G. Randolph “Gus” Manning

The first president of the U.S. Football Association and a prime mover in the formation of that organization, which now is named the U.S. Soccer Federation, as well as being the first American to be a member of the FIFA executive council.

Manning, a New York City physician, also was involved in the formation of a number of other important soccer organizations, both in the United States and Europe. He was born in England in 1873 and while undergoing medical training at the University of Freiburg in Germany in 1900 was involved in the founding of the Deutscher Fussball Bund, the German soccer federation.

Manning came to the United States in 1906. Six years later, he was elected president of the American Amateur Football Association, an intermediate step in the founding of the USFA a year later. Manning was chosen to head that organization, also.

Although Manning served only one term as president of the USFA, he remained involved in soccer affairs until his death in 1953. He was a figure in the Soccer War between the USFA and the American Soccer League in the late 1920s, which resulted in his serving as president of the Southern New York Association from 1928 to 1948, and was a longtime member of the U.S. Olympic Committee. From 1948 to 1953, he was a member of the executive council of FIFA, the only American chosen for to that committee in FIFA’s first 90 years.

Inducted in 1950.