SASH Sessions

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/

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/
 

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/

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/

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/
 
 

A survey of Minnesota’s soccer history from the 1890s to the 1970s. Brian D. Bunk discusses the McKendrick brothers, who starred on one of the state’s earliest championship teams in the 1890s. Brian Quarstad tells the story of Win Ping Pan, a Chinese student who helped build soccer at the University of Minnesota in the 1910s. Chris Bolsmann investigates the career of Minnesota Kicks standout Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe.
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=xN7BJLJXCk4&t=3s
Visit the Society for American Soccer History website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/
 

On Friday, June 7, 2024, Tom McCabe presented a SASH Session titled, “Tom ‘Bullets’ Cahill: A Reappraisal of a Founding Father of American Soccer.”
There is quite a bit of mythology surrounding Thomas W. Cahill. The driving force behind the formation of the United States Soccer Football Association (now U.S. Soccer) in 1913, and the manager of the USA’s first official international matches in 1916, Cahill was called “The Father of Soccer in the United States” by 1920.
His scrapbooks at Southern Illinois University’s Lovejoy Library attest to that role, but they also appear to have left out an important life event. Tom “Bullets” Cahill almost died from gunshot wounds in 1900, a previously unknown fact. It’s as if it had been erased from history. While bedridden in a St. Louis hospital, Cahill reflected on the direction of his life: he had lost his job, his marriage was in shambles, and he had just been saved by a tricky operation. Within a few years, he turned his life around and was on his way to becoming a key figure in the American soccerscape. A better understanding of that pivotal moment at the turn of a new century can lead to a reappraisal of Cahill’s role as a founding father, and for that matter, a more complex and complete understanding of early American soccer.
Tom McCabe teaches at Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway, but has also taught at Rutgers University and St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey. He is working on a history of the American Football Association and has also produced two documentaries. He is past president of the Society for American Soccer 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=QFEN30S9SKA

On Friday, April 5 at 12 pm ET, Zach Bigalke presented work from his dissertation in a session titled, “How the United States is Represented in Women’s Soccer Beyond the USWNT.”
Since the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991, 109 American-born women have played for the U.S. Women’s National Team in the tournament. In that same time period, 110 American-born women played for other national teams at the World Cup. Zach discusses the phenomenon of the United States as a global exporter of women’s soccer talent and the impact that has on both national narratives and the individuals who make these choices.
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=pxWxnyBuxM8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEEWnZ1k-5g&list=PLF9oL3yRaMyyYqsS1Qqj6XxUV8RU6p4tC&index=14&pp=iAQB
For more US soccer history, visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/

Host Tom McCabe is joined by Donald Wine for a presentation titled, "Black American Soccer History IS American Soccer History."
A Michigan native, Donald has lived in Washington, DC for over 16 years. He is on the national board of the American Outlaws, the largest supporters group for the U.S. national teams. You can find him organizing stadium support at matches all around the world. Donald is also is the manager of Stars & Stripes FC and has produced podcasts on soccer and college basketball.
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=p9VpnapyDRk&list=PLF9oL3yRaMyyYqsS1Qqj6XxUV8RU6p4tC&index=27&pp=iAQB
For more US soccer history, visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/

As the 1924-25 reached the halfway point Fall River remained in first place. Brian Bunk recounts all the details and tells the stories of Tewfik Abdullah and Andrew Straden. Also, a scandal hits the ASL.
Theme song: Bix Beiderbecke, “Clarinet Marmalade”Headlines: Waring’s Pennsylvanians, “Bolshevik”Sponsor: Frank Teschemacher’s Chicagoans, “Jazz Me Blues”Sounds from www.freesound.org: football score.wav by winsx87
Episode premiered October 2017
For more US soccer history, visit the SASH website at https://www.ussoccerhistory.org/