Brookhattan
Brookhattan
Football club
Brookhattan was an American soccer club based in New York City that was a member of the professional American Soccer League (ASL) from 1933 to 1962.[1] The name is a blend of the names of Manhattan and Brooklyn where it played.[2] It later changed its name to Brookhattan–Galicia (1948,[3] though informally often Brookhattan thereafter[4]), Galicia (1958[5]), and Galicia–Honduras (1961[5]) after Galicia in Spain and Honduras.[5]
Formed as New York Brookhattan in 1933,[5] it joined the first ASL and was leading the spring 1933 half-season when the league collapsed.[6] It then joined the new ASL as Brookhattan in late 1933.[7][6] In 1942 it won the Lewis Cup,[8] and in 1945 the ASL, National Challenge Cup and Lewis Cup.[9]
In 1947, coffee importer Eugene Diaz, owner of New York Galicia, bought the Brookhattan team, withdrew Galicia from the National Soccer League of New York and transferred its players to Brookhattan.[10][11][12] The merged team, renamed Brookhattan–Galicia, reached the final of the 1948 National Challenge Cup.[3]
During the 1948-49 season, Brookhattan's Pito Villanon led the ASL in scoring.[13] In the 1949-50 season, Joe Gaetjens was the top scorer in the ASL.[14] Pito Villanon led the ASL in scoring in 1952-53 and was also the ASL MVP.[13] Brookhattan finished runner-up in the ASL in 1954.[15]
In 1961 Galicia merged with Honduras, a non-ASL team, to form Galicia–Honduras.[16]
