By Community Alliance Staff
Since March, Community Alliance photographer Peter Maiden has been covering the home games of the first season of the Fresno Football Club, also known as the Foxes. In Spanish, they are the Zorros. The team includes players born in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Jamaica, New Zealand, Scotland, France and Canada, as well as the United States.
According to Fresno State Professor Romeo Guzmán, 68 of Maiden’s photos will be part of the Valley Public History Archives’ The Other Football: Tracing the Game’s Roots and Routes, which will be housed at Fresno State’s Henry Madden Library and available online for scholars, students and the community. The archive will be launched in the fall of 2019.
“Peter Maiden’s photographs provide a valuable visual archive of the Fresno Foxes’ first season,” said Guzmán, “and are an important contribution to our effort to document the history of fútbol in the Valley.”
“The Foxes made Central Valley history as its first professional soccer team this year,” said Maiden, “and I was proud to be there for it. I’m very happy the Valley History Archives will hold my photos where anyone interested can access them.”During the spring of 2019, Professor Guzmán, along with Professor Joe Orbock, and their students, will continue to dig into the history of soccer in the San Joaquin Valley, focusing on the high school level and adult leagues. They will also work with Dr. Bradley Jones to bring Joshua Nadel to present his book Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America (co-authored with Brenda Elsey).