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David Wangerin (8 April 1962 – 30 June 2012) was an American-born author and soccer historian best known for his two books Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game[1][2](2006, 2008) and Distant Corners: American Soccer's History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes[3] [4](2011, 2014).
Early Life
Wangerin was born in Chicago and raised in Wisconsin. As a young teenager he developed an interest in football and was a fan of the British team, Aston Villa. In his early twenties he started up soccer teams at his local school, Fort Atkinson High School, and was the first coach to girls' and boys' teams there. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, from where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (1984). In 1987 he moved to England and then in 2000 to Kinross-shire in Scotland where he became a supporter of Raith Rovers, a football team based in the neighbouring county of Fife.
Writing Career
From 1987 Wangerin became a frequent contributor to several soccer books and publications, most frequently to the British soccer magazine WSC When Saturday Comes. Contributions to other publications include: Power, Corruption and Pies (Two Heads Publishing, 1997), Bookable Offence and Late Tackle (both with Macdonald Queen Anne Press, 1990 and1991) and When Saturday Comes: The Half-Decent Football Book (Penguin, 2005).
An interest in German soccer led him to set up the German soccer fanzine Elfmeter in 1989, which he produced for the next eight years.
In 1993 he self-published The Fussball Book: German Football Since the Bundesliga, a largely statistical history of German soccer since the inception of the Bundesliga.
His book Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game was first published by WSC Books in 2006 and then in 2008 by Temple University Press. It traces the sport's fragile history in the U.S.A from its 19th-century roots, through the 1920s American Soccer League, then the rise and fall of the North American Soccer League (NASL) and the launch of Major League Soccer (MLS).
This was followed in 2011 by Distant Corners: American Soccer's History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes which features figures such as Thomas Cahill, regarded as one of the founding fathers of American soccer, and Bill Jeffrey, head coach of the winning team at the 1950 FIFA World Cup. It explores the unique soccer culture of St. Louis, and teams such as the California Clippers and the New York Cosmos.
Death and Legacy
Wangerin died on 30 June 2012, at the age of 50, following a short illness. His writing is considered a significant contribution to literature on American sports history and his research materials are held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMASS) in the Special Collections & University Archives[5].
Following his death, the Annual WSC writers’ competition was established in his memory to encourage aspiring amateur writers to submit articles for the soccer magazine When Saturday Comes.
- ^ Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game. WSC_Books. p. 176. ISBN 0-9540134-7-6.
- ^ Wangerin, Dave (2008). Soccer in a football world: the story of America's forgotten game (Temple university press ed. published 2008 ed.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-59213-885-2.
- ^ Wangerin, Dave (2011). Distant Corners: American Soccer's History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes. Sporting Ser. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-4399-0630-9.
- ^ Wangerin, Dave (2011). Distant corners: American soccer's history of missed opportunities and lost causes. Sporting. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-4399-0631-6.
- ^ http://scua.library.umass.edu>wangerin-david