The stories of the Scottish-Americans who delivered the USMNT’s greatest World Cup result

The Athletic has live coverage of USMNT vs Australia at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Belgium arrived at the first World Cup in 1930 in Montevideo as one of the favourites, having won gold at the 1920 Olympics Games.

In their opening game they were stunned by the United States, losing 3-0 to a nation with little pedigree in the sport.

The Americans were nicknamed the ‘shot-putters’, defending robustly and scoring from fast breakaways.

The Belgians were not happy.

“During the game they had picked up on what sounded like alien accents to them,†says James Brown, vice president of the Society for American Soccer History (SASH).

“They were complaining that the U.S. had brought in ringers to improve their team. Half of these guys were not American. There is no way they could play like this. They took their complaints to the FIFA and the Uruguayan FA, but after passport verification, the complaint was closed.â€

The Belgians weren’t wrong: half the U.S. team did have an accent. They were Scots who had arrived as children at the turn of the 20th century, the sons of fathers who had ventured across the Atlantic to exploit the demand for industrial labour.

All were naturalised U.S. citizens, and this team, packed with Scottish-Americans, powered their adopted America to a third-place finish, still their best-ever.

Andrew Auld from Stevenston representing Providence Clamdiggers, Alexander Wood from Lochgelly representing Detroit’s Holley Carburetor, Jim Brown from Kilmarnock representing New York Giants, plus James Gallagher from Kirkintilloch and Bart McGhee from Edinburgh of the New York Nationals.

Even their coach Bob Millar hailed from Paisley. Physical trainer John Call grew up in Glasgow, having been born in Downpatrick, Ireland. A sixth player, James Gentle, whose father James Sr was born in Hutchesontown, Glasgow, served primarily as a Spanish translator and the only amateur in the squad as a player for Philadelphia Cricket Club.

The Tartan Army, who have received such a warm welcome in Boston at this World Cup, might not realise how closely intertwined the footballing history of both nations is.

Brown has spent over a decade scouring the world, tracing the journeys of the men, including his grandfather Jim, who formed that 1930 team.

He has befriended other descendants and made amateur detectives out of many of them.

“Even though I was young, those conversations with my grandfather still registered,†says Brown. “They were in my mind for decades until I finally understood that more important was understanding the origins of the man behind the uniform.

“You start to find family members, distant and close. You want to share that information and those photos as they maybe only know the tip of the iceberg. It’s about family and pride, two strong elements of American and Scottish values.â€

With the World Cup on American soil and Scotland back on the stage after a 28-year absence, The Athletic went in search of the descendants of the Scottish-Americans of 1930.

---

John Auld, great-nephew of Andy ‘Dasher’ Auld

Back in 2010, John Auld left his home in Ayrshire for a Manchester United game, a day to lift the spirits of his friend, Davie Galloway, who was battling cancer.

Galloway happened to be old friends with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and when he was introduced to Auld, Ferguson asked if he was any relation to Celtic winger Bertie Auld, part of the Lisbon Lions team who were the first British side to win the European Cup in 1967.

“No, I’m a Rangers man, but I can do better than the European Cup,†said Auld.

“My great uncle Andy played in the semi-final of the 1930 World Cup for America.â€

Ferguson’s jaw dropped.

“This is great. Just wait until I tell Bobby Charlton that Scotland got there before England!†he said.

It was one of the first times Auld had publicly boasted about his family’s footballing history.

Growing up, he had been sworn to secrecy. His father did not want anyone to suspect arrogance in what is a tight-knit, working-class community. So he continued wearing his Manchester United and Rangers jerseys pretending to be Denis Law and Jim Baxter rather than his great uncle Andy.

“There is a lot of Scottishness about that. Do not boast — ever,†says Auld, sitting in his home in Saltcoats on the west coast of Scotland.

“I went along with it but time catches up and it gets to the point where you say, ‘Crikey, I am bloody proud of that’.â€

Born in Chemical Row, the unglamorous two-room houses built next to the 30 coal pits which dominated Stevenston, Ayrshire, Andy followed his family down the mines.

He joined First World War effort at just 14, seeing action at the Somme. Recently John Auld discovered a book about The Seaforth Highlanders, the cover of which has a photo of his great uncle, clad in a kilt and taking shelter in the trenches.

Auld survived and, in 1919, started playing football for Ardeer Thistle in 1919, the club his brother John (Auld’s grandfather) founded in 1900.

Auld then followed his five brothers and sister to the U.S. on the promise of work. He was the last to take the leap and ended up in Gillespie, Illinois. Soon after, however, he had resolved to come home.

He made a farewell visit to his sister in Niagara and, while there, joined in a pick-up game. The owner of a steel works was watching and offered him a spot on his professional team and Auld negotiated a job as a sheet metal worker too. He earned $30 dollars a week in Providence, Rhode Island; the going rate in Scotland was $2.

Nicknamed ‘Dasher’, owing to his speed, he made his U.S. national team debut in 1926, scoring twice in a 6-2 victory over Canada.

He rarely spoke of his exploits at the 1930 tournament. On the occasions he did, his great-nephew would eavesdrop, soaking up every detail, including how he battled through a game with a rag to soak up the blood in the 6-1 semi-final defeat by Argentina.

“He was kicked in the face and it ripped open. He lost four of his front teeth but played on with a rag in his mouth. He held it in by biting on it,†says Auld.

Andy stole the match ball but none of his family know where it is now. John has a replica of his medal, though, and this year will collect an Ardeer hall of fame certificate on behalf of Andy when he becomes the first name to be inducted.

He is not the last Ardeer Thistle player to reach the World Cup. Southampton striker Ross Stewart, who is part of Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad, started his youth career at Ardeer.

---

George Brown, son of James Brown

In 1947 George Brown, 12, was making his daily pilgrimage through Troon, kicking a tennis ball from his doorstep to the gate of Marr College. On the way he performed his customary flip into the sand pit.

That morning he had picked up a medal he had found in the house. When he dusted himself off he realised it was no longer in his pocket. He did not understand the gravity of what he had lost until he got home.

This was his father’s World Cup medal. “I felt so bad. Somehow, miraculously, it was found and returned to me,†says Brown, aged 91.

“Somebody must have recognised it belonged to the family and turned it over. It was missing a couple of days. Just long enough that I almost had a heart attack.â€

It was the first introduction to his father’s legend. In their time in Troon between 1940 and 1948, football was not a major part of life. Rugby union was the bigger sport.

It was only when his father moved the family to Greenwich, Connecticut, and started coaching soccer and rifling at Brunswick private school that George became aware of his father’s exploits.

Jim Brown moved to the U.S. at 17, to track down his alcoholic father who had fled home a decade earlier, leaving him and his seven siblings struggling.

“There was no relationship with his father,†says Brown. “He was a master painter and would work six months a year at these big mansions. He would do the fine painting and make good money for the quality of work. Then he’d drink for six months until the next painting job arrived.â€

Brown lived with his uncle and built his own life. He got a job as a sheet metal worker in Plainfield and began playing for Plainfield SC, before moving to Bayonne Rovers, Newark Skeeters and New York Giants.

Within two years he had made the World Cup squad. He played a key role in the USMNT’s win against Belgium with a lobbed pass that went down as one of the plays of the tournament and scored in the semi-final against Argentina.

“He meant to cross the ball,†Brown says. “He didn’t tell many people that but he was aiming at the far post and it curved.

“I never knew if it was sour grapes or not but he was very defensive about the match. His description was that it was brutal and the referee let everything go. He believed the Argentina objective was to knock players out of the game. They were playing the man, not the ball.

“The U.S. ended up with eight fully-functional players. Jimmy Douglas, the goalie, took some nasty kicks on the knee and was forced to retired within a year afterwards.â€

He went on to become the first American to play for Manchester United, Tottenham and Brentford.

George, nicknamed the ‘mighty mite’ due to his size, attempted to emulate his father. They even played together in one game.

“He would wait for the opportune moment and shout, ‘Go!’ for me to break forward. We switched positions, though, so I collected the ball and split the full backs with a through pass. I shouted, ‘Go!’ He stopped in his tracks and said, ‘George I’m 42 years old, I’m not going anywhere!’

“He was so casual and had such a smooth natural way of playing. He had no speed by this time but he still had the vision. He had a nice body swerve. He would send them to the stands. He was ahead of his time in America.â€

Brown’s grandson James, the driving force keeping the memory of the 1930 team alive, played soccer in his youth and found that a small patch of grass at Farchers Grove in Union, New Jersey, triangulated their love affair with the sport.

James played there with national champions Union Lancers in 1990 under iconic U.S. coach Manny Schellscheidt, the future assistant of Bob Bradley; George with German-Hungarians in 1954, with whom he won a league title under future USMNT head coach Erno Schwarz; and Jim as manager of Polish Elizabeth Falcons between 1956 and 1958.

“It was about 3ft by 3ft. You were picking up rocks and chucking it to the side,†says James Brown.

“It was a dust bowl. But it was ours.â€

---

Justin Kichline, great-nephew of James Gentle

James Gentle was not supposed to be in Montevideo in 1930. His place originally belonged to William Lingelbach, the captain of the team, but he was taking the bar exam and had to stay home. Gentle was his replacement.

“It helped that he spoke Spanish,†says his great-nephew Justin Kichline.

“His mother was from the north of Spain so I imagine they had to learn a bit of Spanish to communicate with her. My grandmother always talked about her growing up. She was Castilian so that’s where we get our olive complexion.â€

As he speaks to the The Athletic on a video call, his bronzed face beams in the Texan sun. Kichline, a logistics co-ordinator at a chemical manufacturer in Houston, is accused by his wife of being a ‘sleuth’ over how much time he dedicates to preserving Gentle’s memory.

Kichline never met his great uncle as he died in 1986, three years before he was born in 1989. As Gentle had no children, Kichline relied upon the tales from his grandfather and his parents.

Gentle’s father was raised in Glasgow but emigrated to Boston in 1896 where he worked as a leather merchant.

Gentle and Kichline’s great-grandfather were superb athletes. They went to the University of Pennsylvania on full athletic scholarships. Gentle played soccer and field hockey.

Gentle served in the Second World War, leading a liberating force to Digne-les-Bains in Provence, France.

He married upwards in class to Eleanor Dixon Gentle, an heiress of the wealthy Philadelphia Widener family. They met at the Philadelphia Cricket Club while playing tennis.

Her grandfather owned half the town, while her brother owned the Philadelphia 76ers, the basketball team. All her money was in a trust and donated to charity when she died in her 50s from breast cancer. After his wife passed Gentle started travelling more and was on a senior am-pro golf circuit.

“He did not have children so the family don’t know where any of his personal belongings are but I suspect it may be in the family home that her brother’s grandchildren now lives in. My hope is that some of their old pictures and wedding pictures are there.

“I heard stories of him and was always captivated by him. He lived a fabulous life. My eventual goal is to write a book about his life.â€

After Gentle’s’ death, his estate was taken care of by a familiar name: Lingelbach, the man he had replaced in 1930 was his lawyer. He sent across Gentle’s army jacket and decorations to the French town he liberated. Team-mates at last.

---

Scott Such, great-grandson of Jim Gallagher

It wasn’t until 1986 that Scott Such realised what his great-grandfather had achieved.

Then his cousin was given a job at a Cleveland Browns game — he was dating the daughter of the general manager at the time.

“We found a pamphlet about the soccer hall of fame inductees for that year and he was in it. That exploded everything,†says Such.

Gallagher’s father William, a coal miner, passed away from pneumonia when he was 38. Gallagher was only one, the youngest of seven kids.

Last year Such made a visit to Kirkintilloch, Glasgow, attending mass at his family’s chapel and visiting the street Gallagher grew up in. He paid his respects at his great-grandfather’s headstone in Auld Aisle Cemetery, but found it laying tipped over.

When speaking to the groundskeeper, he made a harrowing discovery: there are two babies buried next to their father. One died stillborn, the other before their second birthday. It left Such’s mother Margaret in a perilous position. When he was 12, she took Gallagher and his sister to New York.

He made his first steps into soccer by playing for the companies he worked for: J&P Coats, Fleisher Yarn, Indiana Flooring and Cleveland Graphite Bronze.

In 1928, he was on the Olympics team in Amsterdam and played in the opening World Cup match against Belgium. He was the only member of the team to make the 1934 World Cup team, a tribute to a longevity that saw him play 346 regular season matches — the fourth-most on the all-time U.S. list.

Gallagher lived until 1971, when Such was only three. He has no recollection of meeting his great-grandfather but he is determined to preserve what they can find of his life. Such as the letter found in a box recently, written by a woman called Rosa.

“They must have met during the tournament as she was head over heels,†says Such. “She wrote this love letter but he was still on the ship coming back to New York when she sent it.â€

In the end, he married Marie, an Irish girl from Cleveland. He became a painter in Cleveland and made bearings for machine parts.

Such found a few signature retirement gifts, including a bottle containing a green and white figurine inside. His mother kept it in her dresser drawer and his brother would take it out to play with.

“I always knew it meant something to her,†he says. “When she was younger her father took her to a Celtic game. Talking to the guys at the museum they said Celtic toured in the late 40s, early 50s, and he thinks it was a promotional piece and they got a hold of one.â€

The family donated 85 artefacts to the Scottish football museum where there is a cabinet displaying his World Cup medal.

The team features at the U.S. equivalent, which reopened in 2018 following a eight-year hiatus when its New York facility closed. The team were inducted to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986 and a case has been submitted to the Scottish FA for their efforts across the Atlantic to be recognised.

---

Tim McGhee, grandson of Bart ‘Bertie’ McGhee

They rest nonchalantly on the edge of the wooden boat, their skip caps battling against the ocean wind as their necks strain to down a cold bottle of beer.

It is Bart McGhee, scorer of the first U.S. goal at a World Cup. Next to him, James Brown. They are heading home.

“It’s my favourite photo of him,†says his grandson Tim McGhee.

His daughter — who took a trip to Edinburgh to secure a physical copy of his birth certificate — has it hanging on the wall in her house. It is one of many pictures the family have stumbled upon in recent years.

Born in Edinburgh in 1899, Bart was 12 when he went to the U.S. and never left — bar the 1930 World Cup.

At 31, he was the oldest outfield player on the team but he made history by becoming the first U.S. scorer at a World Cup. Frenchman Lucien Laurent beat him to the accolade of being the first scorer at a World Cup by 20 minutes.

“I was a teenager by the time I was aware,†says Tim. “It was, ‘Wow I have a grandfather in the Soccer Hall of Fame!’ but not having the connection to the game or posters on my wall, it dampened compared to someone else who was much more involved in the game.

“It breaks my heart that you don’t get to talk to my dad as he could tell you so much about Bart. I was young and my parents moved out of Philly to South Jersey. There was no organised soccer. It was the big three — baseball, football, basketball. I had no connection to the game.â€

Growing up in Philadelphia, his interactions with his grandfather were limited before he died in 1979. He does recall him sitting in the corner chair drinking whisky and having a good voice.

“When mum and dad went to the hall of fame they were looking at his exhibit and wondering what certain things were. Someone overheard and told him that he was a good tenor and would sing for the guys on the team.â€

---

Bill Wood, grandson of Alexander Wood 

After their grandmother’s death, the five grandsons were instructed to go into to the basement and take whatever they wanted. Bill was last to go. Sitting there waiting for him was a photo album he had never seen. It could easily have been thrown out in error.

“It was a whole scrapbook and brown leather book of articles. There were illustrations of each player,†he says.

James Brown sent an historian to scan and digitalise each artefact with thousands of photos and documents.

Unlike the others, Bill was able to forge a strong bond with his grandfather in Chicago. He mentioned the World Cup in passing and told a story of playing in front of 100,000 people at Soldier Field in the 1920s due to the soccer boom that European migration brought.

Wood helped foster Bill’s love of football and even started a soccer little league in their local area in Gary, Indiana, which still runs to this day. There was a big Scottish contingent in the area, so much so that they started a Robert Burns night and a bagpipe band.

“He was only inducted into the soccer hall of fame in Indiana a couple of years ago as they really didn’t know much about his history,†says Bill. “He really didn’t tell me stories about that game. I wish he had and I wish I asked him more.â€

If he had, he would have learned that he was a full-back described “as safe as the U.S. treasury†who earned five caps. The son of a former Scotland international, football was in the genes.

He went back to the UK and played for Leicester City and Nottingham Forest before settling in Indiana where he retired in a supervisory role at U.S. Steel.

“The only time you hear about the 1930 team is when the World Cup is on but I’ve been listening to news programs and they typically don’t mention them,†says Bill.

“It would be a big help to soccer if the U.S. could advance a little further than usual. But Scotland is No 2 for me.â€