History, politics, people of Oly WA

Category: Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Happy Irish Day, Seattle Celtic were local champs 99 years ago

Back in the dark forgotten history of Cascadia, soccer used to be a pretty big thing around here. In the first decades of the 20th century, there was a thriving local soccer culture. There were several clubs in Seattle and the surrounding towns, especially logging or coal towns dotted around the cities.

Seattle Celtic lifted the cup in March of 1915:

You can read my much longer birds-eye-view piece about the early history of Puget Sound soccer over at GoalWa. Here is a peak into the period of the Celtic club’s championship run:

The Post-Intelligencer Cup was won by the Seattle Celtics; Tacoma
was second, Carbonado third, and Black Diamond fourth and last. These
teams and the Seattle Rangers and Woodland Park clubs competed for the
McMilan Cup. Both cups are played for in the league system.

The McMilan Cup competition was a seesaw affair from the
beginning to the end, and the winner was only decided after the last
game had been played. The Tacoma team finished ahead of the Celtics by
one point ; Black Diamond, Carbonado, Rangers and Woodland Park followed
in the order.

Boy, lifting the knockout tournament cup, but missing the league title by one point to Tacoma? Ugh. I feel for the Irish today.

Mostly because I assume the Celtic brand is a powerful one (that goes way further than the borders of Glasgow), there is a Seattle Celtic club still.

American Celtic clubs (Happy Saint Patrick’s Day)

Celtics and Celtic hoops are not an uncommon soccer team name across the world. Most popular obviously is Glasgow Celtic, but there are even some American Celtic teams sprinkled across the Northeastern United States.

Jersey City Celtics lasted five games.

Brooklyn Celtic lasted several years (eventually transforming into Brooklyn St. Mary’s Celtic) and even won a U.S. Open Cup.

Kearny Celtic is the most famous and succesful, lasting from the Great Depression well into the post war period. And, now there is a bit of rebirth of the Kearny club, playing in the Northern Jersey Soccer League as the Kearny Irish FC. They even draw their history direclty from the historic Kearny club and play in the same facility.

These folks really need to sell some t-shirts.

There are even Celtics in England and Spain.

The team killed by one game (Belfast Celtic and Happy Saint Patrick’s day)

On this St. Patrick’s Day, I remember Belfast Celtic, a team disbanded after a horrific game and its aftermath in the late 1940s. Despite their success, they were never admitted to the league system in Northern Ireland and were forced to hang it up due to fan on player violence.

From Wild Geese (which refers to this I assume):

That triumphal victory over the Scottish national side was several months ahead when the Celtic team took to Linfield’s pitch at Windsor Park, in staunchly unionist South Belfast, on Boxing Day 1948. Tension at matches between the two sides was always at a high. The match ended with the Celtic team having to run from the pitch for their lives when Linfield

fans poured over the terrace barriers at the end of a 1-1 draw. Centre forward Jimmy Jones was thrown over a parapet, kicked unconcious and left with a broken leg. Defender Robin Lawlor and goalkeeper Kevin McAlinden were seriously hurt.

More can be found at belfastceltic.org (hard site to link inside of without crashing firefox).

Belfast Celtic is also one of a dozen or so historic “celtic” teams across the world, many of whom wear the “celtic hoops” made famous by Glasgow Celtic. The Scottish Celtic team has their own storied past that straddles the sectarian violence in the United Kingdom, but unlike Belfast Celtic they surive to this day.

Tomorrow I’ll wear a jersey from another hoops team, Shamrock Rovers of Dublin. Rovers were a younger team than either Belfast or Glasgow Celtic and recieved their first set of uniforms from Belfast Celtic.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Being so close to Easter, St. Patrick’s Day stuff on the mind:

This Sunday not being this Sunday.

And, a little less serious:

Reasons for hope: Setanta Sports Cup and the “A” Championship.

There have been other North/South cup competitions in the past, but because of recent political work and a pretty good sponsor, this one seems to be a bit more permanent.

Also, there have been Northern Ireland clubs competing in Republican leagues (Derry City, for example), but broad cross pollination at the non-league level across the entire island can only be a good thing.

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