Colin Jose was born in England in the seaport town of Falmouth in July 1936. As a young man he initially emigrated to Canada in 1957; went back to England and later resettled in Canada permanently.

Colin died on Saturday evening September 14, 2024. The link to his obituary is posted at the top of the column to the right.

He researched and wrote about the history of soccer in both Canada and the United States for over 40 years and is considered the pre-eminent authority on the history of the game on this side of the Atlantic. Until its transfer to Canada Soccer Colin was Historian of The Soccer Hall of Fame in Vaughan, Ontario. In Canada Colin was inducted into The Soccer Hall of Fame in Vaughan, Ontario in 2009 for his research into the game in Canada and the U.S.

In the United States Colin was the Historian/Archivist at the National Soccer Hall of Fame from 1997 to 2007. On October 11, 2004 the National Soccer Hall of Fame named its Media award in Colin's honour.

(The Hall of Fame in Oneonta ceased to exist in 2010 due to the 2008 Wall Street crash.)

For a number of years Colin represented Canada and the United States on the executive committee of the International Federation of Football History of Statistics in Bonn, Germany. He also served as the Historian at the Hamilton, Ontario Soccer Hall of Fame.

He is the author of nine books on the history of soccer in North America including two books on the North American Soccer League, NASL: A Complete Record of the North American Soccer League and North American Soccer League Encyclopedia. The others include American Soccer League 1921-1931, The Encyclopedia of American Soccer History (written with Roger Allaway and David Litterer), The United States Tackles the World Cup (with Roger Allaway), The United States and World Cup Soccer Competition, The Story of Soccer in Canada, Keeping Score: The Encyclopedia of Canadian Soccer and On Side: 125 Years of Soccer in Ontario.

Unlike sports such as hockey, football, baseball and basketball, very few records were ever kept of soccer in North America, and hardly any books were ever published. But over the years, working with newspaper microfilm, Colin reconstructed many of the records of the game that had long been considered to be lost. Over time it is hoped that this website will contain many of those records.

A note on the web site: For a number of years Michael Smith and Les Jones sat on the Board of The Soccer Hall of Fame with Colin. Les was one of the original Governors of The Hall of Fame and for a period he was Chair of The Hall of Fame and Museum prior to its transfer into the hands of Canada Soccer. Michael Smith has redesigned the Canadian Soccer History site to accommodate its steady expansion. 

Queries and correspondence to the site are mainly answered by Les Jones who is an active soccer historian and professional photographer who has also published a highly praised coffee table book on Canadian soccer history. So the site is in good hands!

YOU CAN REACH US HERE: soccerhistory@icloud.com

About the website Canadian Soccer History (CSH) Association Football, or as it is usually referred to in Canada today, Soccer, has a long and fascinating history. As very little of that history is generally known, this is an attempt at correcting that omission. So if you like sports history, in general, and are interested in soccer history, in particular, then you might find that this site will answer many of your questions. Here you will find a lot of team names and players names, as well as the names of those who have administered the game. For those who are interested in genealogy, you might well be able to trace your ancestors who played the game, or led one of the numerous soccer associations.

While you will find some more recent or modern history much of the work has been concentrated on the period from 1876, when the game arguably has its beginnings in Canada, to the early 1940s, when World War Two seriously interfered with the progression of the sport. In those early years, soccer was always known as Football.

The Western Football Association, formed in 1880, has nothing to do with the game played today by the Toronto Argonauts or Saskatchewan Roughriders. The various provincial soccer associations of today were almost always known Football Associations. The Ontario Football Association, today Ontario Soccer, was formed in 1901. The Dominion of Canada Football Association, now named Canada Soccer , was formed in 1912, and so on.

The research for this project was mostly conducted by consulting a large variety of newspapers on microfilm at McMaster University in Hamilton and at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. It is a work in progress, and always will be. The website is based on the personal research of Colin Jose and is not connected to, or approved by, any soccer organization.