Glancing through a Football Echo dated !st May 1937 I found this article, Complaining of rough play ( which with all the pushing and pulling has got worse) and fans complaining of refs causing loss of points.
Thank you, really interesting read, mate. The first paragraph would never be written today in modern journalism, though, far too magnanimous. Shocked me reading it to be honest. Imagine reading genuine observations and opinions. A luxury I'm not sure I've ever had and my kids will surely never have.
We (England) coined the phrase soccer. We all know it derives from the word Association... somehow...
I've got a few newspapers from the 1937 final. The most amusing article in them is about how shocked the southerners were at the fact that none of our fans had any teeth.
I believe, even as recently as the 60s (I wasn't around then but I know some of you were) that some newspapers listed 'Football Results' in the subcategories of "Association", "Rugby (Union)", and "Rugby (League)". Seems its only quite recently that we've forgotten that the two games (and that weird thing the Yanks play while wearing crash hats) have common roots.
It's absolutely true. Soccer is a term invented in Britain. I absolutely love the history of the game and I love talking about it. Around about this time last year, I was in Las Vegas and spent about 15 minutes correcting a bar man who told me that the American game is called football because the ball is a foot long. Obviously it's because it evolved from the game of rugby football introduced to the Ivy League colleges in the late 19th century. Funnily enough, I'm in Vegas again right now. I suppose the obvious question is, why am I messaging you lot when I'm in Vegas. Well, its 2.35 in the morning here and I've just got in. And, of course, it's impossible not to have Sunderland on your mind no matter where you in the world (I've obviously been drinking heavily but I'm pretty sure I'm making more sense than @FellTop after he's been on the malt ).
That's right. The "Soc" in the middle of the word association is where soccer comes from. It was meant to differentiate the game from rugby back in that day.
