William Stewart Lang (born William Lang McLean; January 27, 1904 – November 6, 1977) was a Scottish-born American

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 ...

player. A dominant player through the 1930s and a member of the U.S. national team at the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in w ...

, McLean disappeared without a trace in 1938. His disappearance remained a mystery until June 2022, when an investigation by '' The Athletic''s Pablo Maurer and Matt Pentz uncovered the details behind that disappearance; McLean had suffered a nervous breakdown after multiple head injuries and lived out the last 40 years of his life in a series of public mental health facilities.

Chicago

Born in Scotland, McLean immigrated to the United States when he was nineteen. He settled in Chicago where he joined

Pullman F.C. Pullman F.C. was one of the dominant American soccer teams of the early twentieth century. Established in 1893 as the Pullman Company team, it was an inaugural member of the Chicago League of Association Football before moving to the Association ...

which had dominated the Chicago Leagues and

Peel Cup The Peter J. Peel Challenge Cup, better known as the Peel Cup, was an open soccer competition that crowned the Illinois state champion until it was replaced by the Illinois Governor’s Cup in 1971. History Origins Peter Peel was born in 1866 in ...

. At some point, he moved to the Canadians and finally to

Bricklayers and Masons F.C. Bricklayers and Masons F.C., also known as Chicago Bricklayers, was a U.S. soccer team based in Chicago, Illinois which joined that city's Association Football League in 1914. Over the next twenty years, Bricklayers won two Peel Cups and was the ...

In 1928, the Bricklayers lost 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 ...

to the New York Nationals. McLean and the Bricklayers lost a second Challenge Cup in 1931 when Fall River F.C. took them two games to one in the championship series.

St. Louis

In 1932, McLean moved to St. Louis where he signed with Stix, Baer and Fuller F.C. of the

St. Louis Soccer League The St. Louis Soccer League was based in St. Louis, Missouri and existed from 1915 to 1938. At its founding, it was the only fully professional soccer league in the United States. The league was founded from two teams from the St. Louis Soccer F ...

. The team went to the 1932 Challenge Cup final, but lost to the New Bedford Whalers. In

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

and

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

, McLean would finally achieve success in the Challenge Cup when Stix, Baer and Fuller won two consecutive Challenge Cup titles, to go with two St. Louis Soccer League titles. Following their 1934 Challenge Cup victory, the team came under the sponsorship of Central Breweries. St. Louis Central Breweries F.C. continued the success they had experienced under the old name by winning a third Challenge Cup and league title in 1935, giving McLean three "doubles" in three years. The team went through another name change in 1935, this time to

St. Louis Shamrocks St. Louis Shamrocks was an American soccer team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They competed in the St. Louis Association Foot Ball League, winning two championships. Thomas Cahill founded Shamrocks in 1897. When St. Teresa was suspended from the ...

. In 1936, McLean collapsed during a league game. In 1937, after spending nine months in a sanitarium, he moved back to Chicago.

National team

In 1930, McLean attended two of the three trial games used to select the roster for the

1930 FIFA World Cup The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930. FIFA, football's international governing body, selected Uruguay as host nation ...

team. He was not selected. In 1934, McLean made the U.S. national team for the

. McLean gained his first cap when the U.S. defeated Mexico, 4–2, in a World Cup qualifier. The U.S. then lost to Italy in the first round of the World Cup. While recovering from his 1936 collapse, McLean was called up to the national team for a three-game series with Mexico in 1937, but did not play.

Disappearance

After returning to Chicago in 1937, McLean seemed to have kept a low profile. In the summer of 1938, he disappeared, leaving behind his wife Elizabeth and his young daughter. For years, it was assumed that McLean had died; in 1944, Aetna Life Insurance placed an ad in the ''Midwest Soccer News'' asking for information about his whereabouts. Despite that effort, McLean was never publicly seen again. In 2022, ''The Athletic''s Pablo Maurer and Matt Pentz concluded a two-year-long investigation into McLean's mysterious disappearance. After his disappearance, McLean lived first in Chicago, and then moved to

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

in 1941. He changed his name to William Stewart Lang to avoid being found, working as a mechanic at a local garage. In 1946, McLean suffered another nervous breakdown and was institutionalized at the

Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute The Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute was a psychiatric institution located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, USA. Originally known as the Iowa Lunatic Asylum, it opened in 1861.Kirkbride BuildingsMount Pleasant State Hospital/ref> It is located on t ...

in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He remained there for 13 years, undergoing electroconvulsive therapy and a transorbital lobotomy. In 1959, McLean was transferred to Pine Knoll Home in Davenport, a publicly-run assisted living facility, where he died on November 6, 1977. McLean is interred at Cedar Park Cemetery in

Calumet Park, Illinois Calumet Park (formerly DeYoung) is a village in Cook County, Illinois. The population was 7,025 at the 2020 census. On May 13, 2010, Mayor Joseph DuPar and the Village Board approved renaming 127th Street as Obama Drive, in honor of the 44th Pre ...

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