LoI World Cup stars #3- Ed McIlvenny
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In the great festival of deception that masquerades as hard-hitting football coverage in this all-singing, all-dancing age of the Premier League, the World Cup arrives as a tonic of realism, an antidote to the ragtag and bobtail dramas that ‘light up’ our November Tuesdays. It’s a month when headlines mean something, when football stories will actually have permanence and a real shock will be reflected upon for years to come.
The great road show once pulled up in the mountains of Minas Gerais in south-eastern Brazil. The year was 1950 and a band of journey men in the guise of the United States football team pulled off one such shock.
Ed (right) with Billy Wright before the infamous
match in 1950
Joe Gaetjens, the lone scorer for the USA in their first round win over England was, understandably, the man to take the plaudits from a world at the mercy of the odd field report or a ten second account from a hammy wireless wordsmith. The man who led that US team onto the field at the Independencia Stadium in Belo Horizonte was Ed McIlvenny. A Scot who qualified for the States by way of a declaration that he intended to become a citizen, Ed played for the Philadelphia Nationals at the time, later going on to line out for Manchester United before landing in the League of Ireland where he would become player-manager with Waterford FC.
Born in the Scottish town of Greenock in 1924 McIlvenny had played for two seasons with Wrexham in the English Third Division North before moving to America in 1949 to live with his sister in New York. The initial plan was to stay for a holiday but on discovering the eligibility regulations were far from stringent Ed began an American odyssey with the Philadelphia Nationals and within a year he was leading out the United States at the World Cup. It is the rare tale that gives a reality to the American dream.
The day before they sailed to Brazil (that’s right), the US played a warm up game against a select team of English players in New York (and lost 1-0), before which McIlvenny had joined the squad along with Joseph Maca, who was born in Belgium and Gaetjens, who hailed from Haiti.
The lack of full time professionals meant the US only set foot on South American soil a few days before the first game against Spain, such were their job commitments to meat-packing plants, funeral parlours and restaurant kitchens (the latter in the case of Gaetjens).
The squad’s final training sessions before the beginning of the tournament were co-ordinated by McIlvenny (who was the only full time pro in their ranks) and his fellow Scot, coach Bill Jeffrey, a heavy-set, gruff Edinburgher, whose philosophy revolved around the defensive; no doubt in an attempt to keep any onslaught in the finals at bay after a previous warm up game had seen the States trounced 9-0 by Italy.
The Scots managed to put some shape on a team viewed as a “band of no-hopers,” by The Belfast Telegraph at the time and in the opener against the Spanish in Curitiba the US held a clean sheet in a one-nil lead until the 75th minute before an ultimate capitulation that saw them lose 3-1.
Far from humiliated, the US had shown a resolve that was ultimately to be overcome by tired bodies, with all the States players lacking serious match practice as the American Soccer League (ASL) was well out of season.
While his team mates were literally a bunch of amateurs McIlvenny was determined to make some kind of impact on the world stage he had now found himself.
“Ed was a very driven individual, he refused to accept that the stateside team was too inexperienced to make an impression at the World Cup, and his leadership in midfield was exemplary,” US soccer historian Colin Jose would later tell The Times.
Travelling to Brazil the English team, on the other hand, had a raft of celebrated stars in their ranks and an undisputed individual quality with the likes of Alf Ramsey, Stan Mortensen, Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews in their ranks. Going into the tournament they were ranked as 3-1 favourites to win the first finals since the end of World War II. They took the first game, overcoming Chile in a 2-0 win but the victory was hard fought and heading into the game against the US, England’s coach Walter Winterbottom decided to rest his star man; Matthews.
Ed (front row,centre) captains Waterford FC
Photo by Brian Kennedy
Even with the omission of Matthews in mind, Bill Jeffrey was holding out no hope of an upset and whether out of genuine concern or deft underdog positioning declared his team were "sheep ready to be slaughtered."
As if to strengthen the mood of foreboding McIlvenny and his team-mates “came strolling into the dressing rooms in Belo Horizonte, surely the strangest team ever to [be seen] at a World Cup,” The Belfast Telegraph would report. “Some wore Stetsons, some smoked big cigars, and some were still in the happy, early stages of hangovers….”
McIlvenny was given the captains armband for the fact that he was British and Jeffrey thought it would be the ultimate honour for his fellow Scot. After exchanging gifts with the England skipper Billy Wright the game began as it was meant to go on with England completely dominating play, having six clear cut chances in the first 12 minutes, rattling the post twice. Between those posts was a undertaker, Frank Borghi, who Tom Finney later described as being “a Gremlin in the US goal,” such was his inspired form.
In the 37th minute it was Finney himself who gave away the throw-in that was to prove the start of the decisive move in the game. Just inside the English half McIlvenny (as right winger) jogged over to the line, paused for a few moments to way up his options before finding Walter Bahr with the throw. With the English defence standing off, Bahr shot from twenty-five yards. Chest high and bound for the corner of Bert Williams goal Gaetjens launched himself at the ball. His slightest touch deceived Williams with a goal that Finney described in the aftermath as “A complete fluke.”
Holding on to the lead the US came out in the second half with the mostly Brazilian crowd of 10,000 now rooting for them. Borghi in goal was unbeatable and McIlvenny was having the game of his life.
“Ed had incredible talent. He’d intercept passes as though they’d been meant for him, he had such a nose for the ball,” said Bahr of his team mate after the game.
The US of course held on to record one of the first real shocks of the world game. Reuters reports of a 1-0 American win were misprinted right across Britain as 10-0 to England in the assumption that the initial report must have been mistaken. Of the four hundred reporters in Brazil for the tournament only one was an American- the rather brilliantly titled Dent McSkimming, a sportswriter with the St Louis Post-Dispatch. He was there unofficially however, his editors refusing to treat the World Cup as news and so the greatest story in the States football history is largely forgotten about on their own soil.
Both England and the USA were knocked out of the competition after losing their final group games to Spain and Chile respectively but that first round game in Belo Horizonte was the real story that became the benchmark for every other World Cup giant killing.
McIlvenny went on to sign for Man United after the finals appearing in just two games under Matt Busby ( against Fulham and Liverpool ) before signing for Waterford FC in 1951 after being recommended to the club by United’s Johnny Carey.
McIlvenny played his first game in a Waterford strip in a 1-1 draw against St Pats in a season that his new club finished 7th. He went on to captain the Blues on a tour of Iceland in the same year- the first time Waterford FC had ever toured outside the country. That same year McIlvenny was part of the side that won the FAI Shield- beating Transport in a 2 game play-off.
It was to be Waterford’s first piece of silverware since the club had rejoined the League of Ireland (after being forced to leave due to financial problems in 1946). In the 1954/55 season McIlvenny led the side to their highest league position in over 15 years when they finished runners up to St Patricks Athletic and at the end of that season he played for a League of Ireland representative team against the Irish League(NI) in Dublin and against the Hessen League of Germany in Frankfurt.
After four years with Waterford he returned to England to play for Headington United, before retiring to live in Eastbourne in Sussex where he ran a soccer school. He was inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976 and passed away aged just 64 in 1989.
In an interesting footnote to his career McIlvenney’s USA side were the subject of a 2005 film The Game of Their Lives. The real story gets the Hollywood treatment and has been largely fictionalised. McIlvenny’s character is reduced to a bit part played by the ex US and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder John Harkes. Wes Bentley’s depiction of Walter Bahr is preferred as the all American hero who gets to lead the victory parade in Belo Horizonte. Harkes voiced his objections about the modifications in the script, and the role the celluloid McIlvenny assumes.
“I wasn’t given the captain’s armband when we shot the match against England and I asked what on earth was going on, but I was told that this was Hollywood and, basically, they could do what they wanted……it irritates me, but I was honoured to play McIlvenny, because he was their best player and the only professional in the ranks, so I hope that I have done him justice.”
Images courtesy of Brian Kennedy
The great road show once pulled up in the mountains of Minas Gerais in south-eastern Brazil. The year was 1950 and a band of journey men in the guise of the United States football team pulled off one such shock.
Ed (right) with Billy Wright before the infamous
match in 1950
Born in the Scottish town of Greenock in 1924 McIlvenny had played for two seasons with Wrexham in the English Third Division North before moving to America in 1949 to live with his sister in New York. The initial plan was to stay for a holiday but on discovering the eligibility regulations were far from stringent Ed began an American odyssey with the Philadelphia Nationals and within a year he was leading out the United States at the World Cup. It is the rare tale that gives a reality to the American dream.
The day before they sailed to Brazil (that’s right), the US played a warm up game against a select team of English players in New York (and lost 1-0), before which McIlvenny had joined the squad along with Joseph Maca, who was born in Belgium and Gaetjens, who hailed from Haiti.
The lack of full time professionals meant the US only set foot on South American soil a few days before the first game against Spain, such were their job commitments to meat-packing plants, funeral parlours and restaurant kitchens (the latter in the case of Gaetjens).
The squad’s final training sessions before the beginning of the tournament were co-ordinated by McIlvenny (who was the only full time pro in their ranks) and his fellow Scot, coach Bill Jeffrey, a heavy-set, gruff Edinburgher, whose philosophy revolved around the defensive; no doubt in an attempt to keep any onslaught in the finals at bay after a previous warm up game had seen the States trounced 9-0 by Italy.
The Scots managed to put some shape on a team viewed as a “band of no-hopers,” by The Belfast Telegraph at the time and in the opener against the Spanish in Curitiba the US held a clean sheet in a one-nil lead until the 75th minute before an ultimate capitulation that saw them lose 3-1.
Far from humiliated, the US had shown a resolve that was ultimately to be overcome by tired bodies, with all the States players lacking serious match practice as the American Soccer League (ASL) was well out of season.
While his team mates were literally a bunch of amateurs McIlvenny was determined to make some kind of impact on the world stage he had now found himself.
“Ed was a very driven individual, he refused to accept that the stateside team was too inexperienced to make an impression at the World Cup, and his leadership in midfield was exemplary,” US soccer historian Colin Jose would later tell The Times.
Travelling to Brazil the English team, on the other hand, had a raft of celebrated stars in their ranks and an undisputed individual quality with the likes of Alf Ramsey, Stan Mortensen, Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews in their ranks. Going into the tournament they were ranked as 3-1 favourites to win the first finals since the end of World War II. They took the first game, overcoming Chile in a 2-0 win but the victory was hard fought and heading into the game against the US, England’s coach Walter Winterbottom decided to rest his star man; Matthews.
Ed (front row,centre) captains Waterford FC
Photo by Brian Kennedy
As if to strengthen the mood of foreboding McIlvenny and his team-mates “came strolling into the dressing rooms in Belo Horizonte, surely the strangest team ever to [be seen] at a World Cup,” The Belfast Telegraph would report. “Some wore Stetsons, some smoked big cigars, and some were still in the happy, early stages of hangovers….”
McIlvenny was given the captains armband for the fact that he was British and Jeffrey thought it would be the ultimate honour for his fellow Scot. After exchanging gifts with the England skipper Billy Wright the game began as it was meant to go on with England completely dominating play, having six clear cut chances in the first 12 minutes, rattling the post twice. Between those posts was a undertaker, Frank Borghi, who Tom Finney later described as being “a Gremlin in the US goal,” such was his inspired form.
In the 37th minute it was Finney himself who gave away the throw-in that was to prove the start of the decisive move in the game. Just inside the English half McIlvenny (as right winger) jogged over to the line, paused for a few moments to way up his options before finding Walter Bahr with the throw. With the English defence standing off, Bahr shot from twenty-five yards. Chest high and bound for the corner of Bert Williams goal Gaetjens launched himself at the ball. His slightest touch deceived Williams with a goal that Finney described in the aftermath as “A complete fluke.”
Holding on to the lead the US came out in the second half with the mostly Brazilian crowd of 10,000 now rooting for them. Borghi in goal was unbeatable and McIlvenny was having the game of his life.
“Ed had incredible talent. He’d intercept passes as though they’d been meant for him, he had such a nose for the ball,” said Bahr of his team mate after the game.
The US of course held on to record one of the first real shocks of the world game. Reuters reports of a 1-0 American win were misprinted right across Britain as 10-0 to England in the assumption that the initial report must have been mistaken. Of the four hundred reporters in Brazil for the tournament only one was an American- the rather brilliantly titled Dent McSkimming, a sportswriter with the St Louis Post-Dispatch. He was there unofficially however, his editors refusing to treat the World Cup as news and so the greatest story in the States football history is largely forgotten about on their own soil.
Both England and the USA were knocked out of the competition after losing their final group games to Spain and Chile respectively but that first round game in Belo Horizonte was the real story that became the benchmark for every other World Cup giant killing.
McIlvenny went on to sign for Man United after the finals appearing in just two games under Matt Busby ( against Fulham and Liverpool ) before signing for Waterford FC in 1951 after being recommended to the club by United’s Johnny Carey.
McIlvenny played his first game in a Waterford strip in a 1-1 draw against St Pats in a season that his new club finished 7th. He went on to captain the Blues on a tour of Iceland in the same year- the first time Waterford FC had ever toured outside the country. That same year McIlvenny was part of the side that won the FAI Shield- beating Transport in a 2 game play-off.
It was to be Waterford’s first piece of silverware since the club had rejoined the League of Ireland (after being forced to leave due to financial problems in 1946). In the 1954/55 season McIlvenny led the side to their highest league position in over 15 years when they finished runners up to St Patricks Athletic and at the end of that season he played for a League of Ireland representative team against the Irish League(NI) in Dublin and against the Hessen League of Germany in Frankfurt.
After four years with Waterford he returned to England to play for Headington United, before retiring to live in Eastbourne in Sussex where he ran a soccer school. He was inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976 and passed away aged just 64 in 1989.
In an interesting footnote to his career McIlvenney’s USA side were the subject of a 2005 film The Game of Their Lives. The real story gets the Hollywood treatment and has been largely fictionalised. McIlvenny’s character is reduced to a bit part played by the ex US and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder John Harkes. Wes Bentley’s depiction of Walter Bahr is preferred as the all American hero who gets to lead the victory parade in Belo Horizonte. Harkes voiced his objections about the modifications in the script, and the role the celluloid McIlvenny assumes.
“I wasn’t given the captain’s armband when we shot the match against England and I asked what on earth was going on, but I was told that this was Hollywood and, basically, they could do what they wanted……it irritates me, but I was honoured to play McIlvenny, because he was their best player and the only professional in the ranks, so I hope that I have done him justice.”
Images courtesy of Brian Kennedy
