The United States Invitational (1951 Breaking News/New Jerseys)

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

It is 1950, the wound of World War 2 is still fresh, but with this hurt a newfound love for a foreign game has been brought back by the men from war. European Football, although not a dominant sport in the States at this moment, with a little help from a man by the name of William Miller, will become a staple of American culture.

 

William Miller was born in 1962 and grew up in a wealthy family, making him able to partake in many of his own interests without a care in the world. His fascination, like most boys growing up, was dominated by sports, but he was a little bit of an oddball. While others were dreaming of a 9th inning bomb to the fences, Will was imagining an 89th minute penalty to win it for, what he felt was, an exotic European team. Although he was isolated with his love for the game at the time, his imagination did not limit him from going above and beyond when it came to European Football in the United States.

 

Although there were football teams predating WW2, these teams did not start producing real competitive talent until about 1947, and one of many men to try to make it big in one of these powerhouse rosters was Mr. Miller himself. Unfortunately, Will only was able to get his one cup of tea under the lights, only playing a year as a rotation keeper for an average team in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. His abilities were just not up to par, but where he lacked in skill his brain made up for it. Desperate to still play a role in the growth of what has always been his passion he decided to put together a competition of his own, the United States Invitational

Together with his best friend, and a little bit of a selfish business man, Tom White, Will took across the East Coast and Midwest to find the best teams of small regional leagues in an attempt to unify them in one big event. It would be a double round robin group stage with the winners of each group playing in a semifinal to earn the right to ultimately play Tom White's sparkly new Cleveland United, who confusingly gets an automatic bid to the finals, but Tom has funded a majority of the tournament so he gets what he wants, Will just could not wait to see the heavy hitting teams and the beautiful atmosphere. This final game will also be played in Tom's newly built "White Way", located in downtown Cleveland, which can hold up to 18,000 bodies.

 

In this tournament there will be seven teams, six being top talents throughout the Eastern and Midwest USA, and one being Mr. Whites team, Cleveland United. These teams will be rolling out with some history and identities over the next few days, but for now, since you sat through all of that, here is a little bit of a tease.

 

 

Alright, give your best guess

[Cardsblues02 601]

Hm, teaser logos look pretty cool! I think the Wheel might be Cleveland. Looks like the logos are well designed 

[SpartanDesigns 25]

Looking good so far! I am going to guess that the wheel might be Detroit, and the bottom left is DC maybe? The top right may be a New England team, and the bottom right may be Chicago.

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

Team: Empire New York

Nickname: Penguins

Founded: 1935

Owner: Walter Ward

Stadium: New York Park

Capacity: 9000

 

As their name suggests, Empire has been the dominant team in one of the smaller New York football leagues since its start 15 years prior to the 1950 invitational, but do not let the size of their league fool you. The reason that Mr. Miller picked up on these guys so early on in the scouting process is due to their 10 year reign on top of the throne of their league, the last three titles being completely uncontested losing zero games in the process. It is hard to compare teams in the Invitational, but if there was a favorite to win it all money would be placed by most on Empire to add to their large collection of silverware.

 

Nickname History:

For as serious of a threat Empire New York shows coming into competition, their name sure seems light hearted at first glance but Empire's owner, Walter Ward, takes their nickname with a large amount of pride. Other than the obvious connection between the Empire and Emperor Penguin, the name came from the beauty and adaptability of the penguin. When asked about the odd name given to his club, Walter Ward famously said,"From water to land penguins are prepared for any situation and look good doing it, just like from pitch to in the community Empire will ensure dominance and will always look good doing so".

 

Logo and Kit:

The logo is suppose to convey a decently abstract penguin head but also a professional shield fit for a club at the same time. In the upper half of the logo there is an E that can be seen with its middle, horizontal line split to evoke the penguins two eyes. The bottom portion of the crest is obviously the beak, it is orange and also hosts the mighty NY laying vertically. The kit is quite simply suppose to look like a penguin. From the white chest stripe to the orange V-neck collar that represents the beak, this team is very proud of their little mascot.

 

(The template used is a simplified version of Raysox's template he has provided to the community. Also, teams will only be showing one jersey, being given a mandatory clash kit to use by the tournament that will be shown more towards when we are getting ready to start the invite)

[Dan O'Mac 387]

This is a really good start, and I love the set. I'd maybe put an orange horizontal line between the black and white part of the sock, but I don't know if there's anything else that could (or should) be changed.

[SpartanDesigns 25]

Looks great! Can’t believe I forgot about New York.

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

32 minutes ago, Dan O'Mac said:

This is a really good start, and I love the set. I'd maybe put an orange horizontal line between the black and white part of the sock, but I don't know if there's anything else that could (or should) be changed.

That might be a thing for Empire to consider in years to come, thank you for the kind words.

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

31 minutes ago, SpartanDesigns said:

Looks great! Can’t believe I forgot about New York.

Honestly, with your guesses you could be the sportslogos.net of this universe with rumors and guesses.. but of course way before haha! Your guesses aren’t far off at all, any reasoning behind your thoughts?

[SpartanDesigns 25]

 

31 minutes ago, TheHealthiestScratch said:

Honestly, with your guesses you could be the sportslogos.net of this universe with rumors and guesses.. but of course way before haha! Your guesses aren’t far off at all, any reasoning behind your thoughts?

Thanks, I’m kind of a logo addict like a lot of people on these forums and have learned a lot about cities, their backgrounds, and other traits that teams and other cities carry over through all sports, like black and yellow for Pittsburgh teams, blue and green for Seattle, etc. Being in the East side of America, New England is one of the only places with a lot of fishing and sailing. I have also based my own New England teams off of ocean-type names in my fictional leagues. The penguins logo stumped me a bit because I was led to think that the city ended with an N based off of the picture, hence why I guessed Washington. I guessed Detroit purely off of the background of the city and it’s vehicle production. Chicago has a lot of red in its teams throughout the mlb, nba, and nhl. Most also have animal names and the irregular shape in the C looked like a bird or other animal. Plus, what city in eastern America can rep a giant C better than chi-town. I might have read to deep into the names, but hey I had fun doing it.

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

Team: Boston Young Boys Club

Nickname: The Boys

Founded: 1912

Owner: BYBC

Stadium: BYBC Recreation Center

Capacity: 5000

 

The Boston Young Boys Club in this universe is where young New England Men, "can get (themselves) clean, can have a good meal, and can do what about (they) feel". The BYBC, and the BYGC, have been providing youth around New England with a safe place to partake in a variety of activities since 1901. Their soccer team, on the other hand, is a tad younger and had not been taken as seriously up until the end of the second World War. This young bunch of lads were edged out in the Greater New England regional league this past year finishing in a close second. "Why not take the number one team?" you may ask, I'll tell you why, BYBC had an average age of 19 and have plenty of room for talent growth. Yes, they are Mr. Miller's diamond in the rough, the team he put the most work into scouting, his "project". Although they are looking to make some noise, most will not be offering a second look to them until down the road, when Will's financing kicks in. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that each team is being fed a steady, even amount of cash from Miller's pocket himself as long as the teams agree to continue participating in his event.

 

Nickname History: I am sorry, this one goes no farther than face value. The boys also just seems right for Boston.

 

Logo and Kit: Green and gold, this one was not just because it seemed right. This is the colors of the organization, given by their Irish, Catholic founder, Bartley Murphy. Unfortunately, Bartley only got to see the start of his football team passing away in 1915 at the age of 82. Along with the colors, the logo is the logo of the BYBC in 1912, it has actually changed for the organization since then but stays as the, now, unique crest of BYBC's football squad. The kit itself is white, a rare thing for the invitation, with green shorts and white socks. The two horizontal lines are meant to mimic the vertical lines in their logo, and one gold button above all others to represent Boston compared to its competition.

(Two for today because I was off work early, I would say expect to see 1 to 2 up until the actual sim, I mean tournament.)

[SpartanDesigns 25]

I like the double striping you used on this one. The colors are pretty different but you made it work well!

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

Team: Cleveland United

Nickname: Americans

Founded:1950

Owner: Tom White

Stadium: White Way

Capacity: 18000

 

After winning the National Civic League's "All-American City Award" in its first year in 1949, Tom White took it as if Cleveland was named the best city in America, and he was going to let everyone know about his great city. Tom's arrogant Sunday League team could be David among many Goliath sized teams. Even Boston outweighs this team by a heavy amount, but that will not stop Tom from believing that he will walk away with the title. He does have an automatic bid to the finals after all, so how hard could it be? Look for this team to start making a good amount of noise down the road, being Tom's personal club they will be heavily funded, and the center fixture for some time. But for now, the semi final game should probably be taken as the final, and Cleveland's first game in the actual finals to be an all out slaughter of men who think a little too much about themselves.

 

Nickname: To become the face of the United States you better show it. The Americans name comes straight from Mr. White exclaiming,"we are not only the only city to deserve this name, but also the only team. Cleveland is America!". 

 

Logo and Kit: Going along with the "Cleveland is America" tag, the logo takes the shield from the Cleveland flag with a slight variation and fuses it with the American flag, and above is the teams name, just in case someone did not know who they were. The kit mimics the flag idea, taking the American flag and smacking it on a jersey. The only thing missing are some stars to make those kits yell "FREEDOM"!

[ReesDaKing 13]

I like it. Are you planning on AZ team, or will that be later in the series?

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

Just now, ReesDaKing said:

I like it. Are you planning on AZ team, or will that be later in the series?

I think that would come a little later down the line right now the league is pretty limited to the bigger markets on the East coast or Midwest

[ReesDaKing 13]

Oh okay.

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

I know it has only been four hours and I usually use @SpartanDesigns response as an ok to post the next team, but I have to make up for some days so if there is not any constructive criticism here is another one! Also, any ideas for a nickname for an automotive inspired team in Detroit? I was thinking Greasers.

 

Team: Club Chicago

Nickname: Cleavers

Founded: 1895

Owner: Luca Russo

Stadium: Union Yard

Capacity: 3000

 

By far the oldest team in the league, Club Chicago started with a group of young butchers playing for fun on the weekend, and making an honest living during the week. Never did they think that their good times would turn into state dominance, but by the mid 30s they had reached peak performance by winning everything they entered. The team took a hit during World War 2 ceasing operations while the patriotic cleavers served their country, but have since taken their rightful spot on top in Illinois. The newest owner, Luca Russo, has recently taken over the role from his father and has not come to much favor with the old school fans with his business like promotional displays. Feeling discouraged and filled with too much stress, being club captain and a formidable midfielder as well, Russo has made a last ditch effort of entering the Invitational to see if fans would be pleased by the higher level of Football. Chicago should be fitting right into this competition, being one that many would think to make it out of the grouping stage, but again everything is in the air when none of these teams have ever played each other.

 

Nickname: Club Chicago played without a nickname for a whole decade before entering their first competition. Not knowing the proper game due to never really playing any rules, the closest thing to a foul the club had was lengthy arguments, but that could be settled by a post game drink. The way they played in this competition could not be settled by the bars though, in fact they never were able to play the full tournament because of too many suspensions. One man on an opposing team even went as far as saying,"These meat men have no respect for a beautiful game, they might as well have brought their cleavers to the pitch today". Although they have settled their play down since then, they pride themselves on their physical performance and decided to adopt the name that gave their team an identity. If you were wondering, they do get called the Meat Men time to time as well.

 

Logo and Kit: Their logo was purely the double C which represented Club Chicago up until the 1907 season, not thinking to include their roots until then, but when the nickname came around it was embraced. A proud team of their background and their play decided they needed to include who they were into their crest, adding double crossed cleavers to the look, which made it a little more eye catching as well. Now people knew who they were watching when they saw the team play. As for the kits, a simple, classy look was taken by Chicago. Along with the cleaver, the "Butcher Red" was included into the uniform to reflect their pride of self and gave a little more color than the boring white and black they use to play with before 1907.

[Cardsblues02 601]

Chicago looks great. Very classic looking logo

[Darknes 308]

I might be biased, but I absolutely adore how Boston came out. 

What about something like Wrench Jockeys or Gearheads for Detroit?

[TheHealthiestScratch 107]

19 minutes ago, Darknes said:

I might be biased, but I absolutely adore how Boston came out. 

What about something like Wrench Jockeys or Gearheads for Detroit?

I like the Wrench Jockeys sounds cool just have to make sure it’s time appropriate. I’m not sure if it be too wordy though for the team. Kind of like the “Las Vegas Golden Knights” problem.

[Darknes 308]

25 minutes ago, TheHealthiestScratch said:

I like the Wrench Jockeys sounds cool just have to make sure it’s time appropriate. I’m not sure if it be too wordy though for the team. Kind of like the “Las Vegas Golden Knights” problem.

The Wrench Jockeys could be like a nickaname or like a Supporters Group, they could be the Motor Club or the Gearheads as I suggested.