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| WHAT IS THE LAMAR HUNT U.S. OPEN CUP? |
| Dating back to 1914, the U.S. Open Cup is the oldest cup competition in United States soccer and is among the oldest in the world. Open to all affiliated amateur and professional teams in the United States, the annual U.S. Open Cup is a 90-year-old single-elimination tournament. |
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| In a nutshell, the U.S. Open Cup is very similar to domestic cup competitions popular throughout Europe, South America and the rest of the world. Cup competitions, which usually run concurrent with a country’s league season, are open in the early stages to any club that can qualify, giving local amateur teams a chance to compete against the best teams a country has to offer. |
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| In leagues like the English Premier League, the Serie A in Italy and the Bundesliga in Germany, cup competitions are prestigious tournaments waged between country’s strongest teams like Manchester United, AC Milan and Bayern Munich, and smaller teams like the amateur French side Calais that made it to the finals of the 2000 French Cup only to fall to defending champions Nantes on an injury time penalty kick. Watford F.C. in England, is another small-time club that hit it big in 1984 by making it all the way to the F.A. Cup Final. Just five years ago, unfashionable Chesterfield of the Second Division (the third flight in England) advanced to the semifinals of the 1997 F.A. Cup in England before finally losing. |
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| The winner of each country’s domestic cup competition, in addition to taking home the prize money, is automatically placed into a tournament to compete against neighboring countries cup winners. |
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| In 1999, the U.S. Open Cup was renamed the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to honor the long-time soccer supporter and pioneer. Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Wizards and Columbus Crew of MLS and the owner of the Dallas Tornado of the old NASL, was one of the sports first major ownership figures and is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. |
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| The winning team of the U.S. Open Cup will have their name engraved on the Dewar Cup trophy, that has been permanently retired at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y. |
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| As the oldest, annual team tournament in U.S. sports history, the U.S. Open Cup dates back to 1914 when the Brooklyn Field Club of the North American Foot Ball League (NAFBL) won the first national title by defeating the Brooklyn Celtics in Pawtucket, R.I. First instituted as the National Challenge Cup under the aegis of the United States Football Association (now U.S. Soccer), it was conceived as a competition open to all players (amateur and professional) and based upon England’s Football Association Cup format. |
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| During the Open Cup’s early years, teams sponsored by industry in the East’s urban centers dominated the competition. Bethlehem Steel of Pa. (NAFBL) won four Open Cup titles between 1915 and 1919. Bethlehem Steel would make it five overall titles in 1926, while the American Soccer League’s Fall River Marksmen (Mass.) won four national crowns between 1924 and 1931. The Marksmen became the New Bedford Whalers in 1932 and captured their fifth Open Cup crown (tying Bethlehem Steel) that same year. |
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| The last team to capture five tournament titles was the Los Angeles Maccabee S.C. (1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981). |
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| Although there have been numerous back-to-back winners (eight overall by seven different teams), only the New York Greek-American of the German-American Soccer League and the Fall River Marksmen have won three consecutive crowns. The Marksmen/New Bedford Whalers did it from 1930-1932, while the Greek-Americans won three straight from 1967-1969. |
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| While teams sponsored by industries in the East’s urban centers dominated the Men’s Open and Amateur Cups until the 1950s, the teams from the West and Midwest have flexed their muscles in the later years. In fact, California alone has garnered the lion’s share of success, winning 11 titles since 1973. Missouri, Illinois and Florida have also appeared regularly on the winner’s list. In 2002, the Columbus Crew became the first team from the state of Ohio to win the Open Cup title. |
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Although it is now a complete “knock-out” tournament, with a few exceptions the U.S. Open Cup final was a two-leg, home-and-away series between 1928 and 1968.
Despite the prominence of the North American Soccer League from 1967 to 1984, NASL teams rarely showed the inclination to enter the U.S. Open Cup competition. In fact, until the emergence of Major League Soccer, full professional teams were almost non-existent in the competition. That has changed in the last eight years, though, with MLS taking part since 1996, thus helping to make the tournament a true “national” championship. |
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History of the U.S. Open Cup
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