Back in 1982, U.S. Soccer was still eight years away from ending their long drought of making the World Cup, but New York Times columnist George Vecsey somehow convinced his editors to let him travel to Spain to cover the World Cup. The result was an introduction to American readers to the greatest sporting event on the planet.
Bryan Curtis recounts Vecsey’s journey and its impact on how we view the World Cup in an article for Grantland.
In 1982, soccer was at a different level, one 10,000 feet above the sports editor’s office. There were signs of hope. Pelé and the New York Cosmos (1970-85) had provided endless bylines to a small group of soccer buffs in the New York papers: David Hirshey and Lawrie Mifflin of the Daily News, Phil Mushnick of the Post.
But the World Cup was a big “ask.” Want to go to the Davis Cup final in Grenoble? Sure, send a bushel of copy on John McEnroe. The Tour de France? Write me a profile of the first American entrant, Jacques Boyer. The World Cup had no local hook — the U.S. team didn’t qualify. ABC Sports agreed to televise the final live for the first time, but refused to replay it two days later because the network didn’t want to preemptGeneral Hospital.
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