Obituary: John Kerr, footballer, coach and union leader

Former Cosmos team mate of Pelé who played a key role in developing US soccer

John Kerr, footballer, coach, union leader.

Born: 15 October, 1943, in Glasgow.

Died: 19 June, 2011, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, aged 67.

From youth player at Partick Thistle to playing alongside the incomparable Pel and becoming the first Scottish professional to be signed by a Mexican club – that was just part of the extraordinary journey made throughout his footballing life by John Kerr.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

All but forgotten in his home country, Kerr was an important figure in the development of "soccer", as they always call it in the USA, where the legacy of his coaching work is still felt, particularly in the Washington DC area.

Details of his early career in Scotland are patchy, but Kerr was on the books of Partick Thistle at the age of 17. When his mother decided to emigrate, Kerr went with her and from the age of 20 he could be found playing for clubs in Toronto.

A diminutive, but fiercely competitive Scottish midfielder who loved to attack and score goals, Kerr became a naturalised Canadian citizen, but it was in the USA that he would spend most of his playing and coaching career.

In 1968, Kerr signed for the Detroit Cougars of the 17-team former North American Soccer League, which was created from a merger of the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League.

That year he was selected to play for the first time for Canada. In all, he would play ten times for his adopted country.

After one season in Detroit, Kerr moved on to the Washington Darts and became their star player as he helped the team moved up from the second to the top division of the NASL.

The call to join what would become the biggest and best club in the USA, New York Cosmos, came in time for Kerr to be a major part of the team that won the North American championship in 1972.

Taking a brief break from the Cosmos at the end of the title-winning season, Kerr went off to Mexico to play for Club America in Mexico City, performing in front of fanatical crowds of 120,000.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Returning to Cosmos, he was a regular on the wing and in midfield of a side which had not yet signed the massive stars that it would – Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia and, of course, Pel.

Of that trio, only Pel's time overlapped with that of Kerr, and for one glorious season in 1975, though Kerr did not feature in all the matches, the ex-Thistle dynamo and the Brazilian superstar played together and got on well – so much so that Pel presented a personal medal to Kerr's ten-year-old son John. In 1976, Kerr signed for Washington Diplomats, and ended his playing career with them the following season, during which he played his final game for Canada, ironically a 3-0 defeat of his new homeland, the USA.

Kerr moved seamlessly into coaching in the Washington area, and became renowned for trying to persuade youthful players to attack by passing instead of just hitting it long – the Brazilian style, as one fellow coach said, unaware that it was Scots who taught the Brazilians how to play. His various teams prospered over the years, so much so that Kerr was elected into the Soccer Hall of Fame for Washington DC and Virginia state.

Kerr also developed a second career as administrator with the US players' unions, eventually becoming their elected leader – a remarkable double for Partick Thistle as another ex-player Tony Higgins held the equivalent role in Scotland.

Kerr's son John, invariably known in the American style as John Jnr, was born during his father's spell at Toronto in 1965. John Jr became a star college footballer before turning professional, playing firstly with Portsmouth in England and then for clubs in France, Northern Ireland and the USA.

John Jnr also completed a rare double in North American soccer by playing for the USA a total of 17 times, seven caps more than his father gained for Canada. Having been head coach at Harvard, John Jr carries on the family coaching tradition as head coach at Duke University in North Carolina.

John Kerr Snr carried on coaching youngsters almost to the day of his death from heart disease, and the respect and affection in which he was held, particularly for his years of dedicated coaching, have led to many tributes being paid to him.

The most moving of them came from American sports writer Paul Gardner, who knew him for 40 years, and wrote: "John had soccer as a companion throughout his life, he loved it and he hated it all the time, he rejoiced in its glories, despaired with its stupidities and failures. All the soccer emotions were there (but not the artificially hyped 'passion') and they were gloriously genuine, they were warm and exciting, always irresistible."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

John Kerr married, first, Rena ne Rooney, who died in 1988. His second marriage to Ann ended in divorce. He is survived by his son John; three grandchildren, Cameron John, Alexandra Catherine and Drew; and his two brothers and a sister.