The Society for American Soccer History is pleased to announce the release of more than four-and-a-half hours of interviews with two members of the US team that finished third in the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, the first time the tournament was staged.
Conducted in 1987 and 1988, the four interviews with National Soccer Hall of Famers James Brown and Arnie Oliver provide a rare first-person glimpse not only into the first World Cup but also into the life of a professional soccer player in the 1920s and 1930s.
The interviews are available on the SASH YouTube Channel.
James Brown, born in 1908 in Kilmarnock, Scotland, emigrated to the US in 1927 and settled in New Jersey. While he had not played organized soccer in Scotland, in New Jersey he began playing for amateur sides before signing with the Newark Skeeters of the professional American Soccer League in 1928. Brown was playing with the New York Giants when he was selected for the US team that finished third in the 1930 World Cup. The youngest player on the team, Brown played in each of the three US games during the tournament, scoring the lone US goal in the final game, a 6-1 semifinal loss to Argentina. Brown also scored a goal in the team’s post-tournament friendly against Brazil. After the World Cup, Brown returned to the New York Giants, now renamed the New York Soccer Club, and later played for Brooklyn Wanderers and Newark Americans. Brown then moved to England where he played five seasons with Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Brentford. Brown returned to the US in 1948 and settled in New Jersey. Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986, Brown died in 1994 at the age of 85.
Arnie Oliver was was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1907. Oliver played with a number of New England clubs in the mid 1920s and early 1930s, including the Shawsheen Indians, New Bedford Defenders (with whom he won the 1926 National Amateur Cup), New Bedford Whalers, Hartford Americans, J&P Coats, Pawtucket Rangers, Fall River FC, and Providence FC. Oliver was a member of the 1930 US team but did not appear in any World Cup matches. He did appear in several of the post tournament exhibition matches the US team played in Uruguay and Brazil. Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1968, Oliver died in 1993 at the age of 86.
The interview with Arnie Oliver was conducted by Bill Simons, professor of history at State University College Oneonta. The interview with James Brown was conducted by Lois Emanuelli, a curator at the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Both of those interviews were done in August 1987. The last two interviews are joint interviews with Brown and Oliver and were conducted in August 1987 and May 1988 by George Brown, the son of James Brown who himself was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1995. The interviews were digitally transferred from videotapes held by the National Soccer Hall of Fame that were retrieved by the grandson of James Brown, SASH Vice President James Brown.
The interviews are part of the Society for American Soccer History’s ongoing efforts to enrich the visual history of soccer in the United States. Since June 2025, 28 clips of early American soccer footage have been published on the SASH YouTube channel. Among the clips are the oldest surviving footage of soccer played in the US, the first USMNT international played in the US, the first ever soccer footage filmed with sound, the earliest footage of indoor soccer in the US, and numerous club friendlies against visiting international sides in the 1940s and 1950s such as Liverpool, Manchester United, and Inter Milan. Previously, SASH published footage from 1916 of the first USMNT game, footage from Bethlehem Steel FC’s 1919 visit to Sweden, as well as footage of US troops playing soccer in Europe after the end of the First World War. More clips are coming soon.
The SASH YouTube channel also includes videos of past SASH Sessions and Symposiums.