Abbot Worsted Company was at one time the largest producer of carpet yarns in the world.
Abbot Worsted had an early twentieth century U.S.
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
team sponsored by the Abbot Worsted Yarn Company of
Forge Village, Massachusetts. During the early 1920s, it was a perennial contender in the
National Challenge Cup
The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country.
The 2023 U.S. O ...
.
History
The Abbot Worsted Company was founded in 1855, but in 1879, it established facilities in
Forge Village, Massachusetts. By 1916, it was the largest producer of carpet yarns in the world, drawing a work force from both the local population and Britain. Abbot Worsted F.C. was the company's team. In 1919, it was drawn with Lynn Hibernians in the first round of the
1920 National Challenge Cup. Abbot Worsted beat the Lynn Hibernians 3-2. In 1921, the team hired
Jack Kershaw who had scored a goal for the losing
Fore River in the
1920 National Challenge Cup, as head coach. Over the next six years, Kershaw took the Forge Villagers, as the team was known,
deep into the Challenge Cup. In both
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
and
1925
Events January
* January 1
** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria.
* January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...
, Abbot Worsted went to the cup semifinals. In
1923
Events
January–February
* January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory).
* January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...
and
1924
Events
January
* January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after.
* January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...
, they made it to the quarterfinals. In addition, in 1924, Worsted lost in the semifinals of the
American Cup
The American Cup (also known as the American Football Association Cup and the American Federation Cup) was the first major U.S. soccer competition open to teams beyond a single league. It was first held in 1885. In the 1910s, it gradually dec ...
. The Forge Villagers also went to the 1921 and 1922 Massachusetts State Cup, but lost both times, to
Fore River in 1921 and to
Holyoke Falcos
Falco F.C., commonly known as the Holyoke Falcos, was an American soccer club based in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that was a founding member of the professional American Soccer League,"Soccer Fans Have Chance To Enthuse". (August 5, 1921). ''Holyoke ...
in 1922. After Kershaw left to coach
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1927, Abbott Worsted F.C. faded from the national scene.
Honors
Massachusetts State Cup
* Runner Up (2): 1921, 1922
References
Defunct soccer clubs in Massachusetts
{{Massachusetts-footyclub-stub