If any one place can be called the birthplace of the U.S. Open Cup, it’s Rhode Island. More specifically, it’s the long-gone Coats Field in the city of Pawtucket.
Not only did the ground on Lonsdale Avenue host the first-ever Final of the National Challenge Cup, as the Open Cup was once known, in 1914, but through the end of World War II it hosted at least one game of the Finals on eight occasions -- far more than any other venue.
Built by the J&P Coats Company behind their massive industrial-age redbrick thread manufacturing plant, the field was the home to the company’s own successful team, who won the Rhode Island League championship in 1914 but did not enter the Challenge Cup/Open Cup competition that year. J&P Coats FC later joined the American Soccer League and went to five Open Cup Cup Semifinals.
J&P Coats was also – at one time – the third most valuable company in the world, behind only Bethlehem Steel (with their own much-ballyhood Open Cup history to crow about) and Standard Oil. The firm began its athletic program at the Rhode Island factory in 1900 and had multiple sports teams, but the soccer team was the most famous and by far most successful.
Though Coats Field long ago gave way to a strip mall that now includes a supermarket and a donut shop, much of the factory complex survived well into this century, before a devastating fire in 2020 demolished most of the buildings. Looking from Lonsdale Avenue, you can still imagine the layout of the stadium, with its massive scoreboard and the factory’s four-story corner towers standing sentinel over the field.
One of those factory towers still stands, a final reminder of the site’s one-time prominence.
Under the U.S.S.F.A. (as the USSF was formerly known) rules for the competition in 1914, Semifinal and Final matches were to be played on neutral grounds. The Semi won by Brooklyn Celtic 6-2 over the Niagara Falls Rangers was played at Olympic Park in Paterson, NJ while Brooklyn Field Club advanced with a 2-1 win over New Bedford at Coats Field.
Both of those grounds were among the five that had bid for that year’s Final, the nod going to Rhode Island’s entrant due to the politicking of William D. Love, an official of textile manufacturer Howard and Bullough, which also fielded a competitive soccer team, and a vice president of the Federation. A Semifinal crowd of 3,637 and gate receipts of $954 also helped seal the deal for Pawtucket.
The Brooklyn Field Club arrived in Pawtucket with an impressive record, having swept through the Open Cup/Challenge Cup by defeating I.R.T. Strollers 5-0 in the First Round, before gobbling up wins over Brooklyn Rangers (3-0), Bethlehem Steel (1-0), Yonkers (4-1) and New Bedford 2-1 in the Semifinal. Further, the team won 14 and drew 2 out of 16 league games (their only loss in a competition coming in the third round of the American Football Association Cup).
Getting past New Bedford was the most difficult challenge for the Field Club. Liverpool-born inside right Freddie Klemm gave the Whalers an early lead in the Last Four game at Coats Field. After both teams were reduced to ten men because of a fight, Brooklyn’s Bob Millar netted the equalizer just before the interval and scored the winner when a misplayed back-pass hit him and went into the net.
Brooklyn Celtic had an equally impressive path to the Final, going 15-0-1 in the New York State Amateur Association Football League and winning the Southern New York State Foot Ball Association Cup. The team’s single loss came in the second round of the AFA Cup.
Celtic punched their ticket to the Final with a 6-1 win over Niagara Rangers at Paterson’s Olympic Field, with Irish-born center forward Roddy O’Halloran netting a hat-trick.
Coats Field’s first Open Cup Final was greeted with all the appropriate pomp and pageantry. Newspapers compared the coming spectacle to the World Series, which at the time was the biggest sporting event in the country. The Dewar Trophy, donated by Scottish distilling magnate Sir Thomas Dewar, was on display at the Wright & Ditson sporting goods store in Providence before being shown around town in Pawtucket.
Admission for the 3:30pm contest was set at 25 cents. According to local press reports, 6,000 were in attendance, however the following year’s Spalding Soccer Guide, compiled by U.S.S.F.A. secretary and Spalding employee Thomas Cahill, listed the crowd at 10,000.
Whatever the official number, both the grandstand and bleachers were filled to overflowing, with spectators standing “seven and eight deep” according to The Evening Times of Pawtucket. Some even climbed atop the baseball scoreboard in left field of the multi-use facility for a bird’s-eye view (the photo in the X/Twitter link below, though grainy, gives an idea).
Not surprisingly, the two clubs were bitter rivals. They played an exhibition game at Brooklyn’s Edison Field in March, with Celtic winning 2-0 -- one of the three exhibition losses suffered by the Field Club. So deep was the rivalry that when Celtic Manager Tom McCamphill learned both teams were booked on the same boat to Providence, he changed his team’s plans to travel by rail.
After scoring two goals in the Semifinal in the Field Club’s 2-1 win over New Bedford, Millar was again the star of the Final, although he didn’t get on the score sheet.
Just a few minutes into the contest, Millar sent a ball through to Adamson, who sent it spinning into the net for a 1-0 Field Club lead. Twenty-five minutes later, Neil Clarke pulled down O’Halloran and right wing Tom Campion tied the game via a penalty kick.
Windy conditions made attacking difficult, but with time running short, Millar had two attempts stopped by Celtic goalkeeper Frank Mather. After collecting the rebound from the second attempt, Millar backheeled the ball to Ford, who put it in the net for the winner.
The Cup medal was the first of four for Millar, who also won with Bethlehem Steel in 1915 and 1919 and with the New York Nationals in 1928. He later managed the United States National Team to a third-place finish at the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay and was a member of the first National Soccer Hall of Fame class in 1950.
The Challenge Cup/Open Cup Final shifted to Taylor Field in Bethlehem in 1915 but then returned to Coats Field for three straight years (1916, 1917 and 1918).
After capturing their first title on home turf, Bethlehem Steel won their second straight Open Cup in 1916, defeating the Fall River Rovers 1-0 at Coats Field – although New England fans and supporters came to believe the result was stolen from the Massachusetts side.
With about ten minutes remaining in the game, Rovers left back Charley Burns and Steel forward Neil Clarke went up for a header. The two came down with Clarke landing on Burns. Referee David M. Whyte whistled a foul against Burns and awarded a penalty kick to Bethlehem, much to the protest of the Fall River club, as well as most of the 10,000 fans at Coats Field.
Tommy Fleming converted the penalty to give Bethlehem the advantage.
As Whyte was about to blow his whistle to end the game, a fan ran onto the field and attacked him. A mob then encircled the ref, who was kicked, beaten and badly bruised before being rescued by a police officer with a drawn revolver.
Fall River exacted revenge a year later on the same site, beating Bethlehem Steel 1-0. This time, there was no controversy to speak of as the Fall River side took the lead on a goal by Tommie Swords barely a minute into the game and then managed to stave off a furious attack for 89 minutes.
In 1918, for the third straight year, the Rovers and Steelmen faced one another on familiar turf, that same field on Lansdowne Street in Pawtucket.
The game was another battle royale. Harry Ratican opened the scoring for Bethlehem just moments from the start. Sullivan equalized for the Rovers, but Bethlehem again took the lead on a goal by Whitey Fleming. Sullivan then scored his second goal of the half to tie the game, where it remained through regulation and 30 minutes of extra-time. A replay was scheduled, but not at Coats Field.
Bethlehem Steel won their third title 3-0 at the Federals Ballpark in Harrison, NJ.
It was more than a decade before Coats Field again hosted an Open Cup final game, but in the ensuing years the Pawtucket Rangers built a quasi-Cup dynasty, appearing in four Finals: 1934, 1935, 1941 and 1942.
The Rangers lost to the Stix, Baer & Fuller/St. Louis Breweries team in 1934 and 1935, before notching the first Open Cup win for a Rhode Island team in 1941. The Rangers beat Chrysler Detroit in a two-game total-goals series, winning the first leg at Coats Field 4-2 and the return match at Chrysler Field 4-3.
The Rangers made the Final again the following year. They fell to Gallatin SC 6-3 following losses of 2-1 at Legion Field in Pennsylvania and 4-2 at Coats Field – that Rhode Island ground that remains legendary to this very day despite being banished to the realm of memory.
Charles Cuttone is a writer/author, historian and co-author of Pelé, His North American Years.