The soccer complex at Brookhaven College is located on the east part of the campus and features a National Junior College Athletic Association match field, as well as two smaller practice fields. The Brookhaven College Bears women’s soccer team won the 2019 NJCAA Division III national tournament. The win completed a 17-0-1 season for the Bears with an aggregate score of 80-5. Also winning in 2017, the championship marked Brookhaven's second in three seasons.
I walk by the these empty soccer fields every day. Although I am not a soccer fan, the sight of the fields makes me wonder about the history and popularity of the sport.
According to Topend Sports, here is a timeline:
There is evidence in China that military forces around the second or third century BC played a game — originally named Tsu Chu — that involved kicking a leather ball stuffed with fur into a small hole. Like soccer, no hands were permitted during the play of the game. In 1000 B.C. the Japanese version of soccer was called Kemari, a game much like modern hacky sack played with two to 12 players and a larger ball stuffed with sawdust.
Between 600 and 1600 A.D., the rubber ball was created in Mexico and Central America. It was used in a game on a recessed court 40-50 feet long shaped like a capital “I.” In the middle of each wall was a mounted stone or wooden ring, and the object was to project the hard rubber ball through the ring.
In 700 A.D., the first football games were played in Britain between the locals of east of England, starting after a legendary game that involved kicking around the severed head of a Danish prince they had defeated in war. These games were violent; injury and death were not uncommon.
In 1620 in North America, Native Americans in the original Jamestown settlement played a game called pasuckuakohowog, meaning “they gather to play ball with the foot.” It was a rough game. The field was a half-mile wide with goals one mile apart. There were as many as 1,000 players at a time.
In 1862, the first soccer club formed anywhere outside of England was the Oneida Football Club in Boston. In 1900, soccer was played at the Olympics for the first time. In 1996, the American women’s team won the first-ever women’s soccer event at the Olympics.
According to Wikipedia, as of 2006, over 24 million Americans play soccer. There are 4.2 million players (2.5 million male and 1.7 million female) registered with U.S. Soccer. As of 2012, 30% of American households contain someone playing soccer, a figure second only to baseball.
Increasing numbers of Americans, having played the game in their youth, are now avid spectators. The annual ESPN sports poll has shown soccer as the fourth most popular team sport in the United States every year since overtaking hockey in 2006. In 2012, soccer was the No. 1 most played team sport by high school boys, and soccer overtook softball to become the No. 3 most played team sport by high school girls.
As of 2006, the U.S. was the No. 1 country in the world for participation in youth soccer, with 3.9 million American youths (2.3 million boys and 1.6 million girls) registered with U.S. Soccer. Among girls, the U.S. has more registered players than all other countries combined.
Below is a video on the history of organized soccer.
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