BOALSBURG, Pa. — Walter Bahr taught junior high in Philadelphia when he made the United States soccer team for the 1950 World Cup, playing a vital role in one of the sport's greatest upsets. Team duty paid $100 a week.
“That was double what I made teaching,” he said, laughing.
As Bahr recalls, he asked for a leave of absence near the end of the school year and was turned down. Finally, school officials relented.
“I think I had to give up my salary the last few weeks,” he said.
And so Bahr joined other semipro American players — a hearse driver, a dishwasher, a mail carrier — headed to Brazil to face mighty England in the World Cup.
The English invented soccer and were 3-1 favorites to win the tournament. The Americans were 500-1 long shots. “A band of no-hopers,” The Belfast Telegraph called them.
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