Western Canada Soccer League

The Western Canada Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada. The league operated for eight seasons over a nine-year period from 1963 to 1971 and eventually operated across nine cities in four Canadian provinces and one American state. In the 1960s, the Western Canada Soccer League was one of four major leagues in Canadian soccer alongside the Pacific Coast League, the National Soccer League of Ontario/Quebec, and the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League.[1]

In 1963, the league featured 10 clubs across five cities in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1967, the league expanded to Manitoba,[2] thus becoming the first Canadian soccer league to operate a league schedule across three provinces. The league later added teams in British Columbia and, for one season only, a team in Washington, United States.

Along with a regular season schedule that usually operated from May to August, the Molson Cup playoffs took place in August or September. Teams also participated in other competitions including their provincial playoffs and Canada Soccer's national The Challenge Trophy competition. In 1967, in the weeks after winning the league's playoff Molson Cup, the Calgary Buffalo Kickers became the first and only Western Canada Soccer League team to reach the national final (a 2-1 loss to Toronto Ballymena).[3]

The Western Canada Soccer League was co-founded by Alec Castleton and Sam Donaghey, both of whom were involved with the Alberta Soccer Association. The league's inaugural match was played on May 4, 1963 in Saskatoon,[4] with opening weekend matches in Calgary and Edmonton postponed because of inclement weather. The price of admission to that opening match at Griffiths Stadium was 50 cents per ticket. Saskatoon Concordia won that first match 7-1 over Saskatoon Hollandia,[5] with Adolf Becker the four-goal hero and George Turay scoring the first-ever goal in the Western Canada Soccer League.

The most famous player to play for a Western Canada League team, albeit not in league action, was Stanley Matthews who dressed for Calgary ATCO in two exhibition matches in July 1964.[6][7] Matthews joined the Calgary squad under player-manager Les Medley, who was one of Matthews' former England teammates.