How a ‘Band of No-Hopers’ Forged U.S. Soccer’s Finest Day

Walter Bahr, 82, is one of four surviving members of the U.S. soccer team that stunned England in the 1950 World Cup. “The older I get, the more famous I become,” he said.

By JERÉ LONGMAN
NYT

BOALSBURG, Pa. — Walter Bahr taught junior high in Philadelphia when he made the United States soccer team for the 1950 World Cup, playing a vital role in one of the sport’s greatest upsets. Team duty paid $100 a week.

“That was double what I made teaching,” he said, laughing.

As Bahr recalls, he asked for a leave of absence near the end of the school year and was turned down. Finally, school officials relented.

“I think I had to give up my salary the last few weeks,” he said.

(Continued here.)