When did ASL develop?
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Aside from regular features in The General Magazine, AH also produced a series of magazines focused on ASL but with some original SL content also, beginning in 1989. The ASL Annual was, as the name implies, released once a year, with issues in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992, and two issues were published in 1993 (called ASL Annual '93a and ASL Annual '93b). No issue was published in 1994, with issues again appearing in 1995, 1996 and 1997. The 1995 issue was named ASL Annual '95w (Winter) in anticipation of a second issue that year being printed in the summer, but it did not materialize. Scenarios located in the ASL Annual were numbered sequentially with an "A" prefix, either ASL Scenario A1, A2, etc., or SL Scenario A1, A2, etc., Deluxe ASL Scenario A1, A2, etc.
Advanced Squad Leader
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ASL originated in the early 19th century in the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut, from a situation of language contact. Since then, ASL use has propagated widely via schools for the deaf and Deaf community organizations. Despite its wide use, no accurate count of ASL users has been taken, though reliable estimates for American ASL users range from 250,000 to 500,000 persons, including a number of children of deaf adults. ASL users face stigma due to beliefs in the superiority of oral language to sign language, compounded by the fact that ASL is often glossed in English due to the lack of a standard writing system.
American Sign Language
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However, resentment continued to simmer between the league and governing body. Matters came to a head in 1928, when the ASL decided to again boycott the Challenge Cup. When three ASL clubs, most prominently Bethlehem Steel, defied the league and entered the cup anyway, the ASL suspended them. In response, the USFA and FIFA declared the ASL an "outlaw league". This sparked the "Soccer War". The ASL team owners defied USFA and FIFA, relying on the league's reputation to continue to draw players. At first it seemed as if the ASL might win; however, USFA then helped bankroll the creation of a new league, the Eastern Professional Soccer League (ESL), to rival the ASL. The three ex-ASL teams joined with several teams from the Southern New York Soccer Association (SNYSA) to form the ESL. This led to the SNYSA, under the leadership of Nat Agar, owner of the ASL Brooklyn Wanderers, to leave USFA and ally with the ASL. Despite the alliance between the ASL and SNYSA, the creation of a competing league caused severe financial strains on the ASL. The league finally broke and came into compliance with USFA and FIFA. In the fall of the 1929/30 season, the ESL and ASL merged to form the Atlantic Coast League which began a 1930 spring-fall season. After the summer break, the league was renamed the American Soccer League and the league finished the fall half of the 1930 season with a different name than it began the spring half.
American Soccer League (1921–33)
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A little background is required to understand the next two years of Slone’s career. The ESL was created during the “Soccer War” which pitted the American Soccer League and the USFA. After three ASL teams were expelled from the league, they joined several other teams to form the ESL. This league lasted a season and a half before merging with the ASL at the end of the “Soccer War”. New York Hakoah was owned by Maurice Vandeweghe, who also owned the New York Giants of the ASL. The merger of the ESL and ASL meant that Vandeweghe now owned to teams in the same league. League rules forbid that, so Vandeweghe sold Hakoah. When he did, Slone jumped to Vandeweghe's other team, the Giants.
Philip Slone
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The Eastern Professional Soccer League was created in response to an attempt by the American Soccer League to break the control of the United States Football Association over professional soccer in the U.S. This conflict, known as the “Soccer War”, had its roots in 1925 when the ASL boycotted the National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup, in order to play a one time American Professional Soccer Championship with the St. Louis Soccer League. This led the USFA to briefly suspend the ASL, only to reinstate them when the league agreed to enter its teams in the next Challenge Cup. The ASL caused more problems for USFA in 1927 when the league signed numerous top European players to lucrative contracts. This led FIFA to consider suspending USFA. However, at the Sixteenth Annual Congress of FIFA, the USFA offered several concessions which led to an agreement among national organizations regarding player contracts. In 1928, several ASL team owners began to chafe again under USFA rules. The most vexing was the requirement to enter the National Challenge Cup which ran during the league’s season. The ASL had two main objections to the Challenge Cup, one financial, the other scheduling. As the cup was open to all teams registered with USFA, ASL teams found themselves playing unknown amateur and semi-professional opponents before non-paying crowds. These games also interfered with the league’s schedule. As a result, the ASL decided to boycott the 1928 cup. Three of the ASL teams, Bethlehem Steel, Newark Skeeters and New York Giants chose to enter the cup. On September 24, 1928, the ASL suspended the three teams and fined each $1000. On October 2, 1928, USFA suspended the ASL and designated it an “outlaw league”. The USFA then brokered the creation of a new league, to be called the Eastern Professional Soccer League. To fill in the league, the USFA induced several teams from the Southern New York Soccer Association (SNYSA) to leave that league. That led the SNYSA, under the leadership of new president Nat Agar, who was also the owner of the Brooklyn Wanderers of the ASL, to leave the USFA and ally itself with the ASL.
Eastern Professional Soccer League (1928–29)
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Due to misconceptions about ASL, it was not recognized as its own, fully functioning language until recently. In the 1960s, linguist William Stokoe proved ASL to be its own language based on its unique structure and grammar, separate from that of English. Prior to this, ASL was thought to be merely a collection of gestures used to represent English. Because of its use of visual space, people mistakenly believed its users to be of a lesser mental capacity. The misconception that ASL users are incapable of complex thought was prevalent, although this has decreased as further studies about its recognition of a language have taken place. For example, ASL users faced overwhelming discrimination for the supposedly "lesser" language that they use and were met with condescension especially when using their language in public. Another way discrimination against ASL is evident is how, despite research conducted by linguists like Stokoe or Clayton Valli and Cecil Lucas of Gallaudet University, ASL is not always recognized as a language. Its recognition is crucial both for those learning ASL as an additional language, and for prelingually-deaf children who learn ASL as their first language. Linguist Sherman Wilcox concludes that given that it has a body of literature and international scope, to single ASL out as unsuitable for a foreign language curriculum is inaccurate. Russel S. Rosen also writes about government and academic resistance to acknowledging ASL as a foreign language at the high school or college level, which Rosen believes often resulted from a lack of understanding about the language. Rosen and Wilcox's conclusions both point to discrimination ASL users face regarding its status as a language, that although decreasing over time is still present.
Linguistic discrimination
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Multi-Man Publishing (MMP) was founded in 1994 by four Avalon Hill playtesters and a graphics art designer. Their first publication was "Backblast", a fanzine for Avalon Hill's wargame "Advanced Squad Leader" (ASL). Around the same time, Avalon Hill had made the decision that ASL did not have a future, and so MMP sought to keep it alive among fans by publishing occasional scenarios and a fanzine. MMP also entered into discussions with AH about purchasing the rights to ASL. In late 1995, professional baseball player Curt Schilling, who was a devoted player of ASL, separately also tried to buy the rights to ASL. Avalon Hill did not agree to either offer, they held out for more money, but introduced Schilling to MMP, who subsequently joined the company as a one-third partner, the other two thirds owned equally by Perry Cocke and Brian Youse.
Multi-Man Publishing
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Although Philadelphia won the first ASL championship, the team was in financial trouble and lacked fan support. The ownership moved it back to Bethlehem the next year taking back their old name. In 1925, Bethlehem, and the rest of the ASL, boycotted the National Challenge Cup. While this created some animosity with the United States Football Association, no serious ramification resulted. However, in 1928, the ASL again boycotted the Challenge Cup. When Bethlehem Steel chose to ignore the boycott, the league expelled them. Under the leadership of the USFA, Bethlehem Steel and two other expelled teams joined with teams from the Southern New York State Soccer Association to create the Eastern Soccer League. These actions, part of the 1928–1929 "Soccer Wars", along with the Great Depression, financially devastated the ASL, ESL and Bethlehem Steel FC. While Bethlehem Steel FC rejoined the ASL in 1929, the damage was done and the team folded after the spring 1930 season.
Bethlehem Steel F.C. (1907–30)
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The Appalachian School of Law (ASL) is an ABA-approved private law school on a four building campus in Grundy, Virginia, a small town near the convergence of Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The school offers a three-year Juris Doctor degree, and enrolls approximately 128 full-time students. The law school was founded in 1994 and it admitted its first class of students in August 1997.
ASL was started and brought to Buchanan County, Virginia as a tool of economic development for the region. ASL is notable for its focus to community service and leadership, emphasizing professional responsibility and alternative dispute resolution in its curriculum and requiring students to complete 25 hours of community service per semester in order to graduate. Each student is also required to complete an externship before graduation. According to ASL's 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 55% of the Class of 2017 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. ASL was also the site of a triple homicide that took place on January 16, 2002.
Appalachian School of Law
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While a computerized assistant for ASL was released (ASL Gamer's Assistance Program, or ASL GAP), no computerized version of the game itself has yet materialized. A similar game called Under Fire was released by Avalon Hill's computer division in 1985 but like most Avalon Hill computer games, was behind the industry standards for graphics and gameplay. It was not billed as a computer version of ASL, though it did bear some similarities in that players commanded roughly company sized forces. Only three maps were available for play. The game was released for Apple II, Commodore 64, and DOS systems. The game was unique (and rather unsatisfying to many) in that for each of the nine scenarios, victory was not declared at game's end. A results screen would show losses in men and equipment, and list possession of objectives, leaving the determination of "victory" to the player.
Advanced Squad Leader
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In the mid-1920s the Rangers were an amateur team in the Southern New York Soccer Association (SNYSA). In 1928, the professional American Soccer League boycotted the National Challenge Cup. Three teams defied the boycott and were suspended by the league. This led the United States Football Association (USFA; now USSF) to declare the ASL an “outlaw league”. The USFA also bankrolled the creation of a league to rival the ASL. Named the Eastern Professional Soccer League, or Eastern Soccer League for short, the ESL was formed around the three suspended ASL teams and several teams, including the IRT Rangers, pulled from the SNYSSA. The ESL existed for one and a half seasons, beginning in the fall of 1928. Building on the core of several ex-ASL players, Rangers placed fourth the first season but was at the bottom of the standings after the first half of the 1929-1930 season. During the mid-season break, the ASL capitulated to USFA and the ESL and ASL merged to create the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Rangers did not make the move to the new league. However, they did go to the third round of the 1930 National Challenge Cup.
IRT Rangers