Boston Beacons

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Boston Beacons 1968 logo

The Bostone beacons were a 1967-68 existing for two years American football - franchise . With the team of the Irish professional team Shamrock Rovers and under the name Boston (Shamrock) Rovers it took part in the game operations of the only season of the United Soccer Association (USA) in 1967 , in 1968 the franchise under a new name and with its own team became a founding member of North American Soccer League (NASL) . The franchise was not very successful in sporting or financial terms; after two last places in the respective league division of the Bostonians and high losses, the franchise was dissolved at the end of the 1968 season.

1967

When it came to the establishment of three competing investor groups in North America in 1966 to establish a professional football league, Weston Adams , president of the NHL team Boston Bruins , joined the group that later created the USA league; Due to the competitive situation, the USA moved the start of the game operation from winter 1967/68 to spring 1967. In the remaining time, building up its own teams seemed impossible, so the league hired twelve professional teams from Europe and South America for the free time in the summer. The Irish team Shamrock Rovers was delegated because of the many Irish-born residents to Boston, where they participated as Boston Rovers, partly as Boston Shamrock Rovers in the game. Their home stadium was the Manning Bowl.

The team was athletically and financially unsuccessful. With only two wins and three draws from twelve games, they were the worst team in the USA; in addition, with an average of 4,171 spectators, the home games in Boston were the worst-attended in the league.

1968

Two young Irish players from the Shamrock Rovers, Paddy Mulligan , later champion cup winner with Chelsea London and 50-time Irish national player, as well as David Pugh , could be recruited for the newly established team ; otherwise the team was a complete new composition. The experienced 38-year-old former Scottish national goalie Willie Fraser was signed as goalkeeper, another experienced player was the Argentine World Cup participant 1962 Rubén Héctor Sosa . The rest of the squad was also well filled, but the team was unsuccessful. At the end of the regular season, Boston was fifth and last in the Atlantic Division with only nine wins and 121 points, and was only beaten by the Detroit Cougars and Dallas Tornado results .

The franchise changed its venue for the NASL; But the average attendance at Fenway Park did not increase either, but fell slightly to 4,004 in relation to the 1967 USA season; the record crowd was not in a league game, but in a friendly against FC Santos with 18,400. Because of the sporting, but also financial failure, the franchise, like all but five of the NASL, was dissolved after the end of the 1968 season.

Known players

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan E. Foulds: Boston's ballparks & arenas, 2005, ISBN 1584654090 , pp. 139f.
  2. ↑ Steve Holroyd, " The Year in American Soccer - 1967 ", The USA Soccer History Archives.
  3. ↑ The NASL had a special point system, six points were awarded for wins and three for draws, in addition there was an extra point for every goal scored up to and including the third regardless of win or loss.
  4. ^ A b Steve Holroyd: " The Year in American Soccer - 1968 ", The USA Soccer History Archives.