The Brooklyn Wanderers was a U.S.
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
team which was a founding member of the
National Association Football League in the late nineteenth century. Later versions joined the
original American Soccer League and the
reorganized American Soccer League.
Brooklyn Wanderers (1895–1899, 1912–1913)
History
In December 1894 the Wanderers were a key part of the formation of the
National Association Football League. The league suspended operations in 1899. The team's competitive record then becomes difficult to follow as it appears to have operated as an independent club. In September 1901, it lost to the Bayonne Rangers during a
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
sports carnival. In 1906, a member of the Wanderers acted as a referee in a game between Critchleys and Brooklyn Thistle. This rare reference to the Wanderers is significant in that Critchley's outside right
Nat Agar (listed as Agot) later owned the Wanderers. In 1912, the Wanderers rejoined the NAFBL, but withdrew only six games into the season. Several of the players then jumped to Brooklyn F.C.
Year-by-year
Brooklyn Wanderers (1922–1931)
History
In 1922, the
Bay Ridge F.C. fielded two clubs that fall. One continued under the Bay Ridge F.C. name in the First Division of the amateur
New York State Association Football League and another was a reorganized Brooklyn Wanderers F.C. that was created to play in the newly-formed semi-pro
New Jersey State Soccer League. The home pitch for both teams was
Hawthorne Field.
The Wanderers played a handful of games in the New Jersey State League and three
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. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...
matches from mid-September through the first week of November in 1922. Then, on November 12 at a special meeting of the
American Soccer League, the Wanderers were admitted (a month into the season) as the league's eighth club, belatedly replacing the
Todd Shipyards F.C. that had left the league and disbanded during the off-season.
During its years in the ASL, the Wanderers played at Hawthorne Field, a dedicated soccer stadium owned by Agar. In 1926,
Béla Guttmann briefly played for the team.
[Joseph Siegman (2020)]
''Jewish Sports Legends; The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame''
/ref> After the 1925/26 ASL season the Wanderers, the Boston Soccer Club
The Boston Soccer Club was a member of the American Soccer League. They were renamed the Boston Bears for the Fall 1929 ASL season.
In 1925, the ASL and the St. Louis Soccer League (SLSL) boycotted the National Challenge Cup, now known as t ...
and the New Bedford Whalers
New Bedford Whalers was the name of three American soccer teams based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The first Whalers played in the Southern New England Soccer League between 1914 and 1918. The second Whalers played in the American Soccer Leag ...
joined with four top Canadian clubs to form the one-off International Soccer League held that summer and early fall. The Wanderers won the season championship, but lost to Toronto Ulster United in the final of the league's Nathan Strauss Cup.
The Wanderers folded after the 1931 Spring season, the first half of the ASL 1931 season.
Year-by-year
Brooklyn Wanderers (1932–1933)
The third Brooklyn Wanderers was also a member of the American Soccer League.
The club joined the league before the fall 1932 season and stayed through the disintegration of the league in the spring of 1933.
Year-by-year
Brooklyn Wanderers (1942–1949)
The fourth Brooklyn Wanderers was a member of the reformed American Soccer League.
Suffering financial trouble, the franchise was bought by the owners of Hakoah A.C. two games into the 1948/49 season. Hakoah left the National League to join the ASL and carried on from the Wanderers' loss and tie.
Year-by-year
References
{{Reflist
Men's soccer clubs in New York (state)
Defunct soccer clubs in New York City
National Association Football League teams
American Soccer League (1921–1933) teams
American Soccer League (1933–1983) teams
Defunct sports clubs and teams in New York City
Sports in Brooklyn
Sports clubs and teams in New York City