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Soccer Ball

National Museum of American History

Object Details

North American Soccer League
Adidas
Description
The soccer ball has evolved over the years, but the most famous model is the Adidas Telstar. It is made of leather and consists of 32 hand-stitched panels - 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons. These shapes are used to create the “roundest sphere of all time.” The use of white and black made the ball more visible on television. The first was used in 1970 for the FIFA (International Federation of Football Association) World Cup.
Different leagues began to use different colored balls to create “trademark” looks. The red, white, and blue ball shown here was used in the NASL’s (North American Soccer League) first championship game. The “Soccer Bowl,” as NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam christened it, was played on August 24, 1975, in San Jose, California, between the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Portland Timbers, two expansion teams that joined the league that year. Tampa Bay beat the all-British Timbers, 2-0, and became the third consecutive expansion team to take the NASL crown.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
North American Soccer League
ca 1975
1975
ID Number
1979.1059.01
accession number
1979.1059
catalog number
1979.1059.01
Object Name
ball
ball, soccer
soccer ball
Physical Description
leather (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 7 in; x 17.78 cm
place made
France
See more items in
Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
Artifact Walls exhibit
Title
Soccer Ball, used in the 1975 NASL Championship Game
National Museum of American History
name of sport
Soccer
level of sport
Professional
web subject
Sports
Record ID
nmah_682185
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-0273-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Related Content

  • Soccer

Soccer ball
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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