Results

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Semi-Finals		Los Angeles
1962	Mexico B	5	San Francisco Scots	3 aet
1962	Los Angeles Kickers	4	Vancouver Firefighters	7 pk
	Kennedy Cup Final		Los Angeles
1962	Vancouver Firefighters	2	Mexico B	1

Report

Vancouver Firefighters won the second annual Pacific Coast International Championship for the John F. Kennedy Cup in 1962. The format for the competition was two double-headers in Los Angeles, with Semi-Finals, 3rd Place Playoff and Final, held over four days.

Vancouver defeated hosts Los Angeles Kickers 7-4 on penalty kicks (the Mexican version of Penalties whereby a player attemptsto dribble from the halfway line before shooting at goal against the goalkeeper) in the second semi-final. The match was an extraordinary on, finishing 4-4 after normal time, before two periods of extra time (30 minutes and 15 minutes) failed to separate the sides. Scots-born Bob Mackay, the only non-Canadian born player on Vancouver’s squad scored all three of their penalty kicks. The other semi-final wasalso a high-scoring game which went to extra-time, Mexico B defeatng San Francisco Scots 5-3.

The Final, at Wrigle Field, Los Angeles, required only the regulation 90 minutes to see Vancouver defeat Mexico B 2-1. Three days previously at the same venue the two Semi-Finals had lasted from 1 pm to 7:13 pm when the Final Penalty Kick was saved, most of the 7,000 crowd staying on until the end. The Competition was to be held until 1965 in Los Angeles, with the hope that more Pacific regions could join in.

About the Pacific Coast International Championship

The Pacific Coast International Championship was a Soccer Championship played between the Champions of the Vancouver/British Columbia Pacific Coast League, the Champions of the San Francisco and Los Angeles Leagues and the Mexico National B Team, it was the West Coast Championship before the arrival of the North American Soccer League later in the decade. The Trophy was named after the first Irish-American President, John F. Kennedy.

References

Bibliography

[1] Jeff Cross. (1962) “Firemen blaze trail in Canada” World Soccer. July 1962. Pg. 7

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Jason Caldwell & Paul Foley.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 23 December 2020

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.