Stops in Philadelphia during the North American tours of English amateur club Corinthian FC in 1906, 1911, and 1924 were perhaps less noteworthy for what happened on the pitch than as windows into key movements in early American and Philadelphia soccer history.
Connie Mack is a Philadelphia baseball legend. In 1901, he also had a soccer team.
The East-West series of tours between St. Louis and East Coast teams continued in 1913 when Innisfails traveled East in a tour that included games against Philadelphia Hibernian and Tacony FC.
In December of 1911, Tacony FC became the first Philadelphia team to travel out West to decide the “championship of America.”
The US played its first full international in Sweden during the the First World War. Philadelphia-area players were an important part of that team.
While Philadelphia soccer fans watched a soccer double header at the Phillies Ball Park on Christmas Day in 1916, Bethlehem Steel FC, holders of the National Challenge Cup and the American Cup, had traveled to St. Louis for two games to decide the unofficial title of champion of the United States.