From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States

Long before the late 1800s, kicking games were played by Native Americans and colonists. These sports encouraged men to form social bonds and gave women an outlet as athletes. University play and the arrival of immigrants from the British Isles helped spark the creation of organized soccer in the United States.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 312 pages
\n Publication date: 13 July 2021
\n Publisher: University of Illinois Press
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Before the late 1800s, soccer did not exist in the United States, but native peoples and colonists played a variety of kicking games. Brian D. Bunk explores the development and social impact of these sports through the rise of professional soccer after World War I. He demonstrates that the various games called football provided women with an opportunity to participate as athletes and encouraged men to form social bonds based on educational experience, occupation, ethnic identity, or military service. Football also followed young people to college as higher education expanded in the nineteenth century. University play, along with the arrival of immigrants from the British Isles, helped spark the creation of organized soccer in the United States. This transformation of the beautiful game into a truly international sport was aided by the multilayered look at one game's place in American life, refuting the notion that the U.S. is a land outside of football history.

\n Weight: 468g\n
Dimension: 155 x 233 x 28 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780252085871\n \n