Note: Due to the use of term association football during the late 19th century and the subsequent rise of the term soccer to refer to the same game thereafter, I use the terms football and soccer interchangeably within this article.
Additionally, this is not a definitive biography of Dennis Shay. As more and more sources from the late 19th century are digitized and available online, a greater overall understanding of his career, and that of his peers, will certainly emerge.
America's First Famous Goalkeeper
The lineage of American goalkeepers is a storied one. From
Olaff to Borghi, Keller to Howard, the list of prolific American goalkeepers
who have made their mark on the history of the game is a lengthy one. The
goalkeeper position is truly the only position that America produces
consistently that draws unquestionable respect and recognition internationally.
As the U.S. Men’s National Team attempt to qualify for the
2018 World Cup, fans continue to speculate who will succeed Tim Howard and
become the next great American goalkeeper. While fans debate and a number of
keepers vie for the chance to become the next great American between the posts,
it is worth looking back at a forgotten goalkeeper who may be considered the
patriarch of America’s distinguished goalkeeping lineage, Dennis “Denny” Shay.
Beginnings
 |
| Source: The National Police Gazette, 11-10-1894 |
Much like his noteworthy but overlooked footballing career,
nearly all information relating to Dennis Shay’s early life is lost to history
and forgotten. Even the date of his birth is not truly known, though the 1940
U.S. Census denotes Shay’s birth year as “around 1870.” Whether in 1869 or
1870, Dennis Shay was born in Hancock, Michigan to John Henry Shay and Mary Sullivan,
Irish immigrants who would soon settle the family in Bristol County, Massachusetts.
The family left the Upper Peninsula likely looking for greater economic fortune
in the booming textile industry in towns like Fall River and New Bedford. The
move eventually proved fortuitous for Dennis, as it was the family’s relocation
to Massachusetts that exposed him to the game at a young age and provided him
with an avenue to play the game at its highest level in the country.
During the 1880s, when Denny was developing an affinity and
knack for the game, the game grew in popularity throughout the Northeast. Mill
towns throughout Massachusetts, burgeoning with British, Irish, and Scottish
immigrants, spearheaded the growth in the game’s popularity. Citizens of these
mill towns formed clubs at an incredible rate during the 1880s, Fall River alone
housed over twelve clubs in 1886. To govern the growing multitude of clubs and
leagues popping up across the Northeast, a group of British expatriates founded
the American Football Association in 1884 and established the American Cup, the
first national soccer championship in the United States, the following year. It
was within this atmosphere that Shay found himself exposed to the game.
Shay likely began playing the game with other children on
the streets of Bristol County. By his teenage years, Shay’s talents proved
worthy enough for a spot on the Oak Grove Rangers. The Rangers, described in
1894 by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle as
“a sort of kindergarten club for the association clubs”, competed in a junior
league, or second class league, a level below the Bristol County Football
Association, which housed Fall River clubs, the East Ends, Rovers, and
Olympics, among others clubs from towns throughout Bristol County,
Massachusetts. Statistics for the junior league are near nonexistent, however, Shay’s
ability in goal must have been apparent to all of the senior league clubs because
by the time he turned eighteen he was playing with arguably the best team in
the county, the Fall River Rovers.
The Rise of the
Rovers
 |
| Source: The Boston Globe, 4-21-1889 |
Shay’s career cannot be discussed without mention of the
Rovers. Without the Fall River club, Shay may never have achieved on-field
success and become the first great American goalkeeper. By the time Shay suited
up for the club in late 1887, or early 1888, the Rovers were American Cup
Champions and considered one of the best teams in the country.
Isaac Buckley, Thomas Buckley, Thomas Burke, and James Marsh
founded the Rovers in February 1884. The men named the club the Chance Street
Rovers after English club Blackburn Rovers with the intention of defeating Fall
River’s best club, the East Ends. It did not take long for the newly formed
Rovers to overcome the East Ends and rise to prominence within the city, as the
club finished the 1884-85 season, their first in the Fall River Football
Association, as one of the best in Fall River. Prior to the start of the
1885-86 season, The Fall River Football Association became the Bristol County
Football Association (BCFA). The name of the league meant little to the rising
juggernaut Rovers as the club became a force regionally, earning enough money
to build their own ground by the fall of 1887.
When the Rovers opened their ground on September 5, 1887,
they were known as the Fall River Rovers, no doubt due to the club’s rising
status regionally – Chance Street likely not carrying as much weight in towns
across the region. Although the club was becoming one of the best in the area,
winning the Bristol County Cup in 1885 and 1886, the club had yet to attain the
status of the elite by capturing the American Cup. The 3-time American Cup
champion, Clark Our New Thread (ONT) team was the true measuring stick of
greatness during this time and all league titles paled in comparison to the
nascent “national” American Cup title.
The Rovers were intent on becoming one of the country’s elite
clubs, but first the club had to ready their home ground for the 1887-1888
campaign. Had it not been for the help of the club’s players the Rovers opening
day game may not have happened on their new field. The Fall River Herald News summed up the club’s ground construction situation
perfectly, “It was a big job to get the field in condition for the opening and
despite the fact that many players worked many weeks in their spare time on the
grounds, they were on the job from 5 a.m. until close to game time on opening
day.”
Despite the troubles in readying the club’s grounds for the
opening game of the season, the Rovers truly became one of the country’s premier
clubs during the 1887-88 campaign. The club continued to show well in BCFA play,
but the club, eying a bigger prize, opted to enter the American Cup - 1888
being the first year that New England teams entered the tournament - with the
intention of becoming the best club in the country.
In the first round of the tournament, the Rovers met their cross-town
nemesis, the East Ends. The Rovers, nearing the apex of their strength as a
club, dispatched their rivals easily by a score of 3-1. The Rovers repeated the
feat in the second round, soundly defeating the Pawtucket Free Wanderers 3-0.
Despite throwing Jack Mullen, a new goalkeeper, between the posts, the Fall
River club continued its dominance in the semifinals. The Rovers trounced the
visiting Kearny Rangers 6-1 in front of several thousand of their home fans.
The victory left supporters of the Rovers, “confident that it [the Rovers] will
win the championship and the cup. Consequently, there is great rejoicing among
local football enthusiasts.”
Riding a string of blowout victories in the tournament, the
Rovers entered the American Cup Final against Newark Almas with Mullen still in
goal. The game took place on the grounds of Clark ONT in New Jersey on April
14, 1888. Taking place in NJ, the game appeared to be a home game for Almas,
but, to the Rovers, the venue was irrelevant. The outcome of the game mirrored
the results of the tournament’s previous rounds and ended with a Rovers 5-1
blowout victory over Almas.
With the help of the telegraph, news of the victory spread
quickly. The citizens of Fall River were ecstatic with the result. Some people called
the day the Rovers won the title “the greatest day in the annals of football in
Fall River.” Praise for the Rovers victory did not end there as the city hung
two banners, one stating “Welcome home, champions of America.” In addition to the
banners and a planned procession through the town, the city also held a dinner
and concert in honor of the American Cup champions. The Fall River Daily Herald summed up the city’s excitement for the
occasion best, “They have crowned themselves with glory in winning the
championship of America, and well deserve the reception and illumination.” The
club had attained the status of the elite. The signing of Shay signaled the
club was intent on maintaining their class distinction for many years to come.
Shay Joins the Rovers,
Becomes Champion
 |
| Source: The Fall River Daily Herald, 4-16-1888 |
It was during this period, following the quick ascension of
the Rovers as the country’s best, that Shay became a fixture at the club. At
just eighteen years old, Shay entered the first team of the Rovers. The young
Oak Grove product did not immediately supplant Mullen in goal, but Shay did
find first team minutes almost immediately after joining the club when he
played center forward for the Rovers in an exhibition game against Boston
Rovers just a few weeks before the Fall River club won the title. Ultimately, Shay’s
days at forward did not last; he was starting between the posts by the start of
the fall of 1888. Once firmly entrenched in the starting eleven, Shay did not
look back. He became a permanent fixture between the posts for the Rovers for
the next three years and cemented his reputation as one of, if not the best,
goalkeeper in the nation by the time he left the club.
Though still holding the BCFA league in high esteem, the
Rovers, with Shay in goal, entered the 1888-89 season intent on repeating as
national champions. In addition to Shay, the club brought in two players from
Almas, Bernard “Barney” Fagan – Scottish Cup winner with Hibernian F.C. in
1886-87 - and Frank Cornell, to bolster the already strong side. The club, as
it had for the past few years, continued to show well in the local league, but
truly shined on the national stage with this influx of talent, easily
maintaining their status as the country’s premier club.
With Shay between the posts and the twenty-one-year-old
veteran Fagan assuming the role of club captain, the Fall River Rovers made
easy work of their opponents in the first two rounds of the 1888-89 edition of
the American Cup. The club faced off against the Rhode Island champion
Pawtucket Free Wanderers in the tournament’s third round. The match proved to
be quite the affair.
Shay and the Rovers journeyed to Pawtucket for the match.
Throngs of people attempted to attend the highly anticipated matchup. According
to The Fall River Daily Herald, “so dense was
the gathering that tickets could not be supplied to those who wished to gain
admittance before the game began, and the result was that the cheering of those
inside the grounds so inspired those outside that they broke in the large
double gate and went rushing into the ground without paying an entrance fee.” The
Rovers routinely drew in fans by the thousands throughout this period no matter
the competition.
Despite being defending champions, the Rovers were seen as
the underdog due to the Rovers player’s stature, Shay stood only 5’ 8 1/2'’. In
spite of their lot as underdogs, the Fall River club quickly proved they were
the superior team. Just minutes after kickoff the Rovers proved their mettle
with one reporter remarking, “it would need no experienced eye to see that they
[Rovers] were the superior team…. what they lacked in weight, they made up with
in science.”
Using their superior tactics, the Rovers narrowly defeated the
Rhode Island champions, 2-1, though the game was never in much doubt. The
Rovers scored the first goal of the game just minutes after the opening whistle
and the Fall River club never looked like losing, heading into halftime up 2-0.
The Wanderers were able to score in the second period, but it was for naught as
they conceded their first game at home to the defending champion Rovers.
The rest of the American Cup tournament went smoothly for
the Rovers. Their opponents in the semi-final, the 3-time American Cup
champions, Clark ONT, were embarrassed by the Rovers in front of 3,000 fans in
Fall River, 7-0. The result showed the superiority of the Rovers and gave the
fans and media every reason to believe that the Fall River club would repeat as
champions. In order to win the title, the Rover’s opponents, Newark
Caledonians, had to “play the strongest game of their lives.”
The Caledonians did not play the game of their lives. In
fact, the Final, once again held on the Clark ONT grounds in New Jersey, proved
to be another easy game for the best club in the country, the Rovers. On April
13, 1889, the Rovers easily won the 1888-89 American Cup Final 4-0. The result
was another clean sheet for Shay and a second American Cup title for the
Rovers. Over the course of the Rovers five games in the tournament, Shay only
conceded one goal, and the club held a goal differential of 24 to 1.
 |
| Source: The Fall River Daily Herald, 4-15-1889 |
Fall River once again feted the national champions,
welcoming the team home with fireworks and a brass band. The Rovers were repeat
champions and unquestionably the best team in the country.
Following their victory in the 1888-89 American Cup, the
Fall River Rovers, with Shay between the posts, continued to prove that they
were America’s elite, taking on clubs from across New England and the East
Coast. The club continued to be a huge draw as well, with over 2,500 fans
showing up to the Rover’s home ground to see the champions take on a New Jersey
All-Star team a little over a week after the American Cup Final. The Rovers
distinguished play proved to be must see to everyone, including women, as The Fall River Daily Herald noted, “the female
admirers of the exhilarating game formed a good part of the large crowd of
spectators, and were the most enthusiastic at that.”
Shortly after the American Cup victory, the Rovers were
rumored to be making plans to sail to England to take on Aston Villa, Preston
North End, and other English clubs. The England tour never quite got off the
ground, but the Rovers were unquestionably the best team in the country and
their young goalkeeper, Dennis Shay, was quickly cementing his place as the
first great American goalkeeper.
Shay in Britain
Shay continued to man the goal, with cameos as an outfield
player, for the Rovers until the summer of 1891. By that time, Shay had
established himself as one of the best, if not the best goalkeeper in the
country, and his ability caught the eye of individuals associated with a
planned Canadian soccer tour of the British Isles. Initially, the tour was
intended to mimic an 1888 tour and be made up entirely of Canadian players from
the Western Football Association, but complications arose with the tour’s plans
and the tour’s management invited Shay and several other American players to
participate in the tour.
The tour ran from August 1891 to January 1892. The joint
Canadian-American team competed in 58
games in just 135 days. Shay appeared in
goal for 47 of those 58 games, playing in games against some of the best teams
in England in Burnley and Preston North End.
Although the tour is not looked at as a success historically
– the Canadian-American team lost 30 of the 58 games - the tour was a positive
experience for many of the players, including Shay. In fact, Shay’s ability in
goal throughout the tour elicited praise from English newspapers despite the
Canadian-American’s collective on-field performances. Shay’s play even saw him
carried off the field after one match and merited the American goalkeeper
several offers from English clubs. Shay, who said “he could have held his own
against the goalies of Great Britain,” ultimately turned down the offers, and
the chance to become the first non-British player to play in England’s Football
League, – that honor belongs to his Canadian teammate Walter Bowman – and returned
to Fall River.
Once back in the United States, Shay suited up for a team in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island before returning to the Rovers in 1893, the same year
that he married his wife, Catherine Neary.
By that time, with the numerous championship medals he had earned and the
British tour under his belt, Shay was widely considered the best in America at
the goalkeeper position. When it came to soccer, newspapers across the
Northeast, then the nexus of the American soccer world, were espousing praise
of Shay’s exploits and proclaiming the young goalkeeper the best in the country
at his position. Soon Shay would be one of the game’s greatest professionals,
even if only for a very brief time.
Shay, the
Professional
 |
| Source: The Brooklyn Eagle, 10-15-1894 |
Soccer, like nearly all sports in America, was still an amateur
affair in the early 1890s. Baseball provided America with the only professional
sport in the country and dominated the summer months, but it wouldn’t be the
only sport played professionally for long after the growing popularity of
soccer, played during the winter months, caught the eye of baseball’s most
entrepreneurial owners.
Several baseball magnates saw the game as the perfect sport
to fill their stadiums during baseball’s offseason. The way the baseball owners
intended to do this was to make soccer a professional sport under their
auspices, which is exactly what six National League owners did during the
summer of 1894 when they created America’s first professional soccer league,
The American League of Professional Football (ALPF).
As early as February 1894, the owners of the Baltimore,
Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. baseball club’s began
entertaining the idea of a creating a professional soccer league. By the
summer, plans for the ALPF were starting to fall into place, and the owners
formally created the league on August 14, 1894.
The league was doomed from the onset, as the owners failed
to set a concrete schedule and sought to include their baseball players and
managers in the teams. Ultimately, the scheme was little more than an attempt
by the owners to maintain a stranglehold on the professional sports landscape
and little effort was made to ensure the success of the professional league. In
a mere six weeks, the ALPF ceased to exist, but that small window afforded many
people in cities across the East Coast the chance to read about and see the
greatest goalkeeper in the country.
Shay was highly respected by the time the National League
owners created the ALPF. The former Fall River Rovers goalkeeper was referred
to as the “best goal tender in the country” in more than one publication prior
to the cessation of the league. Shay’s ability and knowledge of the game were
so highly respected that the owner of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms Baseball Club,
Charles Byrne, made Shay the player/manager of the Brooklyn Football Club -
Shay was the only American with a background in the sport to be made manager
of any of the ALPF clubs.
 |
| Source: The Brooklyn Eagle, 10-7-1894 |
Once signed by Byrne, Shay set about signing the best
players from Fall River, including several men from the Rovers, namely Bernard
Fagan. The Brooklyn side became a de facto Fall River team playing in the ALPF
– several other players from the Spindle City latched on to the Boston club as
well. Shay’s signings, coupled with his play in goal, earned the Brooklyn club
the most wins in the doomed league with five. The club experienced a single
loss, the league opener to Boston, during the six weeks that the ALPF existed.
That loss gave the Baltimore team, a side made up of a number of British
professionals who were a perfect 4-0 in ALPF play, reason enough to declare
themselves champions of the ALPF. Shay and his men did not take kindly to
Baltimore’s claims, and the Brooklyn club challenged the Charm City eleven to a
six-game series to decide the true champions of the league and country. With
Shay in goal, the Brooklyn men proved their superiority before the series
dissolved as brusquely as the ALPF. It proved to be the swansong for Shay’s
goalkeeping career.
Retirement from
Football
Following the demise of the ALPF, Shay abruptly retired from
playing soccer at the age of twenty-four. Although the reasons for his
retirement are unknown, his place as the first great American goalkeeper is
certainly up for debate. The former Fall River Rovers man had accumulated a
litany of awards and trophies by the time he signed with Brooklyn of the ALPF.
According to The Brooklyn Eagle, who
proclaimed Shay the best goalkeeper in the country, Shay had won eleven medals
by the time he joined Brooklyn. That is an impressive haul for a man who played
the game at its highest level for only six years. The fact that he was
entrusted to run a professional club at such a young age undoubtedly shows that
Shay was a well-respected figure within the game.
After his retirement, Shay became involved in the liquor
business, a career he would be involved in for the rest of his life. By 1896,
Shay operated a saloon in Fall River with his brother, Timothy, called Shay
Brothers. The bar remained in operation
for a number of years, though it not clear how long Dennis was involved in the
venture. That same year, Shay’s exploits as a goalkeeper made the news again,
though it was not on the soccer field, rather Shay had taken up roller polo
(roller hockey) and was minding the net for an amateur side in Fall River. He
was said to be “showing up strongly.” Though retired from soccer, Shay, already
the best soccer goalie in America, obviously still had the itch to compete.
Eventually, Shay settled with his wife in New Bedford,
Massachusetts. He appears to never have played a prominent role on the soccer
field ever again, though he continued to be involved in sports. In 1906, he and
two other men purchased the New Bedford Whalers Baseball Club of the minor league
New England League. Shay’s involvement with the baseball club lasted just two
years. From that point on, Shay does not appear to have figured prominently
within sports in any aspect and spent the remainder of his life in New Bedford.
He died in 1950. His exploits during his brief soccer career were so great that
they were worthy of a mention in his obituary in The New York Times.
Fall River would continue to produce soccer players and
clubs of renowned quality throughout the early half of the 20th
century. Many of the feats accomplished by the Rovers and Marksmen came to
overshadow those of Shay and the original Fall River Rovers, but that does not
mean that the first prominent American goalkeeper feats, and those of his club
teams, are insignificant. The truth is quite the opposite.
Even without any statistics, Shay’s feats as a goalkeeper
were remarkable for the era he played in. After playing just six years at the
highest level, Shay had accrued enough medals and plaudits to be considered by
many at the time to be the greatest goalkeeper in the country. Regardless of
the feats of other goalkeepers of the period, Shay’s fame alone, undoubtedly
bolstered by his performances in Britain, cements him as the first great
American goalkeeper and the patriarch of the celebrated American goalkeeping lineage.
In a period dominated by baseball, Shay was able to garner enough attention
outside of Fall River to be considered the best in the nation, and the fact
that he did it in six years gives further credence to his ability in goal. The
mention of his feats at the time of his death, over sixty years after Shay made
headlines playing the game, only goes to prove that Shay, though forgotten by
modern soccer fans, was indeed the first truly exception American goalkeeper.
The next time you see Tim Howard play, or reminisce on the
career of Kasey Keller, remember that Dennis Shay was the first significant
goalkeeper in American soccer history and the first goalkeeper to test himself
in the nation of the game’s birth.
Sources:
In writing this article, I relied on a number of primary and secondary sources and help from others. I could not have written this article without the help of Brian Bunk, the creator of the Soccer History USA Podcast, who was very generous with his time and aiding in tracking down several period newspaper articles. Ed Farnsworth, Chris Goodwin, and the reference librarians at The Fall River Public Library were also a huge help in giving their time and sharing source material. With the help of those stated above, I consulted the following sources: The Baltimore Sun, The Brooklyn Eagle, The Fall River Daily Herald, The Fall River Herald News, The Washington Post, Colin Jose's article covering the 1891 Canadian-American tour of the UK, Ed Farnsworth's post concerning Philadelphia's ALPF History, Steve Holroyd's History of the ALPF, www.baseballreference.com, the American Soccer History Archives, and several other secondary sources.
