Did you know Nashville has a rich soccer history? When Pharmaceutical Soccer co-host Clay Trainum moved here in 2017, he couldn’t find much local history about the sport. He decided to collect physical mementos of Nashville’s soccer history and compile them into the Nashville Soccer Archive, which he has since donated to Vanderbilt University. With Nashville SC missing the playoffs for the first time in their Major League Soccer history, perhaps some hindsight is in order.
The Teams That Came Before
“There's a lot of pre-history to the existence of the Nashville Soccer Club that we now know and love,” says Trainum, a former sports information director who now works at the MTSU library. He traces the club’s lineage from the United Soccer League years backwards to the Nashville Diamonds, a pro team that played only one season, in 1982: “I have access to full newspaper archives of both the Nashville Banner and The Tennessean,” he says. “So I spent a few late nights in our microfilm collection clipping every single story I could find. They were doomed to failure from the start, but their mere existence felt significant. I mean, this was a professional soccer team playing in Nashville, 16 years before the Titans and Predators came to town.”
Why Newspapers Matter
The biggest thing Trainum says he’s learned through his research is the importance of newspapers. “The absolute best thing about digging on the Diamonds and other older teams is that the local newspaper covered every living, breathing sports moment in Nashville,” he explains. “As papers shrunk and stuff moved online, information just disappeared into the ether. I'm afraid that I'm destined to never learn of certain results for games that were played fewer than 15 years ago, but I had no problem finding results from 40 years ago.”
Newspapers are integral to tracking history. (Clay Trainum / Nashville Soccer Archive)
Building the Archive
Trainum is telling as much of our city’s soccer story as possible at NashvilleSoccerArchive.com, which he calls a “passion project.” He also maintains a physical archive — including the program from the Diamonds’ first-ever professional match — which he recently transferred to the Special Collections and University Archives at the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University. The centerpiece of the collection is a very special game ball. “Back in 2018, I decided to travel to NSC's third-ever match, in Bethlehem, PA,” Trainum says. “I saw it as an opportunity to geek out and potentially see their first professional goal. About five minutes in, a very controversial penalty was awarded, and Michael Cox scored from the spot. Some of the bench players ran down to the corner where I was standing to celebrate with me, and after the game, Liam Doyle gave me the game ball, signed by the whole team and the manager.”
Looking to the Future
As local soccer culture grows alongside our status as a world-class sports city, many fans are hoping Nashville will land a professional women’s soccer franchise in the near future. Trainum is working to ensure his archive is equitable, too. “Let me tell you, if you think information is scarce in the [men’s game], it's even harder to find info on the WPSL,” he admits. “We actually had a bit of a women's soccer moment in the city this year, as there were three pre-professional teams playing this past summer, something that had never happened before. I've been a loud supporter of bringing pro women's soccer to this city, and I want to make sure that when — not if! — that happens, historical information about the women's game in Nashville is accessible as well.”
