Sunday, June 27, 1965 saw a dream come true – and in truly resounding fashion. Our lads gave Philadelphia its first United States Amateur Soccer Championship in more than thirty years when they completely demoralized Saint Ambrose S.C. of St. Louis, Missouri, the western finalists, and shellacked them 6:0 in the grand final of the National Amateur Soccer Cup matches. Although the Mound City boys were totally outclassed, and the issue was never in doubt after the first few minutes, the “Saints” refused to give up and they played hard and clean soccer, right down to the wire. The amazingly clean play on the part of both teams made it a comparatively easy assignment for referee Buck Davidson, of Washington, D.C., and linesman, Al Heery and Bill Rose of Philadelphia, three of the best soccer arbiters in these parts. In this respect, we can’t help mentioning Buck Davidson’s remark, prior to the game, to the effect that a match between two good, fair playing teams always makes the officials look good.
In his own, inimitable fashion Ted Kereczmann, our perennial master of ceremonies, opened the proceedings with a brief but hardy welcome to the overflow crowd, and then proceeded to introduce the individual members of both teams as they trotted onto the field between two welcoming columns, comprised of our junior dancers and soccer players.
Miss Marlene Fricker, escorted by Masters Billy Galgon and Richard Heck, presented a bouquet on behalf of our club, to the visiting captain, Jim Murphy, a member of the United States Pan-American team in 1957, and the two captains – Jim Murphy of St. Ambrose and Werner Fricker of our team – exchanged club pennants. Ted Kereczmann then introduced a number of dignitaries who were present, including: Bob Goulker, a soccer coach at St. Louis University, and Second Vice President of the USSFA; Gene Edwards, Chairman of the USSFA Amateur Cup Competition; Frank Marcus, Wisconsin Cup Commissioner; Helmut Schurer, Chairman, E.P. &D.; John Weber , First Vice President, E.P. &D.; Carl Schmollinger, Representative, E.P. &D.; Frank Follmer, President United Soccer League of Penna.; John Piatka, Games Commissioner for United Soccer League of Penna.; Bill Share, President Referees Association.; Bob White, President Soccer old-timers Association; Charles Columbo, Coach of the Saint Ambrose Team, who played center half for the United States World Cup Team which upset England 1:0 in 1950; and Frank Kirsch, President United German Hungarians of Philadelphia.
After dispensation of the formalities, and playing of our national anthem, the game got under way and was quickly put on ice by Heinz Guckert. We feel it is unnecessary to go into details about the game itself since it has been quite adequately covered by other correspondents. We would, however like to hand out kudos to the sport committee, who so ably handled all the game and field arrangements, under the capable supervision of Karl Kreutzer; to Eddie Menhardt for setting up and operating an excellent public address system; to Hans Wambach and his refreshments crew for a job well done; and last, but far from least, to our wonderful ladies who did such a magnificent job under the most trying circumstances.
All in all a most satisfactory day-here’s hoping it happens again!
