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 Son of a steel worker Lewis came to the United
States at the age of 14 and within three years was employed by the
Carnegie Steel Company.
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Personal Information |
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Class of 1950 |
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Born:
1882
- Pontardulais,
Wales |
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Died:
December 5, 1948 -
Pittsburgh, PA |
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He soon joined
Charles Schwab's protégés in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and wound up a $400,000
a year vice president of the Bethlehem Steel Company. In the industry, it
is commonly accepted that he quit this job in 1930 on a matter of policy,
his stand being on the humane side. He then almost immediately became chairman of the Jeffrey
Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio and in 1936 was elected chairman
of the board of directors of Jones and Laughlin and two years later was
chosen as president. He served in
these capacities until 1947 when he resigned because of his health,
impaired by his duties guiding his enterprises through World War Two and
the nation's recovery program. Such a talented man as this offered all his outstanding ability to
soccer as well as his ever open purse, but like so many others, refused
to become involved in the welter of petty politics and quit the
effort. He withdrew entirely from
the game a victim of the system that for many years prevented soccer from
becoming a major sport in the United States. At one time there was nothing that Edgar Lewis would not do
for soccer and under the banner of the Bethlehem Steel Company he
recruited from Britain one of the great teams of American soccer
history. He was the driving force
behind the great Bethlehem Steel teams from 1915 through to 1930 and
instrumental in the formation of the American Soccer League, becoming its
first president. His teams won the U.S. Open Cup in 1915, 1916, 1918,
1919 and 1926. The American F.A.
Cup in 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1924. Bethlehem Steel was also one of the most powerful teams in the
American Soccer League winning the championship in the 1921-22 (as
Philadelphia) and in the 1926-27 season and finishing second in 1922-23,
1923-24, 1924-25, 1927-28, and the Lewis Cup competition in 1928. He donated the Lewis Cup, which at
first was awarded to the winners of the special ASL cup competition, but
following the so called "soccer war" between the USFA and the
American Soccer League in 1928, withdrew the cup from competition for a
while. In later years it was awarded
to the ASL league champions and in recent years has disappeared. Disillusioned
by the entire soccer situation he withdrew Bethlehem Steel from soccer
competition entirely in the summer of 1930.
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