April 7, 1967 – Birth of the Boston Beacons

Boston ’s entry in the National Professional Soccer League (which became the North American Soccer League) to be called the Boston Beacons … “after consideration of thousands of suggestions from area sports fans.”

Beacons’ investors included the Boston Celtics’ Red Auerbach and Red Sox executive vice president Dick O’Connell, and the team was planning ahead for the 1968 season. The Beacons opened play March 31, 1968, competing for one season at Fenway Park. Attendances averaged 4,004 for 16 matches, and the Beacons folded after one season. But the Beacons showed soccer could be an attraction as an 18,431 crowd arrived for a match against Pelé’s Santos FC on July 9, 1968. (Santos won, 7-1). Then, as now, the Beacons and Santos showed that interest in soccer is directly related to the quality of play.

The pictured program promotes one of two 1967 NPSL exhibition games at Fenway Park, neither involving the Beacons, who had yet to be formed. The Beacons did have a coach, though, and Jack Mansell (who went on to coach Reading, Galatasaray, Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Bahrain and Israel national teams) is pictured on the cover. There is also an early coinage of the phrase “Major League Soccer.”

TODAY IN NEW ENGLAND SOCCER HISTORY