Lloyd Monsen (born May 7, 1931) is a retired American soccer forward and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. Monsen spent eleven seasons in the American Soccer League as well as several years in the lower division

German American Soccer League The Cosmopolitan Soccer League is a regional soccer league consisting of semi-pro and amateur teams based in and around New York City. Established in 1923, it is one of the oldest soccer leagues in the United States and has contributed greatly ...

and

National Soccer League of New York The National Soccer League of New York (also known as the National League of New York) was an amateur U.S. soccer league which served as a lower division for the ''de facto'' first division American Soccer League from the 1920s into the 1950s. Th ...

. He earned three

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

with the U.S. national team between 1952 and 1957 and was a member of the U.S. Olympic soccer teams at both the

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

and 1956 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Soccer

Youth

Monsen was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, attending

Fort Hamilton High School Fort Hamilton High School (HS 490) is a public high school in Brooklyn, New York, USA, under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Education. Students in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Dyker Heights are zoned to Fort Hamilton HS. It i ...

. His soccer career began when he joined the Gjoa Juniors, an ethnically Norwegian team, of the Empire State Junior League when he was sixteen. In his first season, Monsen scored fifty-six goals in both league and cup play leading to his moving up to the Gjoa first team of the

when he was seventeen. In his first season, he scored eighteen goals in league competition.

Club career

Monsen’s success with Gjoa led to his signing with the

New York Americans The New York Americans, colloquially known as the Amerks, were a professional ice hockey team based in New York City from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the second to play ...

of the American Soccer League in 1949. At the time, he was still in high school. He played with the Americans until 1952 when he was drafted into 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 ...

. While serving in Germany, he played briefly for Hoechst S.C. He returned to the U.S. in 1953, rejoined the Americans where he was selected as team captain. In 1954, the Americans won the league title and defeated St. Louis Kutis S.C. to win the National Challenge Cup to gain a double for Monsen and his teammates. In 1956, the Americans merged with

Brooklyn Hakoah Brooklyn Hakoah is a former United States soccer team club based in Brooklyn, New York, that played in the American Soccer League. Brooklyn Hakoah I Originally formed by former players of SC Hakoah Wien, they played in the American Soccer Lea ...

to form the New York Hakoah-Americans. The Hakoah-Americans went on to win three consecutive league titles 1957, 1958, and 1959. The team also went to the 1958 National Cup only to fall to Kutis. During the 1957-1958 season, Monsen led the ASL with twenty-two goals. Monsen nearly won his second consecutive scoring title but lost at the last minute to Pasquale Pepe of

Newark Portuguese The Newark Portuguese were an American soccer club based in Newark, New Jersey that was a member of the American Soccer League. The club had been around since 1922 and bought out the Kearny Celtic franchise after the 1950/51 season. The club won ...

. During his ASL career, Monsen scored ninety-eight league and forty-seven cup goals. He was also 11 times an ASL All-Star. Monsen then moved to the New York German-Hungarians of the

before finishing his playing career with Swedish F.C. of the

. He retired from playing professionally in 1964 but remained active with amateur over age teams until 1988.

National and Olympic teams

His first game with the senior team came in a 6-0 loss to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

on April 30, 1952. He did not play again until a 3-2 loss to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

on August 25, 1955. His last game was a 7-2 loss to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in an April 28, 1957 World Cup qualifier. Monsen was selected for the U.S. soccer team at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. At that tournament, the U.S. lost 8-0 to Italy in the first round. He was again selected to the U.S. team at the 1956 Summer Olympics. This time, Yugoslavia defeated the U.S., 9-1, in the first round. Monsen was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association Hall of Fame in 1997.

Baseball

In 1952, Monsen was a member of the U.S. soccer team at the

Helsinki Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. The team was eliminated in its first game, an 8-0 loss to Italy. The Finnish Olympic Committee put on a demonstration of a local version of baseball then asked the Americans to provide a team to play the locals. The U.S. team asked

Walter Giesler Walter John Giesler (September 6, 1909 – July 5, 1976) was an American soccer administrator, and coach best known for coaching the United States men's national soccer team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Early life and career Born in St. Louis, M ...

, the coach of the U.S. soccer team, to organize a U.S. team. As his soccer players had nothing else to do, they formed the bulk of the U.S. baseball team. This team, with Lloyd Monsen as a pitcher, defeated a Venezuelan team, 14-6, on July 29. On August 5, the U.S. defeated the Finnish team, 19-1, at the

Helsinki Olympic Stadium The Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( fi, Helsingin Olympiastadion; sv, Helsingfors Olympiastadion), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used ...

.Lloyd Monsen: left wing and pitcher at the 1952 Olympics
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References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Monsen, Lloyd 1931 births Living people Sportspeople from Brooklyn Soccer players from New York City Baseball players from New York City American men's soccer players American Soccer League (1933–1983) players American people of Norwegian descent Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players for the United States National Soccer League of New York players Cosmopolitan Soccer League players New York Americans (soccer) (1933–1956) players New York Hakoah-Americans players United States men's international soccer players National Soccer Hall of Fame members Men's association football forwards Fort Hamilton High School alumni