This sports association was founded in North America during the development era of professional football, leaving a lasting mark on the history of this sport in Philadelphia and having an impact on the growth of all American soccer. Tryzub was Philadelphia’s first football team composed solely of natives of Ukraine. The Tridents have had no equal since their formation, winning the country’s first championship six times as well as other competitions. However, only at first glance may it appear that the major objective of forced emigrants was victory. Find out more about football and the real-life history of the struggle of Ukrainians from the City of Brotherly Love at iphiladelphia.
How did it all begin?
The second half of the twentieth century was fairly contrasting for the inhabitants of the planet Earth. For example, while Europe was dealing with the aftermath of the world’s largest war, on the American continent, all aspects of human life developed at an enormous speed. As a result, even throughout World War II, America became a free territory for development, drawing emigrants from all over the world.
With the start of the Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine, the local residents were subjected to oppression and persecution. As a result, many Ukrainians decided to seek a better life abroad, and Philadelphia, in particular, became their new home.
At the beginning of the 1950s, professional football in the United States, particularly in the City of Brotherly Love, mainly existed thanks to several ethnic teams. Tryzub was created nine years later on the basis of the Philadelphia Nationals Soccer Club. A year later, the aforementioned team, which was almost exclusively made up of Ukrainians, won the United States Championship.
Who did they represent?
In ten years while residing in Philadelphia, Tryzub was able to win four US cups and become a six-time champion. Furthermore, the Ukrainian club holds a record that no one has ever broken before, it’s two titles in a single season.
However, the players and team management were interested in more than just triumphs and awards. After all, the Philadelphia Tridents were named after the historical symbol of the Ukrainian people. The football club played not only for Americans and the Ukrainian population, which was forced to relocate here but also for all Ukrainians who lived in their homeland but felt as if they were foreigners.
There could never have been a team with such symbols and messages to the entire world in the Soviet football universe. Red Terror used all sadistic techniques to prove that Ukrainians do not exist, that there is no such nation and that their country is nothing more than Russia’s younger brother. While the latter screamed their greatness, keeping every inhabitant of the planet in fear, the Ukrainian football players in Philly did a decent job of representing their homeland. Fighting for honors on the football field, they won the most crucial prize: they preserved the national identity abroad, which had been attacked for a very long time by our enemies in Ukraine, though in vain.
Glory To Ukraine! Glory To The Heroes!
In fact, the life stories of football players are very characteristic of the events mentioned above. George Litynskij, an ethnic Ukrainian, was the renowned team’s regular goalkeeper until the team’s final championship in the late 1960s. The latter lived a true Ukrainian life because, at the age of eight, he was at the center of historical events in Europe. His family left Ukraine due to the Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine. At the same time, the youngster managed to play football, particularly in a camp for internally displaced people near Austria. George began building his professional career when his family relocated to an industrial city in America. Later, in an interview with American media, the goalkeeper stated that seeing the stadium in Philadelphia packed with the Ukrainian community gave him a sense of pride: “I could feel that I was playing for more than just the club. The stands were always full with Ukrainians who were proud of each other, proud of their country and proud of us the players.”
Yevhen Lutsiv, a Ukrainian descendent, also shared his thoughts on the football games in the city of Brotherly Love: “It was like the Super Cup.” Yevhen and his father came to support their native team when he was eight years old. Lutsiv was overjoyed as the match ended with a confident victory for Tryzub. Then, almost for the first time, the young man felt not fear, but pride in being a Ukrainian: “Some hope has returned. We have a chance to win. We knew this about ourselves as Ukrainians, but now the world has seen this champion spirit.”
The home games of the Philadelphia Ukrainians team opened with the blessing of a priest, therefore an authentic national tradition was maintained even overseas. Father Taras Naumenko, chaplain of Tryzub and pastor of the St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of Philadelphia, has also defended the team’s colors in the past. He told American journalists about the historic pre-match ceremony (which continues to exist in present times). According to Father Taras, following the prayer, the priest shouts the legendary first line of the Ukrainian motto, to which the players respond: “Glory to Ukraine!”(Слaва Україні!) – “Glory to the heroes!”(Героям слава!), “Glory to the nation!”(Слава нації!) – “Death to the enemies!”(Смерть ворогам!). Following that, the match begins in accordance with the official rules.
Modern period and interesting facts about Tryzub
At one point, the Ukrainian Philadelphia club shared its home stadium with such renowned football teams as Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Wolverhampton, Dundee United, Austria, Stuttgart and others. In 1967, Tryzub represented the United States in the world sports arena in El Salvador in front of an audience of more than one hundred thousand spectators.
It’s also worth noting that Tryzub was not the only Ukrainian club on the American continent. When it comes to the United States of America, after 1945, almost every Eastern city had a team made up of Ukrainian immigrants: USC (Bridgeport), USC Kyiv, USC Chernyk (Detroit), USC Dnipro (Baltimore), USEA Chornomorska Sitch (Newark), UASC Lviv (Cleveland), UASA Ukrainian Lions, SC Wings and USC (New York).
In the history of the Ukrainian Nationals, four ethnic Ukrainians became the top players in the league at the same time: Yuriy Kulishenko, Mykola Noha, Walter Chyzowych and Myron Worobec (the latter also played for the Ukrainian team Chornomorska Sitch).
After several additional professional years in the US Championship, there was a streak of bad luck in the club’s history, but despite the difficulties, Tryzub fought with dignity at the amateur level, while also nurturing young players. The latter paid off between 2004 and 2007 when youth teams won all of the city’s eligible awards.
Nowadays, an ethnic Ukrainian football team in the United States continues to excite its fans with a patriotic game while also educating a new generation of professional football players. At the same time as the full-scale invasion began, with the help of public unions in Philadelphia, Tryzub arranged the transfer of humanitarian aid to their homeland. They accommodated temporarily displaced persons, particularly children, on the basis of the club. History repeats itself, as the first football players of the Ukrainian Nationals fled from the invaders, their destiny was regrettably inherited by their ancestors. Football, on the other hand, helped to forget the atrocities and repercussions of the annexing war for at least ninety minutes in both 1950 and 2022.
In modern times, the Ukrainian Sports Association from Philadelphia continues to perform a very important function in preserving the voice of Ukraine in the world.
