WORLD CUP MANIA!
The quadrennial World Cup Soccer Tournament inevitably reminds me of
my Groveton High School language teacher, Gerard Gaetjens.
One October afternoon in 1972, Monsieur Gaetjens ventured to the
GHS soccer field to watch our Purple Eagles lose a hard-fought 2-1
contest to a White Mountain Regional team that would end the season as
undefeated state champions. (There was only one N.H. boys’ tournament in those
days.) A fellow named Dave Pinkham scored both goals for WMRHS. Apres le
match—after the game—Monsieur Gaetjens spoke rather dismissively of the quality of
soccer he'd witnessed, which I found annoying.
"What does he know?" I thought. "Isn't he from
Haiti? Do they even have sports in Haiti?"
But I knew that soccer (or futbol) WAS the world's most popular
sport—played in virtually every
nation.
I remained a soccer guy after high school and made the sub-varsity
team at UNH as a freshman. I played several seasons in the NH summer
soccer conference. I was delighted to see both my daughters serve as soccer
team captains at Concord High School. So being a soccer guy, I naturally get World
Cup fever every four years. Men's AND women's. Watching the U.S. women's
team beat China for the 1999 Women's World Cup remains one of my top sports
memories.
And as a sports historian of sorts, I knew that the USA didn't have
much of a World Cup tradition before the 1990s. Except for 1950. I later read
about how that year, a hastily thrown-together U.S. Men's National Team
traveled to Brazil for the World Cup tournament. The squad included semi-pro
players who otherwise taught high school, drove hearses, or delivered mail. A
500-1 shot, the Americans found themselves scheduled to play a powerhouse
England team that had defeated a strong Portugal team 10-0 in Lisbon two weeks
earlier. But in a true sports miracle—apologies
to 1980 US Olympic ice hockey team—the
US pulled off a 1-0 win, in what some still feel is the greatest World Cup
upset of all time.
The lone goal was scored on a first half header by a Haitian
dishwasher then living in New York City. His name was Joe Gaetjens—brother of Gerard, my high school French teacher.
I guess they did have sports in Haiti after all!
