Soccer Assoc.

by Sarah Albrecht

This is just a little post about something that bothered me for a long time.

Nothing big, nothing personal, just one of those niggling things that gets hold of your psyche. Are you ready? Are you sure? What bothered me was... soccer. Not that the sport itself bothered me. I'm not a huge fan, you know, not one that stays up to watch the World Cup live at 2:00 a.m. or anything, but I like the game well enough and admire the athleticism. No, soccer itself wasn't the problem.

It was the name.

Why? I asked myself over and over. Why does the rest of the world call the game football while we call it soccer?

Finally I decided to end the agony and answer the question. Took all of thirty seconds on the Online Etymology Dictionary. And here is the answer to why we call soccer, soccer: in 1889, to distinguish between rugby football and football (that is, soccer), some fraternity guys took the Assoc. from "Football Association," put the "A" at the end, and started calling the game "socca," later to become "socker."

And so now we have soccer. What a kick!