PHILADELPHIA -- Back in their heyday in the 1960s, when there was no better soccer team in America, when their dominance on the field was a Philly-sized thumb in the eyes of Soviet oppressors, the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals were known to many of their fans simply as “Nasha Druzhyna.”
Our Team.
Founded just after World War II by displaced Ukrainians determined to preserve their heritage and identity — and also dubbed “Tryzub,” after the Ukrainian coat of arms — the team from North Philly took the soccer world by storm, winning national titles, and quickly emerging as ambassadors of Ukrainian pride in an era when athletes in Ukraine could only compete under Soviet flags.
“It was a pride for Philadelphia, but also something that the Politburo in the Soviet Union had to read about,” said Eugene Luciw, a team historian and president of the local chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. “They were trying to obliterate the Ukrainian national identity, but these darned Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals were champions of the United States.”
While the Ukrainian Nationals professional dominance faded in the 1970s, the club legacy thrives in its elite youth soccer programs, amateur clubs, and its men’s majors squad, which recently joined the semipro National Premier Soccer League. All play at the Ukrainian American Sports Center Tryzub, the club’s sprawling complex in Horsham, which also hosts the annual Ukrainian Independence Folk Festival.
But now, the Ukrainian Nationals have again become ambassadors, this time in the fight for the very survival of Ukraine. Since the Russian invasion began last month, the club has partnered with the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee to direct humanitarian aid, medical supplies, clothing, and food to Ukraine and have become a critical relief information hub. Many families have offered to open their doors to refugees, said Luciw.
“The resulting outpouring of donations and support — and the number of lives that will be saved as a result — has been a very gratifying experience for everybody,” he said.
Meanwhile, the club’s soccer fields have offered something else to the Ukrainians players and supporters: an escape.
“A getaway,” said Roman Chuprynyak, 37, of Chalfont, a Temple grad and international business consultant, who is a player/manager on the club’s adult soccer teams. “For ninety minutes a week, a chance to focus on nothing but soccer.”
“In their era, the Ukrainian Nationals were the best in American soccer,” said Roger Allaway, a former historian of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and a retired Inquirer copy editor. “Their legacy is in the championship teams”
In a time when U.S. professional soccer still consisted heavily of ethnically based teams — like the New York Hakoah-Americans, Falcons-Warsaw, and Newark Portuguese — the Ukrainians reigned supreme. Between 1960 and 1970, the Ukrainians won six American Soccer League crowns, and four U.S. Open Cups, and in two seasons captured both titles — a feat not repeated until 1996 by D.C. United. Top European teams, like Manchester United and Manchester City, even came to Philly to take on the mighty Ukrainians.
“Even though there were different nationalities on the team, we all took pride in playing for the Ukrainian Nationals,” said George Litynskij, a goalie on the 1966 national championship squad — still the last Philly team to win the title. Litynskij, who is now 84, and lives in Dresher with his wife Ana Maria, was a boy when his family fled Ukraine near the end of World War II to escape Soviet rule. For a time, he lived — and practiced soccer — in a displaced persons camp near Austria.
“For me there was an extra sense of pride because I am Ukrainian,” he said. “When the community would come to watch us play, I could feel a strong sense of patriotism. 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.”
The Ukrainians were the first American soccer club to have its home games — most of which played at cramped Edison Field, near 29th and Cambria — televised. The city even considered building them a soccer stadium in Fairmount Park.
Like any tried-and-true Philly sports fans, Ukrainians supporters could cry foul over even the hint of disrespect. See this Inquirer reader in 1963, fuming over a local brewery’s lack of sponsorship.
”The fact remains that the Ukrainian Nationals is the only local pro sports team that continues to win championships for Philadelphia,” wrote Alexander Yaremko. “Neither the press, radio, television, a grocery chain nor a brewery seem to give a hoot: Why?”
For his part, Luciw, 63, who was born in Philadelphia after his parents fled Ukraine, can still recall that day as an 8-year-old, when fans poured onto Edison Field to rejoice yet another Ukrainians title.
“It was like the Super Bowl,” he said. “We saw them as the ambassadors of Ukraine. There was a sudden excitement. Some hope returned. We are, in fact, not these downtrodden people. We can be winners. As Americans we knew this about ourselves, but now the world was seeing this championship spirit.”
That same spirit was on full display at the Tryzub, as the club took the field earlier this month to cheers in a semifinal state cup match against VE Club, a friendly rival with mostly German American players. And though the Ukrainians would eventually lose the match on penalty kicks in double overtime, the score seemed incidental on this night when victory was found in simply taking the field.
Before the match, Chuprynyak, who immigrated to Philadelphia in 2001 — on July Fourth, he noted — led both teams in a moment of silence. He had learned to play as a boy in Khodoriv, his hometown in Western Ukraine, which has so far escaped the ravages of war. His grandmother lives back home — and two cousins serve with the Territorial Defense Forces.
“The Tryzub is a place of pride,” he said.
On the sidelines, Father Taras Naumenko, 51, club chaplain and a pastor at St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in East Oak Lane, stood proudly with his son, Julian. Soccer runs in their blood. Father Naumenko played goalie for the Ukrainians, and fit and firm, still plays the occasional over 40s match. Julian, 16, also a standout goalie, recently helped lead his Archbishop Wood High School team to the state finals. (Naumenko’s father, Borys, played goalie in a German Labor camp after fleeing Ukraine,)
Tirelessly coordinating church and club relief efforts, Father Naumenko recently asked Julian how he would feel if he traveled to Ukraine to minister.
“If you go, I go,” Julian said.
Now, the priest capped the pregame ceremonies by thundering out the opening line of a Ukrainian battle cry, with players joining in refrain:
“Slava Ukraini!” (Glory to Ukraine!)
“Heroiam slava!” (Glory to the heroes!)
“Slave Natsiyi!” (Glory to the nation!)
“Smert’ yiyi voroham!” (Death to the enemies!)
And with that the Ukrainian Nationals, champions once, and still fighting, played a game of soccer.
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