Then & Now: 20 Things to Know About the Open Cup

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup has survived uninterrupted since 1914. And through those many years is woven the story, always changing and often bizarre, of soccer on American shores. Equal parts circus and showpiece, there’s a lot to love about this old tournament. Here’s a rundown of 20 fun facts from the good old days when there were laces on the ball to today, the eve of the 107^th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup which kicks off in earnest on March the 24^th.

Oldest in the Cupboard

The first Final was played in May of 1914. The venue: the now-defunct Coats Field in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Approximately 8000 people paid 25 cents each on that warm spring day to watch Brooklyn Field Club beat borough neighbors Brooklyn Celtic 2-1 and lift the Dewar Cup for the first time. The Open Cup is the oldest soccer competition in the United States. It’s also the country’s oldest annual tournament for team sports. Professional soccer came and went through the 20^th century, but the Open Cup – known early on as the National Challenge Cup – crowned a champion for each of the last 106 years. Even through the want and woe of the Great Depression and the ravages of two World Wars, the U.S. Open Cup lived on.

Winners from 17 States

Clubs from 17 different States have hoisted the U.S. Open Cup through the years. New York has the most titles with 26, followed by California’s 15 and Pennsylvania’s 14. Teams from 13 other states (and the District of Columbia) have also put up the Cup, with Atlanta joining the party – thanks to Major League Soccer powers Atlanta United’s heroics – in 2019.

• READ MORE: Atlanta United & the Making of History

Two (Maybe Three) with Five

Bethlehem Steel and Maccabi Los Angeles share the bragging rights for most titles with five Open Cups each. There’s a debate to be had over whether the Fall River Marksmen also warrant inclusion in the Five-Time Club. They changed their name and home city to become the New Bedford Whalers in 1932 before winning that year’s title (which would be their fifth). This is sport, and the Open Cup after all, so feel free to debate.

A Day Better Not Remembered

Darren Sawatzky is head coach of 2020 hopefuls (and 1995 Open Cup champions) the Richmond Kickers. He was also on the wrong side the last time an MLS team lost in the Final. “I don’t remember a damn thing about,” he told usopencup.com, after playing 90 minutes of his Colorado Rapids’ loss to Rochester Rhinos in the 1999 Final. He suffered a concussion early in the game and remembers not one thing of the day. Having since seen the game on video, he was surprised by how
well he played -- considering.

Maccabi’s Star (of Stage and Screen)

Maccabi LA are, without question or debate, the only champions to boast a starting fullback who’s starred on The Young and The Restless and once watched a Spanish Copa del Rey final from the VIP seats at the Estadio Bernabeu flanked Burt Reynolds, Jim Brown and Generalisimo Francisco Franco. Stage and screen actor Eric Braeden was known by his birth name, Hans Gudegast, when he won the Open Cup in 1973 in a tight-fought win over Cleveland Inter. The Daytime Emmy winner, known best for his turn as Victor Newman on the long-running soap, scored a penalty on that day he calls “one of the great moments in my life.”

• READ MORE: Maccabi LA – Hollywood’s Five-Star Dynasty

Christos, Rayados & the Power of Positive Thinking

A mainstay of any Open Cup is the underdog runs. Christos FC and NTX Rayados, full amateurs from their local men’s leagues, are back for the 2020 edition of the tournament after having shaken up recent installments. Christos, headquartered in a local liquor store in Ferndale, deep in Baltimore County, will be coached by Chris Wilson. As a player in 2017, he helped set Christos a famous Fourth-Round date with D.C. United. Farther south, near Dallas, The Rayados, a squad of school teachers and local junior college players, earned a date with eventual champions Houston Dynamo in 2018 and are back this year for their ninth straight tilt at the Cup.

Placekicker for a Year

Big Ronnie Simmons, from Trinidad and Tobago, won the Open Cup in 1987 with Club España of Washington, D.C. He also played one season as place-kicker for the Howard University Bison football team in his collegiate days. “I had to learn on the job and the first time I kicked an American football, it went ten feet and I thought the other players were going to kill me,” joked the former Baltimore Blast defender, now a housing inspector for the City of Baltimore. 

USL Dreams

The USL Championship is the second-tier of professional soccer in America, nestled just in underneath the heft of Major League Soccer. And while it’s been 20 years since a team from below MLS’ all-conquering ranks has won the Open Cup, a few USL teams have given the big boys their scares. In 2008, the Charleston Battery – with a young Ozzie Alonso in the team – reached the Final (losing 2-1 to D.C. United). More recently, FC Cincinnati (before joining MLS) reached the Semifinal in 2017 while Louisville City (2018), New Mexico United and Saint Louis FC (2018) all reached the Last Eight.

Rough Pitches of Old Gotham

1965 champions New York Ukrainians played on a pitch in Queens that was so beat-up, their star midfielder Walter Schmotolocha said it was “like running an obstacle course!” When they got to Chicago for the second leg of the ‘65 Final, it sure did make a difference. The New Yorkers won out 4-1. “We slaughtered them on that nice field, which was new and fresh with cut grass,” said
Schmolotcha, now in his 80s and a proud granddad, from his home in the sleepy Hudson River Valley.

1923 and the Baseball Controversy

Only once in the long history of the U.S. Open Cup has a champion not been established on the pitch. That was in 1923, when FC Paterson became the first team from New Jersey to win the title. Scullin Steel of St. Louis were unable to field a side for a replay after the initial Final finished tangled at 2-2. In what might be the most American of soccer problems, Scullin claimed they couldn’t play again because many of the young men in their side were making preparations for the upcoming professional baseball season.  

What’s in a Name?

The competition was known as the National Challenge Cup from 1914 to the early 1980s. In 1999 it was renamed and dedicated to MLS owner and American soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt. From then on it became the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. In 2016, FC Dallas, who are owned and operated by Hunt’s sons Clark and Dan, gave the trophy a homecoming of sorts when they defeated New England Revolution 4-2 in the tournament Final played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. That same stadium is now home to the National Soccer Hall of Fame (opened in 2018) where the Dewar Cup lives in semi-retirement behind glass among the other artifacts and treasures of the American game.

Saint Louis Kutis = U.S. National Team

The city of Saint Louis started making their mark on the Open Cup back in 1920, when the Ben Millers – sponsored by a local hat company of the same name – picked up that year’s title. Since then, the Gateway City has produced seven winners including three-time toppers Stix Baer & Fuller and twice-champions Saint Louis Kutis, who were so good in their 1957 title run that then-US Soccer Federation decision-makers simply had them change their shirts and represent the USA in 1958 World Cup qualifying. 

Richmond Kickers – The Last Great Amateurs

There was a ten-year gap between the collapse of the North American Soccer League in the mid-80s and the start of Major League Soccer in 1996. Many see those years as dark days soccer in America, but the Open Cup kicked on with the remaining semipro and amateur teams that played only for the love of the game. The Richmond Kickers, who are back for the 2020 tournament as part of USL’s League One, won the 1995 tournament with a college all-star team that included Rob Ukrop (chairman of the club to this day), three-time MLS champion Richie Williams, Jeff Causey – once an MLS topper with D.C. United – and Brian Kamler, who put in ten seasons in Major League Soccer after the league formed in 1996. Many others in the ’95 Kickers squad ended up in MLS, but they still speak with affection about that time, with bare pockets and big hearts, they caught what Ukrop calls “lightning in a bottle.”

American Soccer’s Babe Ruth

Few in Open Cup history have shone as bright as the mustachioed and lethally left-footed Billy Gonsalves, who won a record eight titles with four different teams. In 1931, Glasgow Celtic manager Willie Maley said, without hesitation: “This Gonsalves is the greatest player I’ve ever seen.” Sometimes called the Babe Ruth of American Soccer, this son of Portuguese immigrants and the seventh of nine children, Gonsalves lined up for the U.S. Men’s National Team in both the 1930 and 1934 FIFA World Cups.  

Home and Away: The Ethnic Leagues

Ethnic teams have played a huge role in the romance of the Open Cup. Among the list of Open Cup winners are: Brooklyn St. Mary’s Celtic, Brooklyn Hispano, New York German-Hungarians, SC Eintracht, Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals, New York Hungaria, New York Ukrainians, New York Greek-American, New York Hota, Los Angeles Maccabee, New York Pancyprian-Freedoms, The Brooklyn Italians, DC’s Club España and San Francisco Greek-American.

• READ MORE (+Video): Brooklyn Italians – More Than a Club

Old NASL Avoid Open Cup Stumbles

The glitz-and-glamor sides of the old NASL of the 1970s and 80s refused to play in the Open Cup. Most assumed the global stars of the New York Cosmos and LA Aztecs – the likes of Pele, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Neeskins – considered the rough-and-tumble of the Cup beneath them. But Dr. Joe Machnik – a pioneer of the American game and an Open Cup champion in his own right – has other ideas. “They were afraid of losing,” he told usopencup.com. “And they didn’t want to play on or bad fields! I’m sure of it.”