Walter Alfred Bahr was born on April 1, 1927 in Philadelphia. While Philadelphia had already been established as a baseball city and a basketball city, and Pennsylvania had already been established as a football State, he began playing soccer at age 11. A midfielder, he signed with the Philadelphia Nationals of the American Soccer League, and helped them win ASL Championships in 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1953.
Tommy Muirhead, a former player for the Scotland national team and the Boston Wonder Workers, watched him play for the U.S. team at the 1948 Olympics in London, and wrote in the Glasgow Daily Mail, "Bahr is good enough to play for any First Division team in the United Kingdom." By that, he meant Scotland as well as England.
Walter was selected for the U.S. team that went to the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. They opened on June 25, losing 3-1 to Spain in Curitiba, with Gino Pariani scoring the goal. Next up, a match with England, the 1st national team in the world, from the country that, while it didn't invent "football" like it claims it did, did spread it throughout the world.
The date was June 29, 1950. The kickoff was 3:00 PM -- 1:00 PM New York Time. The place was the Estádio Independência in Belo Horizonte. A crowd of 10,151 was announced.
The England team was:
1 Goalkeeper Bert Williams, who had already helped Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers (a.k.a. Wolves) win the 1949 FA Cup, and would win the League with them in 1954.
2 Right back Alf Ramsey of North London team Tottenham Hotspur (a.k.a. Spurs), who would help them win the 1951 Football League title, before going into management and winning the League with Ipswich Town in 1962 and the World Cup with England in 1966.
3 Left back John Aston, who had won the 1948 FA Cup with Manchester United, and would win the League with them in 1952.
4 Center half Billy Wright, only 26 years old, but already Captain of club and country, having led Wolves to the 1949 Cup, and would win the League with them in 1954, 1958 and 1959.
5 Right half Laurie Hughes, who had won the League with Liverpool in 1947, and had just lost the FA Cup Final with them to North London's Arsenal.
6 Left half Jimmy Dickinson, who had led Hampshire team Portsmouth to the 1949 and 1950 League titles.
7 Outside right Tom Finney, who starred for Lancashire team Preston North End, but never won a trophy, leading to the joke that, "Tom Finney should claim income tax relief for his 10 dependents."
8 Inside right Roy Bentley, who had starred for North-East club Newcastle United, and was now with West London team Chelsea, and would help them win their 1st League title in 1955.
9 Center forward Stan Mortensen, of Lancashire club Blackpool, who in 1953 would become the only player ever to score 3 goals in an FA Cup Final.
10 Inside left Wilf Mannion, who starred with North Yorkshire team Middlesbrough, but never won a trophy. And...
11 Outside left Jimmy Mullen, another star of the great 1950s Wolves side.
So this was a pretty good team, although, for most of them, the best was yet to come. Oddly, 3 legendary names were not in the lineup for this match: Stanley Matthews, the sensational right wing known as the Wizard of Dribble, who had starred for Stoke City, and was now a Blackpool teammate of Mortensen, but frequently not selected by manager Walter Winterbottom in favor of a more defense-minded side; Jackie Milburn, the sensational Newcastle United forward, who, to be fair, was another player whose best days were ahead of him, including the 1951, 1952 and 1955 FA Cups, but was again denied due to Winterbottom's defense-first philosophy; and Bill Nicholson, the wing-half who starred with Ramsey for Spurs and would manage them in their greatest period, 1958 to 1974, but was injured and did not appear in the tournament.
England wore blue, instead of their better-known solid-color strip of red. America wore white with a red sash. Ordinarily, U.S. manager William Jeffrey, a Scotsman, selected Walter Bahr as Captain. Given the opposition this time, he selected Ed McIlvenny, another native of Scotland, who could, under the rules of the time, play for America, and, like any good Scotsman, wanted more than anything to beat England. But nobody expected anything other than a solid England victory.
England won the toss, and, in the 1st 12 minutes, England had 6 shots, but 2 were brilliantly stopped by U.S. goalkeeper Frank Borghi, 2 hit the post, 1 just cleared the crossbar, and another just plain missed. The U.S. didn't get a shot on goal until the 25th minute. In a span of 3 minutes thereafter, Mortensen went over the crossbar twice, and Borghi just tipped away a header by Finney.
Then came the 37th minute. Bahr had the ball about 25 yards away, and sent it toward the net. Joe Gaetjens saw it, threw himself forward, and headed the ball past Williams. It was 1-0 to the U.S., and a shocked crowd roared its approval.
Bahr said of the crowd, "The overwhelming majority was Brazilians, but they rooted for us the entire time. We didn't realize why until after. They were hoping we would beat England, and that Brazil would not have to play England in the final game."
(Be careful what you wish for. Under the system in place for this tournament, Brazil did make the Final, were opposed by Uruguay, and only needed a draw to win the tournament. But Uruguay won, providing Brazil with a defeat worse than the Brooklyn Dodgers a year later, the Boston Red Sox in 1986, and the Chicago Cubs in 2003 combined.)
The U.S. had another scoring opportunity in the 54th minute, but couldn't convert. In the 59th, England were awarded a free kick by the referee, an Italian named Generoso Dattilo. Mortensen turned it into a shot, but Borghi saved it. The U.S. got another shot in the 74th minute, but couldn't score. In the 82nd, Charlie Colombo fouled Mortensen at the edge of the penalty area. Despite the English protests, Dattilo ruled that it was outside the era, meaning it was a free kick, not a penalty. Ramsey took it, and Mullen's header was spectacularly saved by Borghi. Again, the England players protested to Dattilo, but were turned away.
In the 85th, the U.S. had a chance to make it 2-0, as Frank Wallace drew Williams out of position and shot, but Ramsey cleared it.
At full-time, it was USA 1-0 England. The biggest upset in the history of soccer. No one could believe it. Legend had it that English newspapers presumed the scoreline was a typing error, and that England must have won 1-0 -- or 10-0. But that turned out to be a myth.
Ironically, the 2 countries involved made the least fuss about it. In England, it was because, on the same day, England had their 1st-ever home defeat in cricket to the West Indies, and that was considered a bigger story.
"It's a funny thing," Bahr said in an interview just before the 2014 World Cup, "but I still remember this: I was happy and enthused and whatever, but I'm not one for big celebrations. I'm sure I shook some hands and got some pats on the back. But I was thinking going to the bus that I didn't know whether to feel happy for us or feel sad for those poor English guys. How are they going to explain a defeat to a 500-to-1 underdog?" (The odds given on the U.S. to win the World Cup as 500-1, England as 3-1.)
Only 1 American journalist covered the World Cup, Dent McSkimming, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He went because several of the players were from St. Louis. But the Post-Dipsatch would cover his expenses. So he took a vacation -- a working vacation, paid for out of his own pocket, and the Post-Dispatch printed his story.
Because he couldn't make a living as a professional soccer player, Bahr was a teacher, at John Paul Jones Junior High School, in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia. How did his students react when he got back? They didn't, because it hadn't been reported. "Nobody knew," he said.
America had professional soccer, it just didn't care, because it was a "foreign" sport, and we had "American" sports to care about.
It would take England a few years to get their act together. They were humiliated by Hungary at Wembley in 1953, and crashed out of the World Cup in 1954, 1958 and 1962, before the reins were handed to Ramsey, and he built the team that won the 1966 World Cup.
The U.S. team did not build on this. They lost their last group stage game to Chile, 5-2 in Recife, with Wallace and Joe Maca scoring. They failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982 and 1986, finally doing so in 1990.
And, even then, they didn't play all that well, reaching the knockout round only in 1994 (on home soil), 2002 (the Quarterfinals), 2010 (including a 1-1 draw with England) and 2014. We didn't qualify for the tournament currently underway.
And so, the 1950 World Cup team remains the standard for the United States men's national team (USMNT):
1 Goalkeeper Frank Borghi, born April 9, 1925 in St. Louis, died February 2, 2015.
2 Right back Harry Keough, born November 15, 1927 in St. Louis, died February 7, 2012.
3 Left back Joe Maca, born September 28, 1920 in Brussels, Belgium, served in the Belgian Army during World War II, came to New York and played for City sides, died July 13, 1982. His son Alain Maca also played for the U.S. team, and in the original North American Soccer League.
4 Right half Ed McIlvenny, born October 21, 1924 in Greenock, Scotland, played for hometown team Greenock Morton and Welsh team Wrexham, before moving to Philadelphia and playing there. Died May 18, 1989.
5 Center half Charlie Colombo, born July 20, 1920 in St. Louis, died May 7, 1986.
6 Left half Walter Bahr, the subject of this post.
7 Outside right Frank "Pee Wee" Wallace, born July 15, 1922 in St. Louis, died November 13, 1979.
8 Inside right Virginio "Gino" Pariani, born February 21, 1928 in St. Louis, died May 9, 2007.
9 Center forward Joe Gaetjens, born March 19, 1924 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, came to New York and played for City team Brookhattan. He would return to Haiti, and was the only member of his family not to flee the island nation after dictator François Duvalier declared himself President For Life. He was captured on July 10, 1964, and was never seen again. His body has never been found.
10 Inside left John Souza, born July 12, 1920 in Fall River, Massachusetts, outside Providence, Rhode Island and infamous as the hometown of 1892 murderess Lizzie Borden, who was still living in town at the time Souza was born. Part of New England's large Portuguese-American community, he starred for Ponta Delgada, a legendary team of the era, based in Fall River. Died March 11, 2012.
11 Outside left Ed Souza, born September 22, 1921 in Fall River. Although he had the same surname and birthplace, and was a Ponta Delgada teammate, he and John were not closely related. Died May 19, 1979.
Manager Bill Jeffrey, born August 3, 1892 in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the time of the 1950 World Cup, he was the head soccer coach at Pennsylvania State University. He purposely set the team up the way he did, because of familiarity: Bahr and McIlvenny knew each other from Philadelphia, Maca and Gaetjens had played together in New York, the Souzas from Fall River, and the 5 St. Louisians knew each other very well. It worked, and Jeffrey was a living legend, until he died on January 7, 1966.
Gathered at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in
Oneonta, New York, in 2004, left to right:
Frank Borghi, John Souza, Walter Bahr and Harry Keough.
This entire team was elected to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976.
*
Overall, Walter Bahr appeared 19 times for the USMNT, scoring 1 goal. One of his games was a rematch with England at Yankee Stadium in 1953. England won 6-3. He turned professional, and helped the Philadelphia Nationals win American Soccer League titles in 1950, 1951, 1953 and 1955. He moved to another Philly team, the Uhrik Truckers, and won another title in 1956, before moving on to Brookhattan.
But in America, professional soccer didn't pay much, so he taught high school. In 1970, he was named head coach at Philly's Temple University. In 1974, he became one of Jeffrey's successors as head coach at Penn State. In 1979, he led the Nittany Lions to the NCAA Semifinal, and was named national Coach of the Year. He remained in charge until 1988.
"The odd thing is, I would guess, in the first 25 years after 1950, I didn't get two requests for an interview," he said. "But as the World Cup grew in stature, each year, I would get more and more calls."
Chris Bahr scored 11 goals for the Atoms in 1975, including a sudden-death winner against the New York Cosmos at Veterans Stadium. He was named NASL Rookie of the Year. He played for the U.S. team at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. And Matt Bahr played in the NASL for the Colorado Caribous.
But Chris and Matt Bahr would become better known as NFL placekickers. Matt was the kicker for the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XIV in 1980. (Roy Gerela was the kicker on their 1st 3 title teams.) A year later, Chris was the kicker for the Oakland Raiders when they won Super Bowl XV, and was still their kicker when, as the Los Angeles Raiders, they won Super Bowl XVIII. With the Raiders, he wore his father's Number 6.
In 1991, Matt's 5 field goals were all the scoring the New York Giants got, but it was enough, as they beat the San Francisco 49ers to reach Super Bowl XXV, and a 4th quarter field goal was decisive in Big Blue's win over the Buffalo Bills.
Walter Bahr lived long enough to see books and movies made about the 1950 win, to see the U.S. be awarded 2 World Cups and play in 7 more, to see the NASL established and folded, to see Major League Soccer established, to see MLS' Philadelphia Union established in his original hometown, to see the U.S. win 3 Women's World Cups, and to see America embrace soccer, at home and abroad, in ways that had been predicted for decades.
Walter Bahr with another native of the Philadelphia area,
Delran, New Jersey's Carli Lloyd,
at the Empire State Building in New York, 2015.
But he broke his hip earlier this year, and died on June 18, 2018, at his home in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, not far from the Penn State campus. He was 91 years old.
His death came just 59 days after that of Roy Bentley, the last surviving England player from the legendary 1950 match. For both America and England, the book on that epic game is now closed. But it will be read forever.
UPDATE: Walter Bahr's final resting place is not publicly known.
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