CAFL 1912-13 season

Aug. 8, 2022 |  Categories:  CAFL  

The Independents disbanded during the offseason before the 1912-13 California Association Football League season. During the league's annual meeting two teams from the Bay Counties Soccer League, the Rangers of Alameda and Alameda F.C., were admitted to the CAFL bringing the total number of teams to 10.

The old Croll's grounds in Alameda, which had been used for soccer and cricket the past 15 years, were no longer available for league use as they had been built upon. As such, Alameda and the Alameda Rangers, shared Lincoln Park in Alameda as their home grounds. The Barbarians and Vampires shared Freeman's Park in Oakland while the Burns Club and Pastime Club called the St. Ignatius grounds in San Francisco home. The San Francisco and Thistle clubs shared the Ocean Shore grounds at 12th and Mission Streets in San Francisco.

While the University of California team continued to use their field on the Berkeley campus, Stanford University had an auxiliary soccer field built on campus adjacent to the rugby grounds. The CAFL season schedule began mid October 1912 and ran through February 1913. The schedule was greatly disrupted by many teams being unable or unwilling to travel to play the university squads. In addition, the California team was regularly unable to field a team. These issues caused the California team to postpone and cancel over half their scheduled matches. On the flip side, the Stanford team was the beneficiary of a handful of forfeit wins which kept it within striking distance of the top of the league table.

Ultimately, the Pastime Club won the league title by four points over second place Burns Club. The league champions also made it to the final of the CFA cup, but on March 30, 1913 they were beaten 1-0 by the Thistles at the Ocean Shore grounds.