Bethlehem Steel FC (1907-1930)
Bethlehem Steel FC, based in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania, was one of the most successful American football teams in the 1910s and 1920s .
Mainly because of the financial support of the local Bethlehem Steel Corporation , British players could be signed, who made a significant contribution to the success of the club.
First, the team wore their home games at East End Field , later on Elizabeth Avenue in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem played its first league season in 1911/12 with the Allied American Foot Ball Association (AAFBA) . In the following two years, the team won the title there. 1914/15 Bethlehem Steel played in the American League of Association Football Clubs (ALAFC) and won there.
The team was also extremely successful in cup competitions. She won the US Open Cup in 1915, 1916, 1918, 1919 and again in 1926 . With five titles, Bethlehem is the US record cup winner to this day. She also won the American Cup in 1914, from 1916 to 1919 and 1924.
Between 1919 and 1921 Bethlehem Steel was each champion of the National Association Foot Ball League (NAFBL) . When the professional American Soccer League (ASL) was introduced for the 1921/22 season , the leadership dissolved the club and founded the Philadelphia Field Club , in which most of the former Bethlehem Steel players were employed. Unsurprisingly, the Philadelphia Field Club won the championship, but the team moved back to Bethlehem due to financial difficulties and a lack of fan support. 1926/27 the Bethlehem Steel FC managed to win another title in the ASL. In 1928 the club became a member of the Eastern Soccer League (ESL), in which he immediately won two titles. At the end of 1929 the ESL and the ASL merged to form the Atlantic Coast League . The Bethlehem Steel FC was dissolved after the first half of the 1930 season.
