I presented to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan on July 9. 2026 about the 1929 Hakoah team which won the US Open Cup.
In April 1929 a team, New York Hakoah won the US Challenge Cup, which was, and still is in its iteration as the US Open Cup, the National Champions of the United States. It is a knockout tournament, and as Open implies, any team that submits its application (and check), can enter to try win it.
New York Hakoah defeated a team from St. Louis in a “best of 3 series” though they only needed two games to claim the trophy. The first match in St. Louis drew a large crowd to St. Louis Cardinals stadium Sportsmen’s Park on April 1 where Hakoah won 2-0 before moving on to Dexter Park here in New York, where a crowd of more than 21,000 (a US Open Cup record number of fans, which stood for over 80 years), saw Hakoah fight off the Mound City men and capture the trophy.