Like many, I cheered the NY Times when they finally euthanized Times Select and let poor/cheap people like me back into the opinion columns. But they also opened up their archives going back over a century. What a fantastic move – even if they were motivated more by online ad $$$$ than the public good.

So what’s a soccer fan to do with this amazing new tool? Why search for soccer of course!

This decision led enterprising people to dig through the mess to find some olde-timey goodness. Per the norm, Kottke did it best.

I did a little searching of my own to discover that the first mention of soccer in the New York Times (at least in the searchable archives) was on June 19, 1885.

Except they didn’t call it soccer – they called it football. ‘Association Football’ to be exact. Right here in America. Makes you wonder what PR genius decided that soccer was the better term!

Read the whole thing. Josh was quick to point out that even then, NY soccer teams were losing!