Book Description

Louisiana was one of the first places in the world where soccer was played. Beginning as a game played by a working class immigrant population in the 1850s, soccer has a long and, until now, unappreciated history in Louisiana. The game migrated to the elite athletic clubs of New Orleans and Shreveport during the 1890s. By 1907, New Orleans boasted a professional soccer league that sent several players to the top professional leagues in Europe.Large Hispanic and expat European communities kept the sport alive in Baton Rouge and New Orleans through the 1960s, when the sport became popular at the playground level. The following decades saw explosive growth at the club and high school level, for both boys and girls, coinciding with the rising statewide popularity of the sport. All the while, immigrant communities throughout Louisiana continued their love affair with the beautiful game. Professional soccer returned to Louisiana in the 1990s, reaching Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and New Orleans, just as youth soccer reached its apex. A History of Soccer in Louisiana explores the development of the sport in Louisiana and many of the causes for its decline and growth.Read as Scott Crawford weaves a fascinating story that brings together social, cultural, religious, and economic threads, whilst putting the local game in the context of national and international soccer and history. Players and fans of soccer and those interested in the history of Louisiana should not miss this riveting tale of a sport that predates all other team ball sports in the state.