Maccabee Athletic Club (, MAH-KAH-Bee) was an American athletic club based in Los Angeles, California. The primary activity of the club was Maccabee Los Angeles Soccer Club, a team which competed professionally in the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League. The soccer club is notable for appearing in the National Challenge Cup (now U.S. Open Cup) final seven times in its eleven-year history, becoming one of only two teams to win the competition five times.
History
Maccabee Los Angeles Soccer Club was formed by a group of Israeli expatriates to serve as a recreational Sunday soccer team. The team began playing competitively in 1971 as part of the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League, with the addition of former Israeli national team players who had recently immigrated to the Los Angeles area. While the club used the Star of David and other Jewish symbols, the players came from various countries and many of them were not Jewish. They won the Triple Crown twice in 1977 and 1978 by winning the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League, California State Cup and the National Challenge Cup. They qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1974 and 1978 but withdrew before competing both times. Maccabee Los Angeles played Bridgeport Vasco da Gama from Connecticut in the 1978 National Challenge Cup winning the final at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The match was part of a double header with the New York Cosmos and the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League in front of 30,000 fans. Maccabee Los Angeles ceased operations after the 1982 season but Maccabee Athletic Club is still in existence for youth players.
Honors
National Challenge Cup
Winner (5): 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981
Finalist (2): 1980, 1982
Triple Crown Winners: (2): 1977, 1978
Greater Los Angeles Soccer League
Winner (7): 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982
Past rosters
National Challenge Cup 1973
National Challenge Cup 1975
National Challenge Cup 1977
National Challenge Cup 1978
National Challenge Cup 1980
National Challenge Cup 1981
National Challenge Cup 1982
National Challenge Cup results
1973 Maccabee Los Angeles 5 vs Cleveland Inter Italian 3
1975 Maccabee Los Angeles 1 vs New York Inter Giuliana 0
1977 Maccabee Los Angeles 5 vs Philadelphia German-Hungarians 1
1978 Maccabee Los Angeles 2 vs Bridgeport Vasco da Gama 0 (OT) 1980 New York Pancyprian-Freedoms 3 vs Maccabee Los Angeles 2 1981 Maccabee Los Angeles 5 vs Brooklyn Dodgers 1 1982 New York Pancyprian-Freedoms 4 vs Maccabee Los Angeles 3 (OT)