Sam Mark (born Markelevitch in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount ...

) is a former

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

soccer club owner. During the 1920s and early 1930s he was the owner of

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 o ...

, one of the era's most successful teams. Mark's continued to own the team after it relocated and became the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one o ...

and then

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 ...

. He also briefly owned

Boston Wonder Workers 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 the U ...

. He had played guard for the Massachusetts American Legion basketball team.

Career

Fall River Marksmen

Mark initially established himself as a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

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 ...

promoter in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and as well as owning several soccer clubs he also owned a semi-professional baseball team. He was not originally a soccer fan but was aware of the large crowds that Fall River Rovers attracted. In

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

he took over Fall River United of the American Soccer League and renamed them

. Mark's was willing to invest in the club and one of his first moves was to build Mark's Stadium in North Tiverton, Rhode Island. Because the stadium was just over the Massachusetts border, the club was able to get round the state's

Blue Law Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons, ...

s and play on a Sunday. It is also one of the earliest examples of a

soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-p ...

in the

. Under Sam Mark,

became one of the most successful soccer clubs in the United States. During the 1920s and early 1930s they won the American Soccer League on seven occasions. They also won 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. Op ...

four times. In

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China h ...

they also won the first ASL / Challenge Cup

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

and were subsequently the American soccer champions three times in succession. Between

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholi ...

and

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

they won a further four titles in a row. In 1930 they also completed a treble, winning the ASL title, the Challenge Cup and the Lewis Cup.

Soccer War

In 1929 the American Soccer League and the US Football Association became involved in a power struggle sometimes referred to as the ''Soccer Wars''. This resulted in the emergence of two rival leagues - the ASL and

Eastern Soccer League Eastern may refer to: Transportation * China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 * Eastern Air ...

. Many clubs suffered financially and during the dispute Mark's took over the struggling

. He also acted as a mediator between the two rival leagues and helped negotiate a merger. However the rules of the new Atlantic Coast League forbid the ownership of two or more clubs. Mark's decided to sell the Boston club but unable to find a buyer, he was forced to dissolve the team after just 4 games of the Spring 1930 season

New York Yankees

By 1931 the effects of the ''Soccer Wars'' and the Great Depression had seen attendances fall at Mark's Stadium. As a result, Mark moved

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, hoping that a new market there would be more lucrative. Once there he merged the club with New York Soccer Club and renamed them the

. Before the merger was finalised, however, Fall River Marksmen had entered the

and Mark was unable to re-register them as the Yankees. As a result, the Spring 1931 season saw them continue to play in the Challenge Cup as the ''Fall River Marksmen'' while at the same time playing as the ''New York Yankees'' in the American Soccer League. While the ''Yankees'' only managed to finish third in the ASL, the ''Marksmen'' won the cup.

New Bedford Whalers

Despite winning the

, the relocation to

was not a financial success and for the Fall 1931 season Mark relocated the

to New Bedford, Massachusetts where they merged with Fall River F.C. and became the

. This new team were the American Soccer League champions for the Fall 1931 and Spring 1932 seasons but then folded during the Fall 1932 season.

Later Years

The demise of the

coincided with collapse of the original American Soccer League. Mark's subsequently turned his back on the game and became a nightclub owner. However, by 1955 he had relocated to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

where he helped form

Los Angeles Kickers The Los Angeles Kickers were an amateur American soccer team established in 1951. The club won the National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup, in 1958 and 1964. In 1951, Albert Ebert and Fritz Ermert founded the Los Angeles Kickers a ...

, one of the city's first professional soccer teams. Mark's used his contacts in

to recruit players from his former hometown. www.ticketnest.com
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marks, Sam American sports businesspeople American soccer chairmen and investors Fall River Marksmen People from Fall River, Massachusetts Year of death missing