From the Watson Brothers to Vampires: New book uncovers a great deal about the early history of soccer in the United States

Paul McFarlane
Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh

Over the past decade and a half or so, studies into the early history of soccer in the United States have grown in geographical scope and analytical depth. A notable development in such research has been the focus on the game’s meaning and place in the US on its own terms, and not on why it ‘failed’ to become a nationally dominant sports culture. Within this historiographical turn, the writings of Brian D. Bunk are amongst some of the most notable.

In Beyond the Field: How Soccer Built Community in the United States (2025), Bunk continues his fruitful exploration of early soccer in the US to date, this time focusing on the game in those locations that have typically received little or no attention from historians. At the heart of the book are those individuals and communities which introduced and nurtured this varied sporting subculture, illuminating a far greater array of (regularly interconnected) soccer islands and personalities than is commonly assumed. As Bunk puts it: ‘Even though soccer is often considered a foreign game here [the US], this book demonstrates the important role the sport has played in the nation’s history when viewed at a community level.’ Consequently, it is ‘the mostly forgotten lives’ of ‘ordinary Americans’ and the sporting communities that they constructed and valued, that Bunk commendably places at the centre of his latest work (pp 1–2).

Likely due to the book’s geographical breadth – which covers multiple locations – Beyond the Field starts with a very short introduction in which Bunk outlines some of the themes that will be interwoven throughout the subsequent fifteen chapters. The opening chapter then provides a fascinating exploration into the lives of two brothers, Oliver and Fred Watson, the earliest known African American players in the United States. Here the intersecting soccer careers of Oliver and Fred are contextualised against the backdrop of the early Pawtucket soccer scene and its wider state and regional surroundings. Not only were the Watsons very capable players; but they were also well respected by the local soccer community, suggesting cultural differences between soccer and major league baseball during the same period, at least in some locations. Fred Watson, for example, was the grateful recipient of a benefit match on 25 January 1902, a month after breaking his leg during an away game in Fall River on Christmas Day. Three thousand are said to have attended the contest between the Wanderers and the Pan-Americans, with most of those present contributing towards Watson’s fund by paying to enter. Bunk estimates that Fred Watson would have made around $400 from the game, a useful sum of money for an injured blue collar worker in the early twentieth century.

Although an overreliance on newspaper material may be criticised by some sports historians, Beyond the Field aptly demonstrates how a measured and critical approach to this primary source content can still yield positive results.

The Watson brothers were not the only players of African descent in early US soccer, but as Chapter 4 on Buffalo demonstrates, accurately identifying and researching these players is a challenging task, made more difficult due to the institutional racism of the time. Here Bunk takes the reader through his painstaking attempts to locate a player who appears in a Nomads’ team photo from 1908, an individual that he suggests is likely Walter Johnson. Nonetheless, even after identifying the player’s name through the process of elimination, some conflicting information means providing an exacting background for Johnson is near impossible. Bunk should certainly be praised for undertaking this kind of research, and for demonstrating how frustrating and problematic the process can be. As he makes clear at the start of Chapter 6, US soccer historiography still relies heavily on newspaper coverage. Whilst digitisation has revolutionised the use of this primary source material, other methodological problems remain, like software issues pertaining to optical character recognition and unreadable content. Although an overreliance on newspaper material may be criticised by some sports historians, Beyond the Field aptly demonstrates how a measured and critical approach to this primary source content can still yield positive results. In any case, there is virtually no other way to research the early history of soccer in the US, due to the lack of a preserved institutional footprint elsewhere.

Given their known prominence, the Scots also appear in several chapters, further demonstrating their notable presence in countless locations and capacities. The city of Detroit is one such example (Chapter 7). Not only was there a dominant Scottish dimension to the city’s soccer landscape and within the successful Detroit AFC team, but the latter also played matches against the Toronto Scots and Chicago Thistles. Chapter 8’s focus on the Scots-born McKendrick brothers is also illuminating, especially for those with an interest in the early transatlantic movement of players. Beginning in Scotland, the brothers’ soccer careers spanned three nations and even more locations, including three of the four joining the Baltimore team in the short-lived American League of Professional Football. Commendably, Bunk also offers some critical commentary to the often romanticised Scottish factor. Chapter 8’s (indirect) linkage of early soccer in Greenock (Scotland) to the wider economics of slavery is something that would merit further exploration. Likewise, Bunk also situates the Miami-based Scottish influence, specifically the Orr family, within the United States’ more traditional white protestant cultural values (Chapter 5).

Elsewhere, some welcomed exposure is afforded to Welsh (Chapter 3) and Chinese contributions (Chapter 15), agency which remains largely unexplored. Unfortunately, Chinese players were the victims of prejudice in Hawai‘i and nor were they alone in such experiences. Canadian influence also comes into play in several chapters, demonstrating the importance that the then North American British Dominion had on soccer in the US and vice-versa. The fact that Detroit AFC were the champions of the Western Football Association, which was based in southern Ontario, adds weight to the importance of borderlands to the development of North American soccer.

Across the locations we are presented with soccer communities that experienced highs and lows, as the game’s popularity fluctuated, often impacted by external factors. Moreover, although the game was largely the construct and preserve of men, Bunk also provides some interesting insights into women’s involvement. In Chapter 13 on San Francisco, Bunk notes how women were often noted as attending matches, with Central Park also hosting the first known women’s soccer match in the US between Coleen Bawns and Bonnie Lassies on 3 December 1893. The ‘difficult life’ of Barre Rangers ‘superfan’, Margaret (Maggie) Reaside, who was gifted a rocking chair from the club, is also another illuminating example of women’s early engagement with the game in Chapter 2.

Unlike Bunk’s earlier work From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States (2021), Beyond the Field does not follow a chronological narrative. An advantage to this is that the chapters can be read in any order, without any requirement to have engaged with what has come before. Consequently, for those with an interest in specific locations, teams, or individuals, or just a general interest in US soccer history more widely, this is a highly accessible book packed with insights. From an academic perspective, Beyond the Field can be fruitfully read on its own or alongside From Football to Soccer and the recent edited collection by Bolsmann and Kioussis, Soccer Frontiers: The Global Game in the United States (2021).

Regardless of how one chooses to read Beyond the Field, it is unquestionably another important study into the early history of soccer in the United States. The idea that the US has no soccer history has long been exposed as wanting, and like his previous writings, Bunk rigorously continues to analyse what soccer’s subcultural presence meant to those who engaged with the game, bringing community and place to life in multiple locations throughout the process.

Copyright © Paul McFarlane 2025