Clark O.N.T., was a U.S. soccer team sponsored by the Clark Thread Company. The team competed in the annual American Cup, winning the first three championships. Beside

Fall River Rovers Fall River Rovers were a United States soccer club, based in Fall River, Massachusetts. They won the 1888 and 1889 American Cups as well as the 1917 National Challenge Cup. In 1921 Rovers were disbanded and a new team, Fall River United were fo ...

, they are considered the most successful clubs in the late 1880s in American soccer.

History

Name

Established November 15, 1883 at a meeting of 150 employees, the first president and vice-president elected were Campbell Clark and William Clark Jr. respectively. The Clark Thread Company originally named its soccer team Clark Our New Thread (Clark O.N.T.) as part of a marketing campaign introducing a new product. As the product became established, the company renamed its athletic team to the simpler Clark A.A. While the Clark Thread Company factory was originally located in Newark, on the west bank of the

Passaic River Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, ...

, the team played at Clark Field located on the east side of the river, an area known as East Newark.

Competition

The team began play in February 1884 and later won the first American Cup which kicked off in late October of that year. It went on to win the next two cup championships, giving it the right to call itself the first U.S. soccer dynasty. Their second title followed a successful baseball campaign in which they won the Essex League championship. The cricket season was much less successful however, finishing with a record of 2 wins and 9 losses with 2 draws.

National team

Besides its league and cup records, Clark O.N.T. had a part in the first two, now unofficial, U.S. international games. The American Football Association sponsored two games with the Canadian national team in 1885. On November 28, 1885, Clark contributed both its field and five of its players to the game, won by Canada. The referee was also provided by O.N.T.October 29, 1885 ''New York Times''
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Year-by-year

Honors

American Cup :* Winner (3):

1885 Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 &ndash ...

1886 Events January–March * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ''Strange ...

1887 Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

References

{{Reflist Defunct soccer clubs in New Jersey National Association Football League teams Sports in Hudson County, New Jersey 1883 establishments in New Jersey Association football clubs established in 1883 Works soccer clubs in the United States