Thomas Cahill (soccer)

Originally favoring running and baseball, he became interested in soccer after witnessing a game involving a team visiting from Toronto.

He traveled to Stockholm in 1912 to attend FIFA's ninth annual congress where he applied for the American Amateur Football Association, to become the U.S. national governing body.

Cahill's efforts were opposed by a representative from the American Football Association, a rival also attempting to become the nationally recognized body.

Cahill ultimately achieved his goal, however, when the United States Football Association was formed on April 5, 1913, at a meeting at the Astor House hotel in New York.

The United States played its first official international match under the auspices of U.S. Soccer on August 20, 1916, against Sweden in Stockholm, which the U.S. won 3–2, with goals from Dick Spalding, Charles Ellis and Harry Cooper.

[12] Disputes with the United States Football Association and the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 led to the league's collapse in spring 1933.