Archibald McPherson Stark (December 21, 1897 – May 27, 1985) was a U.S. soccer player who became the dominant player in U.S. leagues during the 1920s and early 1930s. He spent nine seasons in the

National Association Football League The National Association Football League (also spelled ''National Association Foot Ball League'') (NAFBL) was a semi-professional U.S. soccer league which operated between 1895 and 1898. The league was reconstituted in 1906 and continued to oper ...

and another twelve in the American Soccer League. He also earned two

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, scoring five goals, as a member of the U.S. national team. He holds the U.S. single-season scoring record with 67 goals (including 8

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

s) scored during the 1924–25 season which is the current World Record. He was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1950.

Youth and early career

Although Stark and his brother Tommy Stark were born in Scotland, they moved to the United States when Archie was thirteen years old. His family settled in Hudson County, New Jersey, where Stark immediately began his organized soccer career with the West Hudson Juniors. For a player who made his name as a forward, Stark began as a defender with the Juniors. Stark turned professional a year later when he signed with the Scottish-Americans of the

for the 1912–1913 season. At the time he was only fourteen. He remained with the Scottish-Americans for four seasons. In 1915, the Scottish-Americans won the 1915 American Cup, defeating Brooklyn Celtic 1–0 on a Stark goal. The next season, the team lost the AFA championship game when

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

crushed them 3–0. At the end of the 1915–1916 season, Stark moved to the Bayonne, New Jersey, club

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...

. However,

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

intervened and Stark joined the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

in 1917, briefly interrupting his career. Stark served in France.

Post-war resurgence

When he returned to the U.S. in 1919, he joined Paterson F.C., which went to the 1919 National Challenge Cup final, losing to

2–0. Following the cup, Stark joined Bethlehem for the team's August 10, 1919, to September 24, 1919, tour of Sweden and

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. On that tour, Bethlehem went 6–2–6 (W-L-T). Stark then moved to

Kearny, New Jersey Kearny ( ) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 40,684,Erie A.A. of the NAFBL. In a controversial decision, league officials awarded Erie A.A. the title even though Bethlehem Steel had one more point. Bethlehem Steel appealed to the U.S. Soccer Football Association, which reversed the decision. Stark remained with Erie A.A., now known as Harrison Erie S.C., through the end of the 1920–1921 season, but when several teams defected to form a new league, to be known as the American Soccer League (ASL), the NAFBL folded. Stark then jumped to the New York Field Club of the ASL in 1921. By this time he had gained a reputation as a prolific scorer and was sought after by several teams. In three seasons with New York F.C., Stark scored forty-five goals in sixty-nine games. In his last season with the team, he bagged nearly a goal a game when he scored twenty-one in twenty-five games.

Bethlehem Steel

In the off-season after the 1923–24 season, the New York F.C. franchise was sold to the Indiana Flooring Company and Stark was among the players who went with the franchise. Indiana Flooring waived Stark and Bethlehem Steel F.C. picked him up just before the new season. Stark's move to Bethlehem would gain him his greatest recognition, as Bethlehem moved him to center forward from the right wing position he had played with New York. Bethlehem had some of the deepest pockets in the ASL and used that money to sign several top Scottish internationals. Surrounded by talent, Stark responded by scoring 67 goals in 44 games in his first season with the team, including eight

s, which is the correct World Record for an individual. He also scored three more goals in two league cup games. The next season, Stark earned his first title with Bethlehem as the team took the 1926 National Challenge Cup. Bethlehem rolled over

Ben Millers Ben Millers was a U.S. soccer club sponsored by the Ben W. Miller Hat Company of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1913, it entered the St. Louis Soccer League two years later, winning seven league titles and one National Challenge Cup before its d ...

by a score of 7–2, Stark scoring three of the goals. Bethlehem went on to take the 1926–1927 ASL title, then the 1928–1929 and fall 1929 Eastern Soccer League titles. In what became known as the Soccer War, FIFA declared the ASL an “outlaw league” in 1927. Reasons for this centered on a dispute between the ASL and the U.S. Football Association (USFA), which was backed by FIFA, about control of the sport in the United States. FIFA and USFA demanded that all ASL teams enter the National Challenge Cup (now the

US Open 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. Op ...

). The ASL refused to force its teams to do so, and FIFA labeled the ASL an “outlaw league”. The ASL, with U.S. federal law on its side, announced it would no longer abide by FIFA rules and would boycott FIFA events, including the National Challenge Cup. The ASL, as one of the most competitive and highest paying leagues in the world at the time, expected that many prominent international players would continue to flock to the ASL in defiance of FIFA. In order to reduce the prominence of the ASL, USFA organized a rival league, the Eastern Soccer League, in October 1928. Bethlehem Steel, in defiance of the ASL, had elected to enter the National Challenge Cup and was suspended by the league seven games into the 1928–1929 season, leading Bethlehem to join the ESL. Stark, and Bethlehem Steel, would remain in the ESL for two seasons before returning to the ASL for the team's final season. However, neither Bethlehem Steel nor the ASL could withstand the financial strains imposed by this situation and the Soccer War led to the demise of the ASL and Bethlehem Steel. When Bethlehem Steel folded in 1930, Stark joined the

Fall River Marksmen Fall River Marksmen was an American soccer club based in Fall River, Massachusetts. They originally played as Fall River United before becoming known as the Marksmen after their owner, Sam Mark. During the 1920s and early 1930s they were one of t ...

of a tour of Europe. However, the team faced financial difficulties and left the players stranded in

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, after which they returned to the U.S. as third class passengers.

End of career: Newark Americans and Kearny Irish

When Bethlehem Steel folded in 1930, Stark moved to the

Newark Americans Newark Americans were a team in the first American Soccer League. They were founded in 1930, but folded following the spring 1932 season. Year-by-year Defunct soccer clubs in New Jersey American Soccer League (1921–1933) teams 1930 establ ...

for the 1930–1931 ASL season. He remained with the Americans through the demise of the ASL in 1933. However, the statistics for the last two ASL seasons have been lost and we no longer know how many goals Stark scored during them. After the first ASL finally collapsed in 1933, Stark ended up with Kearny Irish, which joined the new American Soccer League (ASL II) for the league's inaugural 1933–1934 season. The Irish took the league title, and Stark shared the scoring title with

Razzo Carroll Henry "Razzo" Carroll (July 12, 1909 – January 14, 1999) was a U.S. soccer forward who played in both the first and second American Soccer Leagues. He led the league in scoring in 1934. He also earned two caps, scoring one goal, with the U ...

of the

Kearny Scots The Kearny Scots are an American soccer club based in Kearny, New Jersey. The club presently plays in the Eastern Premier Soccer League, which is a United States Adult Soccer Association-affiliated league and an amateur affiliate of the professio ...

National team

Stark earned only two

with the U.S. national team, both in games against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1925. His first cap came in a 1–0 loss to Canada in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in June. In November, Canada came to the U.S. for a game; Stark scored five goals as the U.S. easily dispatched its northern neighbors 6–1. While Stark received an invitation to play on the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, he declined the invitation for business reasons. In 1950, Stark was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Career statistics

Honors

* World Record holder of the Highest Season Scoring Record (67 goals, 1924/25 season) * Seasonwise World Top Scorer: 1924-25Seasonwise World Top Scorer
rsssf.org * U.S. single-season scoring record: 67 goals, 1924/25 season

References

External links

Biography at Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club
*
Hall of Fame biography

* Cirino, Antonio (Tony): ''US Soccer Vs The World: The American National Team in the Olympic Games, the World Cup, and Other International Competition'', 1983 – {{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Archie 1897 births 1985 deaths American soccer players American Soccer League (1921–1933) players American Soccer League (1933–1983) players Babcock & Wilcox F.C. players Bethlehem Steel F.C. (1907–1930) players Eastern Professional Soccer League (1928–29) players Erie A.A. players Fall River Marksmen players Kearny Irish players Kearny Scots (NAFBL) players National Association Football League players National Soccer Hall of Fame members New York Field Club players Newark Americans players Paterson F.C. players Scottish emigrants to the United States United States men's international soccer players West Hudson A.A. players Association football forwards Footballers from Glasgow United States Army personnel of World War I