DORCHESTER, MA — On the face of it the Banshee Pub in Dorchester is your average hole in the wall, Irish pub. Dark wood, pub tables, and soccer memorabilia on the walls. But appearances, well, they can be deceiving… because the Banshee is home to something very special. The Banshee is where the Boston chapter of the American Outlaws supporters group meet for watch parties and official meetings, cementing this little corner of Boston into a piece of US Soccer folklore.
The American Outlaws has well over 150 chapters in the United States as of todays writing but it all started in 2007 in Lincoln, Nebraska — the same year as the American Outlaws’ Boston chapter was established. American Outlaws Boston founding member Fran Harrington sat down with Scott Nicholls at a recent watch party for the US Men’s National Team exhibition match against Ecuador to talk about how the American Outlaws invaded Boston…
Most US soccer fans have a eureka moment of how they discovered soccer so how did you “get into” soccer — or were you born into it?
FH: No definitely not born into it. I’m from a very traditional Boston family watching the Celts [Boston Celtics], the Pats, the [Red] Sox, the big four growing up here. I casually starting watching in 2001 watching the New England Revolution and some european matches here and there but I was hardly a “die-harder” — not even what I would consider a supporter. It was really my roommates in 2006 who dragged me out of bed for the Germany v Poland game — the first game of the 2006 World Cup — that got me hooked. I think I watched every match of that World Cup and I haven’t really looked back since!
So now you’re hooked on soccer — when did you decide you wanted to be involved with the American Outlaws movement by being the founding member of the AO Boston chapter?
FH: The way that i found out about it of all things was a Facebook ad! Apparently they targeted soccer fans and hey, it got me! We’re the 4th chapter so I jumped on right away… checked it all out, made sure the guys were legit. We needed 25 people and we had it within a couple of days! That was back in 2007 when the Outlaws were first formed and we’ve been up and running and growing ever since…
How many members are you up to right now?
FH: It fluctuates — especially in World Cup years — i think we’re at around 600 now but we have been as high as 900 in the past. We’ve almost gotten to 1000 a few times.
Okay, be honest… is there some competition between the chapters?
FH: Absolutely! We have a group that’s all for the leaders and it’s mostly for sharing best practices, but we also give each other a lot of shit on there too! Just some good natured ribbing, though. I know the guys in New York really well and I remember one time we were one member short of them and I got so much shit for being a bigger chapter by one member! BUT we were actually the second largest chapter at one point — the largest being DC.
Our claim to fame nationally though is we have the AO Ball that we do every year — it’s become a destination [for all AO members]rather than just for locals. It’s a charity event we do for America Scores Boston — we call it the “Soccer Prom,” — we all get dressed up for the night and take over a bar, there’s events, we raise money, it’s not really soccer related except for the people who are there.
You do a really great job of keeping people involved and engaged in the community, aside from the “Soccer Prom” how do you do it?
FH: We try to reach out to the local soccer entities, be it professional or not. We try and put together teams in soccer competitions, do outings to Revs games, Breakers games, or we’ll just invite all the members down to watch the Champions League final if there’s a long span without a USMNT game. Just things that bring everybody together and keep the chapter at the forefront of everybody’s mind, getting them together to have a beer is usually something we all want to do anyway so it’s good for everyone!
Biggest watch party so far?
FH: Oh wow… the last World Cup I was telling people to be here [Banshee Boston] THREE HOURS before kick off if they even wanted to get in and we were at capacity easily three hours prior to kick off. We sold out here, and the overflow bar across the street and then a couple of satellite bars in the area that aren’t official AO bars so I couldn’t even tell you — but it’s probably in the thousands.
What is the proudest moment you’ve had as the founding member of this American Outlaws chapter? You don’t have to count this interview if you don’t want to, we promise.
FH: I’ve actually never been asked that before! It’s got to be when I travel to other games and someone will know me and say “oh hey that’s Fran from Boston” and people will bring up the tailgate from the USA v Spain game in 2009 because thats ranked as one of the best AO tailgates of all time, apparently, so that flatters me!
So tell us about it! What made it so legendary?
FH: Haha well the game was shit, we got our asses handed to us — maybe that’s why every body remembers the tailgate! It was out first real test as a chapter for pulling off the tailgate, we’d had a game in ’07 and we didn’t really didn’t know what we were doing then and we had big shoes to fill the next time around. So we went off site away from Gillette Stadium, so that helped things because we had less rules that we had to follow! We had five busses full of people that went just from Boston, as well as there being 4 from New York and 3 from Hartford, CT — it was insane. We took over an entire plot of land there, hotdogs and hamburgers for everybody, I flipped so many hamburgers and i don’t even eat meat and it was awesome.
Do you think that the American Outlaws movement will breed a new generation of fans that will grow up entrenched in the sport instead of discovering it like you, and many other US Soccer fans, had to?
FH: Absolutely. I’m of the age now where all my friends are having kids and the first joke out of their mouth is “Hey, here’s the next number 10 for the men’s or women’s national team” — everybody just assumes their kid is going to grow up being a soccer fan these days. it definitely seems like the genie is out of the bottle and I think the next generation will hopefully do the US proud!
Finally: What is like to be a part of this movement?
FH: It’s… weird at times… especially when I step back and think about where we came from and looking now at where we’re at. We were chapter number 4 and now there’s almost two-hundred, I just can’t believe that’s a thing, it makes me just shake my head y’know. It makes me proud, especially seeing as I was in on the ground floor in 2007, but also just knowing that this is something that people care about and it keeps growing and growing. We do everything we can do to help the teams on the field and grow the sport off the field — it’s awesome. I wouldn’t change a thing.
The watch party itself was a relatively tame affair — there were no “I believe” chants, or people waving scarves, just 20 or so people coming together on a Wednesday evening for a game that was simply an exhibition game before a major national tournament.
The USMNT scraped a 1-0 win off of Darlington Nagbe’s first international goal which came late in the game and when it went in AO Boston erupted! What was very obvious and apparent throughout the game was the passion that one would assume all American Outlaws have for the national team and for soccer in America.
If you’re not part of a chapter right now during the Copa Centenario, then there’s still time to join — you will absolutely not be sorry you did. So thanks AO Boston — “We believe.”
The USMNT look to get back on track with a win versus Costa Rica tonight at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. Kick off is at 8pm ET on Fox Sports 1, and Univision.
USMNT
Copa America
