Good morning! A short history lesson on the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, which begins its 110th season on Tuesday. It’s the oldest soccer competition still being played in American soccer, played every year since 1913 except the Covid years of 2020 and 2021. Few know that the National Challenge Cup, the competition’s original name, once had a rival. The American Cup, which launched in 1884 and was played through 1924, was organized by the American Football Association, itself a rival to the U.S. Football Association (re-named the U.S. Soccer Football Association in 1945 and then U.S. Soccer Federation in 1974), which was founded in 1913 and recognized by FIFA a year later, thereby gaining the upper hand in the battle of football associations.

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