The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is an American soccer competition open to all United States Soccer Federation affiliated teams, from amateur adult club teams to the professional clubs of Major League Soccer. The following is the history of the U.S. Open Cup tournament.
AFA era
Before the creation of the United States Soccer Federation, soccer in the United States was organized on regional levels, with no governing body overlooking regional soccer leagues. The first non-league organizing body within the United States was the American Football Association (AFA) which was incarnated in 1884. The AFA sought to standardize rules for teams competing in northern New Jersey and southern New York. Within two years, this region began to widen to include teams in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Within a year of its founding, the AFA organized the first non-league cup in U.S. soccer history, known as the American Cup. Clubs from New Jersey and Massachusetts dominated the first twelve years. It would not be until 1897 that a club from outside those two states won the American Cup. Philadelphia Manz brought the title to Pennsylvania for the first time. Due to internal conflicts within the AFA, the cup was suspended in 1899, and it was not resumed until 1906. The conflicts within the AFA led to a movement to create a truly national body to oversee American soccer. Drawing on both its position as the oldest soccer organization and the status of the American Cup, the AFA argued that it should be the nationally recognized body.
In October 1911, a competing body, the American Amateur Football Association (AAFA) was created. The association quickly spread outside of the Northeast and created its own cup in 1912, the American Amateur Football Association Cup. That year, both the AFA and AAFA applied for membership in FIFA, the international governing body for soccer. In 1913, the AAFA gained an edge over the AFA when several AFA organizations moved to the AAFA. On April 5, 1913, the AAFA reorganized as the United States Football Association, presently known as the United States Soccer Federation. FIFA quickly granted a provisional membership and USFA began exerting its influence on the sport. This led to the establishment of the National Challenge Cup that fall. The National Challenge Cup quickly grew to overshadow the American Cup. However, both cups were played simultaneously for the next ten years. Declining respect for the AFA led to the withdrawal of several associations from its cup in 1917. Further competition came in 1924 when USFA created the National Amateur Cup. That spelled the death knell for the American Cup. It played its last season in 1924.
National Challenge Cup era
The competition dates back to 1914, when it was known as the National Challenge Cup. The actual tournament began play following FIFA sanctioning of the American Amateur Football Association (AAFA), which rebranded as United States Football Association (USFA). Following the provisional sanctioning of FIFA in 1913, USFA quickly attempted to earn full sanctioning with the creation of an official national cup competition, which was called the National Challenge Cup, the roots of the modern day Open Cup. In 1914, the USFA overlooked the inaugural National Challenge Cup. In the first final, the Brooklyn Field Club of Brooklyn, New York took on cross-borough rival Brooklyn Celtic. Played at Coates Field in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Field Club defeated Celtic 2–1 thanks to goals from Field Club's Adamson and Ford. In the first ever final, nearly 10,000 fans piled into Coates to watch the match. The winners of the tournament were awarded the Dewar Cup, donated by Sir Thomas Dewar for the promotion of soccer in America in 1912, until it was retired due to poor condition in 1979. It was brought back into use by the United States Adult Soccer Association in 1997, but went back on permanent display at the now closed National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York, and the recent winners of the tournament have been awarded a new, different trophy. Despite this change, the name of each winning club is still added to the base of the original Dewar Cup.
ASL Era
Throughout the latter part of the 1910s, the competition typically saw clubs from New York City or the New England-corridor make it to the finals, in which the clubs played in local regional leagues. However, with the creation of the American Soccer League, the competition became dominated by these ASL clubs, as well as clubs that played in the St. Louis Soccer League (STLSL).