National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum

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Why Oneonta?

The most often repeated question at the National Soccer Hall of Fame is "Why is it located in Oneonta, New York?" The simple answer is Division I college soccer at Oneonta State and Hartwick College plus the National Baseball Hall of Fame located in Cooperstown, NY.

Oneonta has long been influenced by its neighbor and the tourism it generates for the region. Cooperstown may not be the birthplace of baseball, but it is, without question, the birthplace of the Hall of Fame phenomenon. While Oneonta State has a competitive and well supported soccer program, Hartwick College, frequently a national contender in collegiate soccer, cemented its place in history by capturing the 1977 NCAA Division I national championship. The celebration resonated throughout the city of Oneonta and, above the clamor, someone asked, "Where is the National Soccer Hall of Fame?"

No one knows for sure, but that someone might have been City of Oneonta Parks and Recreation Director Albert Colone, or local Hartwick soccer fans John D. Biggs, Bill Atchinson, or Jim Ross, all founding Hall of Fame board members. Oneonta Mayor James Lettis appointed Colone to lead a task force to find the answer (Yes, primarily in storage at a soccer club in Philadelphia.), and the group responded in the true spirit of Robert F. Kennedy: "Some see things as they are and wonder why. I see things as they could be and wonder why not?"

The rest is history. The Oneontans, including such leading citizens as Jane DesGrange, Margaret Lunn, Peter Dokuchitz and Barbara Ross pitched in. The living Hall of Famers were tracked down, and memorabilia, artifacts, and collections were acquired. A library was started. Although many assisted, the future of the Hall of Fame would be primarily in the hands of one man, Albert Colone, who would successfully build the organization and serve as Executive Director for the next twenty years. The archive would grow into the largest soccer archive in the world to include the world?s oldest soccer ball (so declared by the FIFA Museum Collection curator Harry Langton), the North American Soccer League Archive and Video Library, the World Cup USA 1994 Archive, plus The John Albok, Sam T.N. Foulds, and Kurt Lamb collections among its thousands of documents and artifacts.

From the first exhibit in Dewar Hall at Hartwick College in 1979, these pioneers had a vision for a prominent Soccer Hall of Fame and began petitioning US Soccer for its sanction. Hall of Famers, excited that Oneonta was committed to honoring soccer and its history, lent their support to the drive for recognition. A newsletter was produced in 1980 and, for the first time, America?s soccer heroes had a voice. In March of 1981, the Wilber Mansion on Ford Avenue became home to the county?s first National Soccer Museum. Approximately two thousand visitors came to see the two-room museum. By December 1981, Oneonta declared itself the home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Despite challenges from larger metropolitan areas, the evidence that Oneonta had established a museum, registered the trademarks, acquired the collections and, most importantly, garnered the support of the Hall of Famers themselves won the day. At its Annual General Meeting in 1983, the United States Soccer Federation adopted a resolution sanctioning Oneonta, NY as the official National Soccer Hall of Fame and National Soccer Museum for the sport in the United States.
In 1987, Wilber Bank assisted the Hall of Fame in establishing a 4,000 square foot ?interim? museum opened adjacent to the bank on Ford Avenue. This would serve as the soccer museum's home for twelve years. In 1989, thanks to the generosity of Clyde and Brian Wright and the insight of D.K. Lifgren, a 61 acre plot was purchased and development was begun for four state-of-the-art fields on the Hall of Fame's new campus.

On June 12, 1999 the vision of unifying the Museum and the fields was realized with the dedication of the new National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum in the center of the Wright National Soccer Campus.