Growing up a soccer pioneer in 1950s Colorado Springs
What team sport is the most popular in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region? The answer is simple and obvious: soccer. Starting in grade school, virtually every public and private school fields soccer teams for both boys and girls. Soccer is fun, easy to learn, doesn’t require expensive equipment and, with its emphasis on the whole team, teaches many lessons about life.
Poking through old yearbooks, musty files from the 1950s and yellowed newspaper articles that I somehow never threw away, it became clear that soccer in Colorado started in the early 1950s in Colorado Springs. Amazingly, I was among these early pioneers – even though I was slow, uncoordinated and slightly overweight.
In 1954, my parents enrolled me in Fountain Valley School, then a private boy’s boarding school with students from multiple states. Our parents claimed that they wanted us to have the best possible education, and Fountain Valley’s teachers were amazingly good. Yet it was more like a military academy than a relaxed boarding school. Sports were mandatory, meaning that you had to play either football or soccer. At 14, I started with Pup Soccer and moved to Varsity Soccer the next year.
As the 1956 yearbook noted, “Soccer is only in its infancy in Colorado.” We managed to schedule four games; Colorado College, the Air Force Academy, Saint Mary’s High School and Colorado Rocky Mountain School. Were there other Colorado schools or colleges that had soccer teams? Apparently not, as St. Mary’s wasn't scheduled the following year, and both C.C. and the A.F.A. played Fountain Valley twice.
Alas, Fountain Valley was rarely a winner. In the three years that we shuffled dismally up and down the field, we managed to beat St. Mary’s and CRMS a couple of times and tie C.C. once. In three years, I had one moment of glory in 1955 against CRMS.
According to the yearbook, “Almost immediately after the second line went into the game, John David dropped a pass to John Hazlehurst directly in front of the goal, and he booted it home for the first score.” We won the game, and three of us are still here in the Springs; Mike Collins, Bob Street and me. Alas, we’re cackling old geezers now – if we could find eight more, we could challenge the now ninety-year old C.C. and A.F.A. grads to a return match.
“He hobbles, he hesitates, and the ball rolls slowly into the net – score!!!” And after two 10-minute halves, we’ll head for a comfortable downtown bar for a cheerful drink and remembrances of times past ...
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