Boston Beacons

One-season NASL team based at Fenway Park.

The Boston Beacons were an American soccer professional team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1968. The team was based in Boston and played their home games at Fenway Park. Originally intended to be a charter member of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967, the team played its first and only season in the 1968 NASL following the merger of the NPSL and rival United Soccer Association.

Quick Facts

Nickname: Beacons
Founded: 1968
Stadium: Fenway Park
Capacity: 33,375
League: NASL
Position: 5th, Atlantic Division

Facts from the source article.

History

Back in 1966, a bunch of business types were kicking around the idea of starting a pro soccer league in the U.S. and Canada. Two of those groups ended up joining forces to create the National Professional Soccer League, or NPSL, and they handed out franchise rights to ten different ownership groups. Boston was picked as a spot for a team at first, but it had to sit out the 1967 season because they couldn’t find a decent stadium. The NPSL then said Boston would join in 1968, with the team owned by retired Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach and Red Sox executive vice president Dick O’Connell.

In April 1967, General Manager Joe McKenney announced that the team would be called the Beacons, a name picked from fan suggestions, and that they’d play their home games at Fenway Park starting in 1968. That June, Jack Mansell was brought on as head coach, quitting his job at Rotherham United to take the gig. To get ready for league play, the club put on an exhibition match in July 1967 between the Baltimore Bays and the Chicago Spurs.

After the NPSL merged with the United Soccer Association, it was decided that Boston would get one of the 20 teams in the new North American Soccer League, or NASL. The Boston Shamrock Rovers, who had been part of the old USA, folded, leaving the Beacons as the only team in the New England area. The Beacons kicked off their season on the road against the Oakland Clippers, losing 2–1 in front of 5,714 fans. The winning goal came from a messy clearance that bounced off a Beacon player and rolled into the net.

On July 8, 1968, they got hammered 7–1 by the Brazilian club Santos FC, which was touring the U.S. for a bunch of exhibition games. Santos legend Pelé scored a goal and set up another in front of 18,431 people, the biggest crowd the Beacons ever drew at Fenway Park. The team finished dead last in the Atlantic Division with a record of 9 wins, 17 losses, and 6 draws, and an average attendance of just 4,004. At an NASL officials meeting on October 24, 1968, GM Joe McKenney said there was a “100 per cent chance” the team would quit the league. Not long after, the Beacons officially folded.