Atlanta, Georgia with its United football club, in existence only since 2014 and begun as an "expansion franchise", a far from wholesome concept, might seem to be something of a "soccer" outlier. But football actually came to it early. In 1892 the Atlanta Constitution newspaper carried a letter received from a reader in the town of Lithonia, now in Greater Atlanta but some twenty miles east of the city-centre recognising a challenge. It had been from the "Irishmen" of capital to the "Scotchmen" of the small town for a game of football to be played on St. Patrick's Day, 17th March. But it was also stated that it could only take place if it were to "association rules" because, as was made clear by the Lithonia-man, they "played according to those rules, and no other".

The clue to why "Scotchmen" were in Lithonia lies in the town's name. Literally it means "place of stone" and lies in hills, a point of a triangle with Atlanta itself and to the north Stone Mountain, famous for two things, quarrying and the place that saw on its peak the rebirth in 1915 of the Klu Klux Klan, even in name an exercise in illiteracy and Anglo-incomprehension.

Todays Lithonia is a small, mainly African-American town of some 2,000. Then it was place to where Scots, and Welsh had from the mid-1880s been imported to cut rock, much of which when to building Atlanta itself. And with the Scots had come their association game. However, it was not to be until sixteen years after that first challenge that the first recognised football match took place actually in Atlanta. The date was 21st March 1908. It was between a newly-formed city side and once more Lithonia quarry workers. Lithonia won 1-2 and afterwards were entertained with a "real Scottish supper". But even this was not the first known game. On Christmas Day 1907 the same teams had met, this time in Lithonia, and drawn 2-2. Nor would it be the last in the series. On 4th April 1908 Atlanta went back to Lithonia and lost 4-1. Moreover, it was then stated that "Next season it is hoped that a league of four teams can be organized and a game played each Saturday." Indeed by September of that same year a certain P.W. Harland was organizing new teams and inviting interested players to contact him.

Futhermore we have the teams for the March encounter. From Atlanta they were what looks like Sey, Ross, Simpson, Timpson, Cramer, Strachan, Jim Strachan, Alex Strachan, John Adams, Jim Grant and Harry Strachan. For the "stone-cutters" it was Sey, Henderson, MacDonald, Kalman, Gillespie, Hunter, (Richard) Jones, Craig, William Huston, White, D(avid). Jones and Timpson. The possible cross-overs of names are obvious as is the number of Scots, potentially fifteen in all and what that implies.

The Atlanta Soccer Football Club was formally organized in December 1911, with its headquarters at the local A.G. Spalding & Bros. store. By 1912-13, the club was prominent enough to be featured in Spalding's Official Soccer Foot Ball Guide. Pat Harland of Atlanta, Ga., wrote the entry himself, titled "Soccer Foot Ball in the Central South." He named the fathers of the game in Atlanta directly: Dodd Simpson, Jimmy Hogg, Alec Strachan, Jim Grant, Jack Harland, himself, Eddie Worrell, Joe Hall, Billy Kelly, and Billy Jackson. Furthermore the club's officers at that time were President Cyril Smith, Secretary and Treasurer Eddie Worrell, Manager Joe Hall, and Captain W.C. Kelly. A Georgia State League with four clubs was running by 1913. School leagues formed. The foundation being laid in these years was real, even if almost no one outside the city's small British immigrant community knew it was happening.

So who were these quiet pioneers? Because Lithonia is a small town it is probably better to start there so Henderson is perhaps thirty-year old Bob Henderson, born in Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbright, in 1910 living on Lithonia's Scotch Row and a Paving Cutter, Hunter was Alex Hunter, living on Stone Mountain St. (it is still there), a Scottish-born granite cutter. He may even be the Alec Hunter buried in Lithonia's City Cemetery and Craig was David Cruikshank Craig, born in Aberdeen, also a Granite Cutter, living again on Stone Mountain St. and buried in the nearby Decatur Cemetery. And then there were the Welsh Jones brothers, Richard and David, born in Penmaenmawr in Caernarvonshire, the former living on Randall St. , the latter on Redan Rd. and both again buried in the City Cemetery.

Richard Jones Grave, City Cemetery, Lithonia

David Craig Grave, Decatur Cemetery

And as for the city of Atlanta itself it has proved more difficult. Pat, actually Thomas Harland, and brother, John, were Northern Irish, the former born in 1881, married in Atlanta in 1913, moving to New York by 1918 and dying in California in 1967, the latter four years younger, who lived most of his days in Atlanta and died there in 1976 to be buried in the city's Westview Cemetery. Then there is (Dodd) George Simpson, born in Fraserburgh, a plasterer to trade, the Strachans, possibly related, seeming to be Aberdeenshire also. But that is it with the others, perhaps a mix of nationalities including Americans, so far proving surprisingly and disappointingly elusive.