In the classic 1981 soccer film Victory, Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and Pelé lead a group of prisoners of war in a game against their Nazi captors, ultimately leading to a mass escape.
While rumors that the movie, directed by Oscar-winner and Hollywood icon John Huston, was based on real-life events have proven false, there was a real-life soccer game involving World War II prisoners that took place not in war-torn Europe but instead on American soil.
That game pit a POW team against two-time defending Open Cup Champs Brooklyn Hispano. The game ended 2-0 to Hispano and gave soccer its place in a little-known chapter of America’s Home Front history.
Camp Shanks in Orange County, New York was the embarkation point for more than one million U.S. troops headed for Europe. Its location near the Hudson River and its piers which could support massive troop transports made it a perfect site for what became known as a wartime “Last stop U.S.A.”
Almost all of the soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 passed through Camp Shanks.
But the camp had another use. From 1944 to the end of 1946, it also housed prisoners of war. Some 1200 Italians and 800 Germans spent the duration of the conflict there after being captured in the battles of North Africa and Sicily starting in the fall of 1942.
After Italy surrendered to Allied Forces on September 9, 1943 and switched sides to fight the Nazis, many of the Italian captives became part of the Italian Services Unit and were given non-combat related jobs to help with the war effort. The father of this story’s author, Michael, and his best friend Salvatore (Uncle Sal) were among those serving at Camp Shanks as part of the 303rd Italian Quartermaster Battalion.
Those who joined the ISU were in many ways treated the same as regular U.S. soldiers, being paid for their work and were eventually allowed to leave Camp Shanks on liberty. They were given uniforms similar to those worn by U.S. soldiers, the main difference being a patch on the sleeve that read Italy.
Entertainment and activity at the camp were a big part of life for both the U.S. soldiers and the members of the ISUs who, unlike other prisoners, were allowed to fraternize with the Americans. Stars of stage and screen Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante, as well as boxing legend Joe Louis, were among the celebrities who made visits. The week the Hispanos played the team from the ISU, baseball’s Boston Braves took on an Army team and Betty Grable and Ava Gardner, both Hollywood royalty, also made appearances.
Soccer, or calcio, was hugely popular in Italy following the country’s two World Cup wins in the 1930s under legendary manager Vittorio Pozzo. The game was already a passion for the Italians, but the match between the prisoners and Hispano was a step in making soccer a part of the Army’s athletic program.
Over 200 army brass attended the 1944 Open Cup Final at the Polo Grounds. According to the Brooklyn Eagle. Lieutenant L. Duke Slocum was so impressed with Hispano’s play in that year’s win over Morgan Strasser that he approached club manager Duncan Othen to not only bring the team to Camp Shanks for a game, but to help organize a formal league for the prisoners in the New York Area.
Although they struggled in the American Soccer League, surrendering their championship to the Philadelphia Americans after finishing fifth in the league, Hispano all but walked through to their second straight Open Cup title in 1944.
Their only real opposition came in the Second Round, from fellow ASL side Brooklyn Wanderers. The two teams needed three games and six overtime periods to break a logjam of two straight draws. Eventually, after a total of 360 minutes of play, Hispano advanced with a 3-2 win in the third game after four periods of extra-time.
The battle with the Wanderers proved to be epic, not only for a series which saw a total of 19 goals in the three contests, but because of rulings made as play proceeded. In the first game, Jose Aja, who scored three times, twice gave Hispano the lead only to see the score leveled. The Wanderers took a second half lead, but Aja netted his third for the equalizer. Because of the muddy conditions at Brooklyn Oval, it was decided no overtime would be played.
A week later, regulation ended the same way, in a 3-3 draw with Hispano getting goals from Carlos Temes, Fabri Salcedo and Open Cup legend Billy Gonsalves. Johnny Friel scored his second goal of the game for the Wanderers in the first extra-time period, but Ray Fernandez salvaged the draw with a goal with less than a minute remaining in the second period.
The third time was finally the charm for Hispano, but not without the need – once again – for extra time and a ruling by the Cup Committee that the teams were not to leave the field until a winner was decided.
Wanderers' Bob Laverty and Hispano’s Fabri Salcedo each scored in each half, leaving the score knotted at the end of 90 minutes. Two scoreless 15 minute periods followed. Then finally, five minutes into the third overtime, Fernandez scored after a scramble in front of Wanderers goalkeeper Gene Olaf.
Under the rules in place, a fourth 15-minute period was played in order to allow the trailing team another chance to equalize.
In the Quarterfinal, Jose Carlos scored off a pass from Billy Gonsalves in the first half, and then Salcedo added two in the second in an easy 3-0 win over New York’s German-American League (later to be known as the Cosmopolitan League) champions Eintracht F.C. at Starlight Park in the Bronx.
Salcedo, Gonsalves and John Pruha provided the firepower in a 3-0 win over another ASL opponent, Kearny Celtic in the Semifinal at that same Starlight Park (Picture of that game above).
For the second straight year, Hispano faced Morgan Strasser of Pittsburgh in the Final. Unlike 1943, which required five overtime periods and a replay which ended in the Brooklyn club’s favor 3-2, the 1944 decider was a relative breeze.
There were 12,386 fans on hand at the fabled Polo Grounds, the first time in 14 years that the Harlem ballpark hosted an Open Cup Final. Strasser goalkeeper Albert Di’Orio made some spectacular saves to keep the Pittsburgh club in it, but Hispano broke through late in the first half with a goal from Salcedo.
Temes scored midway through the second half to make it 2-0 and then Gonsalves – star of the U.S. National Team – and Pruha scored again late. Olaf also turned in an outstanding performance in the Brooklyn goal, posting his third straight clean sheet.
One active member of the Army, Jay Brady, was in the Hispano lineup, having made the trip to New York from Boston while on furlough. According to renowned Brooklyn Eagle soccer writer Bill Graham, Brady played “the most brilliant game of his career” in that Final.
After the game, Sir Reginald Plunkett E. Drax, Admiral of the British Royal Navy, presented the Dewar Trophy to Brooklyn Hispano captain Frank Fernandez (pictured at the top of this article).
After tryouts in the camp, the Italian team was patched together just days before the game, with little practice. Hispano were more than a month past their Open Cup win, but they were in top form, having just a week earlier defeated the New York Americans 3-0 in an exhibition at the Polo Grounds for the benefit of the Red Cross.
The Italians’ manager was a familiar face to Hispano’s players. Corporal Jerry Galdi had spent a year with the team before joining the Army. Born in Salerno, Italy, he moved to Brooklyn before the war and was an All-Public School Athletic League selection in 1942 while playing for Manual High School. He also spent time with Gjoa and the New York Americans.
Not one to miss out on a game, Galdi was referred to as a “pro ringer” for the Italian team, lining up in defense against a squad that included future Hall of Famer Billy Gonsalves, a man who won no fewer than eight Open Cup winner’s Medals.
The game, played on June 16th just 10 days after the start of the Normandy invasion, was refereed by Carlos Ferro, a sports reporter for the New York Spanish-language newspaper La Prensa.
Members of the Italian Service Units who made up the crowd at the game created quite the festive atmosphere. They cheered, chanted and whistled throughout. At halftime, they sang arias from Carmen and the bawdy Italian standard Rosamunda.
Hispano took the lead on a goal by fullback Vic Taggart, whose shot from midfield skipped off the hands of the Italian goalkeeper. Jose Aja then took a pass from Gonsalves and scored from just outside the box to make it 2-0 – that’s the scoreline that would stand up to the end.
Just two days after the Camp Shanks game, many of those Hispano players played on a combined team with the New York Americans in a game at the Polo Grounds that was part of a six-sport carnival put on to sell War Bonds to aid in the war effort. Members of the Italian team were invited guests at the game, and the following day they, along with other ISU members, were given a tour of New York City.
Brooklyn Hispano went on to reach the Semis of the Open Cup three more times (1945, 1947 and 1949) but never regained their crown. Members of the ISUs were repatriated to Italy following the war, but many returned to make lives in the United States, including the author’s father, who met my mother while at Camp Shanks before moving to Brooklyn – and Uncle Sal, who returned and settled on Long Island.
Charles Cuttone is a writer/author, historian and co-author of Pelé, His North American Years.