In 1925, Andover sat at the top of American soccer.
That’s the year that the Shawsheen Indians, also known as the Shawsheen Football Club, won the National Challenge Cup, a tournament featuring professional teams from across the country. It was a victory that let them lay legitimate claim to the title of national champions.
But until recently, it was a part of town history that was mostly forgotten to time.
“If you asked the people in Andover ... whether they knew that in 1925, the Shawsheen Football Club won the National Challenge Cup and was the best soccer team in the country in that year, I think 95% of people would say, ‘I had no idea,’” said Austin Simko, deputy town manager for Andover.
On Sunday, the town will be celebrating the centennial of the club’s historic win — a club that, as Simko put it, was like a “shooting star” — reaching incredible heights and then falling off the map soon after.
To understand the short but stellar history of the club, you must first know the man who created the village they represented. The history of Andover would likely look very different if not for William Wood.
Born in 1854 on Martha’s Vineyard, Wood grew up without having much. He would eventually climb the ranks of industry to lead the American Woolen Company. It was a textile juggernaut that would go on to own what was considered the largest woolen manufacturer in the world at the time, the Wood Mill in Lawrence. It’s also the company whose workers rose up for better working conditions in the famous “Bread and Roses Strike” of 1912.
Textiles were his business, but Wood’s true passion may have been transforming an area once known as Frye Village.
As early as 1906, Wood began buying up property in the area that would one day become his grand vision: a community where his middle and upper management could live, in what would become known as Shawsheen Village.
“So, building starts in 1919, continues through to 1924, 1925 and it’s probably the largest building project Andover has ever seen,” said Angela McBrien, collections manager at the Andover Center for History and Culture. “It involves the construction of around 200 homes. We’ve got office buildings going up, we’ve got community buildings. He builds a mill.”
One of the amenities was a new soccer field, the Balmoral Athletic Field. It was the work of Wood’s private secretary George M. Wallace, who was Scottish and had a background in soccer, and the field was notable for its facilities.
But Wallace did more than just make a shiny new pitch. Alan Foulds, author of “Boston’s Ballparks and Arenas,” said that Wallace took over an existing amateur soccer club and transformed it, with some help from his homeland.
“Wallace also hired, I think it was, six players from Scotland to come over and play for the team,” he said. “So, six out of the eleven were ringers, so to speak.”
Angela McBrien put it even more bluntly.
“They’re supposed to be mill workers, but everybody knows that they’re there because of their soccer skills,” she said.
Soon the club was going well beyond its humble roots. In 1925, the team entered the National Challenge Cup, now known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. It’s a competition that dates back to 1914 where both amateur and professional clubs vie for a national crown.
That year, there were some notable teams who didn’t compete because of a money dispute. Still, Shawsheen ran the gauntlet, winning the final match against the Canadian Club of Chicago, 3-0.
“Most people felt they pulled back after scoring the third goal,” Wallace said. “And they got invited to join the major league, the [American Soccer League]. And in 1926, they started off fairly well, winning 10 of the first 15 games. But then they went into a tailspin, never recovered.”
That downward spiral matched the personal life of William Wood. One of his four children died during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Another was killed in an auto accident in 1922. In 1924, he ran into health problems and would leave his post as president of the American Woolen Company. He took his own life in 1926.
Without its creator, Shawsheen Village would soon lose its original vision. McBrien said the management of the American Woolen Company moved its employees back to Boston.
“And a lot of the things that had been set up in Shawsheen Village, like the soccer team, they just disappeared,” she said.
Balmoral Field got sold. Player salaries were slashed. George Wallace, the team’s leader, was fired.
“And suddenly after 28 games, about half the season, the team was gone,” Foulds said. “They did not even finish the season.”
Shawsheen FC’s sudden rise and fall prevented it from getting the historical recognition it might deserve, but its legacy lives on. The field it played on still exists today, and that’s where the town will host a centennial celebration of the team on Sunday.
Simko, the deputy town manager, admits that it helps that the 100-year anniversary comes not long before the region gets ready to host matches for the 2026 World Cup at Gillette Stadium, giving soccer a huge platform.
But more than that, there’s pride in being able to say that Andover hosted a national champion.
“And I think there’s a pride that comes with realizing it was all about partnership and different stakeholders collaborating,” Simko said. “You had a company, you had Scottish immigrants, you had soccer enthusiasts, you had a community. And this story was only possible because all of those parts came together.”
