
Her work has appeared in, among others, Journal of Sport History, Journal of Canadian Studies, Memory Studies, The International Journal of the History of Sport, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and many edited collections. Adams was the recipient of the 2023 NASSH Sue and Ron Smith Service Award and the NASSH 2022 Guy Lewis Award for Contributions to the Field of Sport History.
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIjpg0QDVko
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/

EP 28: Gabe Logan presents, "The First National Amateur Cup and the 1924 Olympic Team Selection”

Gabe Logan discusses the origins of the National Amateur Cup tournament with an emphasis on the aborted 1923 tournament and completed 1924 tournament. Gabe looks at how the 1924 championship resulted in the partial selection of the 1924 Olympic roster with a cursory examination of select team personnel.
A professor of history at Northern Michigan University, Gabe is the author of The Early Years of Chicago Soccer,  1887–1939 (Lexington Books, 2019).
Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.
Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.
View the video of the session at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUMGiXiZt6k
Visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
Join SASH at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/store/sash-membership-one-year/