Back in the day....1942...The Gallatin ( Pa.) Tigers, who played on my club's (Mon Valley United Mad Dogs) home field in Sunnyside Park Gallatin won the US Open Cup. They were the first amateur team (comprised mostly of local coal mine workers. )to win the Cup
They traveled to Chicago and Providence and beat those pro teams. It was a home and away series against Providence and the game was played in Donora's HS Legion Field in front of a crowd of 10,000. Amazing crowd for 40's soccer. More attendance than the Steelers were pulling back then.
One of the Tiger players, Pasquarella, was the last surviving member. So we honored him with a special ceremony in 1999. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette covered the match. I had both teams line up before the game started, and after the ceremony
we all signed the game ball. He was 81 yrs. old but I put him on my roster and let him take the opening center kick. We all wore retro 1942 shirts for the game. His house was across from the train tracks where we played and he'd watch our
games from his porch. He told his sons that the signed game ball was his most prized possession. Just amazing that a team from a small coal patch village was able to win the country's most prestigious trophy. Western Pa., with all of their ethnic
immigrant groups, was a hot bed of soccer back then. A team from Heidelberg (another coal patch) won two subsequent Cups. Two years ago we combined my team with Heidelberg's in the Pa. Adult League as a remembrance of those past glories.