West Ham United played on American soil for the first time in the Club’s history on 30 May 1963.
The venue was historic Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City's East River, the competition was the International Soccer League and the opposition was Scottish side Kilmarnock.
The stadium had been opened in 1936 as Randall’s Island Stadium, before changing names to Triborough Stadium in 1948 and again to Downing Stadium in 1955 in honour of John J. Downing, a director at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Through its 27-year existence up to West Ham’s visit, the ground had played host to Jesse Owens at the 1936 US Olympic trials ahead of the track and field athlete’s famous four gold medal performance at the Summer Games in Berlin, and was also the venue for the first televised American football game between Fordham Rams and Waynesburg Yellow Jackets in 1939.
That game was broadcast live by NBC, who will also broadcast this summer’s Premier League Summer Series, in which West Ham will take on Manchester United in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Everton in Chicago, Illinois, and AFC Bournemouth in Atlanta, Georgia.
Back to 1963, then, and Ron Greenwood’s Hammers had finished the 1962/63 First Division season in a respectable 12th place, helped by the goalscoring of forwards Johnny Byrne, Geoff Hurst and Tony Scott and wingers Malcolm Musgrove, Peter Brabrook and Alan Sealey, the leadership of captain Bobby Moore and the emergence of a teenager named Martin Peters.
Hurst, Sealey, Brabrook and Ronnie Boyce all found the net in a final-day 6-1 win over Manchester City at the Boleyn Ground that sent Greenwood and his squad across the Atlantic Ocean in high spirits.
Created in 1960 by former Philadelphia Phillies baseball club owner Bill Cox, the International Soccer League (ISL) was intended to enthuse American fans and first-generation immigrant communities in US cities including New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Los Angeles by importing teams from overseas to play in a summer tournament. The first ISL was won by Bangu of Brazil, the 1961 event was won by Dukla Prague of Czechoslovakia, and the 1962 title by America (RJ) of Brazil.
The fourth edition in 1963 featured 14 teams from Europe, Central and South America split into two groups of seven - West Ham, Kilmarnock, AC Mantova (Italy), Sport Recife (Brazil), Preussen Munster (West Germany), Club Deportivo Oro (Mexico) and Valenciennes (France) in Section I, which was played in May and June, then Górnik Zabrze (Poland), Dinamo Zagreb (Yugoslavia), Wiener AC (Austria), Újpesti Dózsa (Hungary), Belenenses (Portugal), Real Valladolid (Spain) and Helsingborgs (Sweden) in Section II, which was played in July.
Teams faced the six others in their group, with the two table toppers to meet in a two-legged final at the Polo Grounds in New York City in early August.
As mentioned, West Ham kicked-off their challenge against Kilmarnock, who had finished as runners-up in 1960 and also featured in 1961. Domestically, Kilmarnock were enjoying the best period in their history, having finished as runners-up in the Scottish Football League in 1959/60, 1960/61 and 1962/63, and would win the title for the first time in 1964/65.
For ISL creator Cox, the game between two of Britain’s most entertaining sides was a perfect advert for European soccer, with Kilmarnock taking the lead three times and West Ham - who were without Moore and Hurst due to England international duty - came back three times to level.
Winger Ernie Yard put the Scots in front on 23 minutes before Brabrook equalised three minutes before half-time.
Bertie Black made it 2-1 to Kilmarnock on 48 minutes and it stayed that way until the final nine minutes. Hurst levelled at 2-2, full-back Jim Richmond made it 3-2 to Killie on 84, then 19-year-old Peters scrambled home with three minutes remaining to complete the scoring.
Downing Stadium remained in place until 2002 and played host to a number of high-profile sporting events, including England's 10-0 win over the United States in 1964, Pelé's North American Soccer League (NASL) debut for New York Cosmos in 1975 and concerts by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam. The site is now home to Icahn Stadium, which is predominantly used for track and field meets.
Keep an eye on whufc.com over the coming weeks to discover how West Ham fared on their first-ever foray into American soccer in the summer of 1963.
