Worcester, Massachusetts and Worcester, England are divided by more than 3,000 miles of ocean. And yet, newly discovered archival records reveal they have a unique historical bond that extends beyond being “sister cities” — and sharing a name that’s often mispronounced.
As relations between the United States and Britain soured after World War I, leaders from both Worcesters devised a way to foster goodwill that few people know about today. Almost 100 years later, that spirit of international cooperation — and “the beautiful game” — is about to be in the Massachusetts spotlight once again.
Local amateur soccer players from the Worcester areas in Massachusetts and England played a series of matches against each other in the 1920s, as unearthed by British sports historian Dilwyn Porter. The soccer tours, as they were called, were celebrated across communities among thousands of fans and stood out for how unusual they were at the time.
“There are no records of other kinds of city-to-city, county-to-county tours taking place” like this, said Porter, who lives in Worcester, England and recently published an essay about the matches for the Society for American Soccer History. Porter said he learned about the soccer games by happenstance while perusing the archives at his local records office.
The first tour was in 1926 when a group of Worcester, Massachusetts players traveled to Worcestershire, the British county with Worcester for its capital. According to a 1926 Boston Globe article, the Massachusetts players consisted of workers at local manufacturing companies like “Draper Mills,” “Whitins’ Machine Works,” and “Bigelow Hartford Carpet Company.”
During their two weeks in Worcestershire, Porter said, the Americans played five matches against British amateur teams. And although the matches weren’t that competitive — the Brits dominated all but one of the games — locals gave the Americans a warm reception.
“When they’re driven to matches, they send a fleet of cars. They plaster [the areas] with posters saying, ‘Welcome to our visitors in Worcester County,’” Porter said. “They do play football, but I think the kind of public relations aspect of it is as important.”
Residents and leaders in Massachusetts were just as hospitable when, the following year, a squad of British players traveled to the United States in a “Bay State invasion.” Porter said the English players even joked they were surprised they were able to play the games after all the food the Americans treated them to.
The Globe called the Brits “a snappy bunch” — though the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean apparently didn’t agree with the team’s manager Percy Harper, who was “sick most of the way across and mighty glad to see land.”
The Americans put up stiffer resistance on the pitch than the year before, so much so the English players ended their trip with a new appreciation for the game in the United States.
“We are going back to England with a wholesome respect for your soccer teams and also with a feel that America has a bunch of real good sports,” Harper told the Globe.
It was the type of positive takeaway organizers of the tours hoped for as U.S.-British relations remained under strain.
After World War I ended in 1918, the countries wrangled over issues like each other’s naval power and how England would pay off war debt owed to the United States.
By then, soccer had become popular in working-class Massachusetts cities like Fall River and Worcester. The Worcesters already had a cordial relationship with each other, not only because the city in Massachusetts is named after the one in England.
Porter said, during the war, Arthur Carlton — the then-mayor of Worcester, England — promoted the idea of towns and cities in England adopting communities in the United States in what later became known as “twinning.” Carlton hoped that, as U.S. troops passed through England on their way to the war’s frontlines, the soldiers would stop in the English cities that had relationships with their American hometowns.
“Particularly, if they were from Worcester, Massachusetts, they would receive a warm welcome in Worcester, England,” Porter said.
After the first two Worcester-to-Worcester soccer tours in 1926 and 1927, a group of American players from Worcester went back to Worcestershire, England in 1929 before British players returned to Massachusetts in 1930. But any future plans to continue the tours were derailed by the Great Depression.
An almost-forgotten rivalry
Today, few people in Worcester, Massachusetts appear to know about the soccer matches. Vanessa Bumpus, director of exhibits at the Museum of Worcester, said she had never heard about them before GBH News contacted her for this story.
“I’m so glad you brought this to our attention,” she said. “It’s proof that we don’t know everything, even as a museum.”
Bumpus said it makes sense the Worcester players worked at local factories because the city was a manufacturing hub at the time, producing everything from textiles to pre-built diners. She plans on combing through Boston Globe newspaper clips to dig up more information about the soccer tours, and even wants to track down local descendants of the Worcester players who traveled to England.
“We’ll put a call out on our social media to see if anyone’s heard this story in their family history,” Bumpus said. “We might be able to make this a bigger story and maybe an exhibit in the future.”
Bumpus and Porter say the Worcester soccer tours are especially meaningful right now as Boston and other U.S. cities prepare to host the FIFA World Cup beginning in June. Boston doesn’t have to look far to find a city with a history of organizing and hosting international soccer matches.
“It kind of helps to underline that notion that soccer is a part of American life, and it goes back some way,” Porter said. “It’s a perfectly American thing to do.”
