April 7 (1929)

Madison Kennels of St. Louis loses 3-0 to the Hakoah All-Stars of New York at Brooklyn’s Dexter Park in the final of the National Challenge Cup (today’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup). Hakoah had beaten Madison, 2-0, at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on March 31. Their win on April 7 clinched the best-of-three series and the national championship for Hakoah. Players for SC Hakoah Wien of Vienna, a team of Jewish players from throughout central Europe, had planted the seeds of the all-Jewish Hakoah All-Stars in New York on a visit a year earlier. Much of Hakoah’s dominance of Madison in the 1929 finals will be attributed to goalkeeper Lajos Fischer. Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame journalist Dent McSkimming is at the game and will write in the April 8 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The Hakoah goalkeeper is marvelously active and there is no limit to his courage when the situation demands a test of nerve.” Fischer rises to the occasion on April 7 to stop a well-paced penalty kick by Eddie Hanson. Some of the estimated crowd of 20,000 (12,600 paid) carry Fischer off the field after the game. Crowd control is an issue throughout the match. Spectators fill the bleachers and stand on the sidelines, often encroaching on the field of play. Egged on by the boisterous crowd, players from both teams engage in physical play and at least one fistfight. Madison’s Ollie Fink and Hakoah’s Siegfried Wortman are ejected after officials and police clear the fight and the fans who had rushed the field. The crowd issue “was in sharp contrast with the manner in which the big crowd [13,937 paid] was handled at Sportman’s Park the previous week,” McSkimming will write. Madison officials refuse to protest the game on April 7, “although they expressed keen disappointment with the playing conditions,” according to McSkimming.