Jack Kershaw was an English

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 ...

center forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring Goal (sport)#Association footbal ...

who began his career in England and ended it in the United States. He was born in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. He played at least two seasons in the

Southern New England Soccer League The Southern New England Soccer League was a semi-professional soccer league based in New England which was established in 1914 and collapsed in 1921. During its short existence, it featured some of the top teams in the northeast United States. ...

and two in the American Soccer League before coaching professionally and collegiately.

Player

According to some sources, Kershaw began his career in the English Northern Third Division.21 March 1927 The Crimson
/ref> At some point, he came to the United States and joined Fore River of the

(SNESL). He scored a goal in Fore River's loss to

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 dis ...

in the 1920 National Challenge Cup. He suffered a season-ending injury sometime in December 1920 or January 1921. In 1921, the SNESL was disbanded with the creation of the American Soccer League. Fore River did not move to the new league, but Kershaw spent two seasons in the new league, first with

J&P Coats J. & P. Coats was an American soccer club founded in 1900 as the team of the Pawtucket, Rhode Island branch of the J. & P. Coats threadmaking company of Paisley, Scotland (following a 1952 merger this firm became part of the Coats Group). The club ...

in 1921–1922 and then the

Fall River F.C. Fall River Football Club, also referred to as Fall River Field Club, was the name used by two United States soccer clubs, based in Fall River, Massachusetts. Both played in the American Soccer League during the early 1930s. The name is often used ...

in 1922–1923. In 1924, Kershaw scored the season's first goal for the Shawsheen Indians in the semi-professional National League, which had replaced the SNESL. However, Kershaw is not listed on the Indians' roster when they won the 1925 National Challenge Cup.

Coach

While he continued to play for various teams, Kershaw also coached Abbot Worsted for six seasons, taking the team to national prominence and winning three league championships. In 1927,

Harvard University 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 ...

hired Kershaw as the soccer team's head coach.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kershaw, Jack English men's footballers Southern New England Soccer League players Fore River (soccer) players American Soccer League (1921–1933) players Pawtucket Rangers players Fall River F.C. (1922–1931) players Shawsheen Indians players American soccer coaches Harvard Crimson men's soccer coaches Year of birth missing Year of death missing Men's association football forwards English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate men's footballers