Bohemian Queens
A short-lived Queens club in the American Soccer League.
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Bohemian Queens, also called Queens Bohemians or New York Bohemians, was a Queens-based American soccer club that played in the American Soccer League. Its roots lay with Irish footballers who moved to New York in the 1920s; several had previously played for Dublin’s Bohemian FC.
This amateur side, known as the New York Bohemians, wore red and black, followed training habits from Ireland, and played in local amateur leagues. A separate but related group, the Bohemian Americans, later emerged and entered the ASL in late 1932. The club’s time in the league was short, a result of the instability gripping American soccer during the Great Depression.
Quick Facts
- Also known as
- Queens Bohemians, New York Bohemians
- Location
- Queens, New York
- League
- American Soccer League
- Colors
- red and black
Facts from the source article.
History
The story of the Bohemian Queens begins with Irish footballers who moved to New York in the 1920s. Several of these men had previously played in Ireland, including for Bohemian FC in Dublin, and they formed an amateur side generally referred to as the New York Bohemians. They wore red and black, trained in familiar routines from home and competed in the city's amateur leagues. Their standard was mixed, but they were reported on regularly and held a steady mid-table presence until the end of the decade.
By the early 1930s, a related identity appeared in Queens under the name Bohemian Americans. This was a separate group, but it drew on the same migrant community and maintained the Bohemian name. In 1932, they featured in a series of high-profile exhibition matches during a period when the American Soccer League was struggling with financial pressure and club withdrawals. In late September and early October 1932, the team prepared to enter a newly announced competition called the National Soccer League.
They played at least two documented matches in this context, including a win over Newark Rangers and a draw with the New York Americans, before the league collapsed after only a handful of games. Later in 1932, the reorganised American Soccer League needed to replace the folded New Bedford Whalers franchise. The slot was taken by a Queens-based side listed as Bohemian Queens, which appears to have been a continuation of the Bohemian Americans identity brought formally into the ASL's autumn schedule.
Their tenure was brief, reflecting the instability of American football during the Great Depression. In early 1933, the ASL split into Metropolitan and New England divisions. The New England clubs soon ceased participating, and fixtures became irregular. Within this fractured landscape, the Bohemian Queens' identity faded quickly.
Contemporary records suggest that the franchise's position was soon taken over by another ethnic club, the Prague Americans of Astoria, signalling the end of the Bohemian name in the league.
More in Diaspora Soccer Clubs in the United States
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Bohemian Queens (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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