One hundred years ago, a letter arrived at the Football Association in London, soccer's first governing body. It read:

Dear Sir,

The Hungarian Football Association has learned of the heavy loss to the English Football Association by the death of Mr C.W. Alcock, whose working has also roused great appreciation beyond England's borders. We, therefore, ask you to accept the sympathy of the entire Hungarian football sport, and of the Hungarian Football Association, and remain, dear Sir.

Yours truly,
R. Malecki (Secretary)

Half a century further back, things were very different. The raucous, centuries-old, working-class custom of "folk football" had been virtually wiped out by the Industrial Revolution. But a more orderly form of football, under various sets of rules, was evolving at Britain's elite 'public schools', and some ex-pupils were keen enough to continue playing in their adulthood.

Meanwhile, in a nation deeply divided along class lines, a new breed of middle-class entrepreneurs was emerging. Among them was Charles Alcock (not the Charles Alcock -- we'll get to him soon), a broker and owner of ships in the north-eastern English port of Sunderland.
 
The Alcocks moved to London in 1855, and the two eldest sons, John and Charles junior, enrolled at the prestigious Harrow School. Football (under the school's own proto-soccer rules) and cricket played an important role in life at Harrow, under headmaster Dr Charles Vaughan. A devout Christian, with a stout belief in hard work and 'gentlemanly' ethics, Vaughan believed that sports helped to develop character, and encouraged boys to take part.

The younger Charles Alcock became a keen football and cricket player towards the end of his Harrow days, although he wasn't especially good at either, never making the school team. Emerging from Harrow as a confident, articulate young man, with good social skills and a flair for organization, he joined his father and elder brother in their marine insurance business.

By this time, public school "old boys" had begun to form football clubs. Some played by the rules that were beginning to evolve into soccer, while others followed the Rugby School rules. In 1859, John and Charles Alcock were founding members of the soccer-oriented Forest FC, in London's north-eastern suburbs. Perhaps something of a late developer, and pretty big for his time (5ft 11in and over 180 pounds), Charles built a reputation as a fearsome, physical forward with a powerful shot.

A group of clubs formed the Football Association (FA) in 1863, adopting the Cambridge University rules, which were largely based on those used at Harrow School. These would develop into the standard soccer rules of today. Among the founder members was Forest FC (soon to be renamed as Wanderers), represented by John Alcock. Two years later, his brother Charles replaced him on the FA committee.

"Football" was a loose concept back then. The FA had little impact in its first few years, and rugby was more popular in many areas. Soccer lacked organization and cohesion. Games were informal, with little at stake, and many were cancelled. Playing conditions were often dismal, and the rules were more of a gentlemen's agreement than a fixed code.

Charles Alcock wanted to change all this. In 1867, he called on the FA to renew its efforts to encourage clubs to adopt its rules, and to get more people involved in the game. The first representative games were played in this period, as the sport began to become more competitive: London FA vs. Sheffield FA in 1866, Middlesex against Surrey and Kent the year after, and North vs. South in 1870.

Alcock, who played in all three of these games, became the FA's honorary secretary in 1870. He had left the family business to become a journalist and book publisher. By the late 1860s he was a regular contributor to two influential sports journals, The Field and The Sportsman, and was publishing the Football Annual.

He issued a notice in The Sportsman in early 1870: "A match between the leading representatives of the Scotch and English sections will be played at The Oval on Saturday, 19 February, under the auspices of the Football Association." The game eventually went ahead in March. But, as both teams were selected by the FA, with no born-and-bred Scots involved, this casual affair is generally classed as a 'pseudo-international' match.

The first "official" international game was played in November 1872. Alcock had been in touch with the committee of the leading Scottish club, Queens Park, prompting them to arrange a Scotland-England game in Glasgow; they also selected the Scottish team. A few months later, Scotland had its own FA. Rugby followed soccer's lead, with Scotland and England contesting its first international match in March 1871 -- a direct response to the "unofficial" soccer game of the previous year, and the precursor to today's Six Nations competition.

The chance to represent their country gave players a new incentive to improve their skills, but the clubs still had nothing tangible to play for. In July 1871, though, Alcock put a proposal to his FA colleagues, which they accepted and minuted as a resolution: 'That it is desirable that a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association for which all clubs belonging to the Association should be invited to compete.' The tournament would have a single-elimination format, probably inspired by Alcock's memories of the 'Cock House' competition at Harrow School.

The FA was keen to maintain its supremacy, after the launch of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in June, and hoped that the new tournament would encourage wavering clubs to join up and adopt its rules. The FA Cup got underway in the 1871-72 season, with twelve clubs, who jointly bought an 18-inch-high silver cup to be awarded to the winners.

A crowd of 2,000 saw the first final at The Oval, London's primary cricket stadium, on March 16, 1872. In what the Sporting Life described as 'a most pleasant contest', Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0, and their captain -- a certain Charles W. Alcock -- raised the trophy.

After a slow start, the FA Cup began to make its mark over the next few years. A host of clubs joined the FA, which became widely accepted as the authority on how football -- of the round-ball variety -- should be played and organized in England. A copy of the rules reached the United States, forming the basis for the first intercollegiate football game, Princeton vs. Rutgers in 1869.

Despite this surge of activity, the FA Cup was dominated by teams of former public school pupils for quite some time. Only four clubs appeared in the first seven finals: Old Etonians, Oxford University, Royal Engineers and Wanderers.

Times were changing, though. Working-class Britons had a new sense of confidence. Industrial reforms had given them more spare time and disposable income. Leisure activities weren't exclusive to the affluent classes any more, and sports -- especially soccer and rugby -- were becoming a part of working people's lives. Factories, schools and churches gave birth to football clubs (playing soccer, rugby, and all kinds of local variants), with many working-class players. In northern England, people began to rally around their local clubs, which they saw as representatives of their towns.

In the late 1870s and early 1880s, blue-collar northern soccer clubs such as Darwen and Blackburn Olympic began making a mark on the FA Cup. With their work ethic and craving for success, they soon started to sweep the old guard aside. In 1882-83, Old Etonians were the last of the old breed of clubs to reach the final, losing to Blackburn Olympic.

Sportswriter Geoffrey Green would later describe the FA Cup as "the spark that set the whole bonfire of football alight." It gave clubs from humble backgrounds a chance to achieve something, putting their towns on the map, and helped to arouse interest in the game. In contrast, many rugby clubs struggled to compete for the public's attention, as the deeply conservative RFU refused to stage a similar tournament, fearing that it would damage the spirit of their game.

Charles Alcock didn't only make an impact on soccer. From 1872 until his death, he was also secretary of Surrey County Cricket Club. He played a big role in modernizing cricket (as did a friend of his, the pioneering batsman W.G. Grace), and arranged the first international cricket 'test' match in England, against Australia in 1880. As the figurehead of two major sports institutions, he was even known to write letters to himself. He also made his mark on rugby, in a less direct way: a letter he wrote to The Field in 1869 helped to inspire the formation of the RFU.

With attendances booming, northern clubs began to see soccer as a lucrative business, rather than just a form of recreation. Success on the field meant more money rolling in, and soon clubs were offering inducements to encourage good players to join them -- bogus job offers, inflated expenses and so on. The FA, mostly staunch amateurs, started to clamp down on all this in the early 1880s, wreaking havoc in the Cup as leading clubs were suspended or expelled.

Alcock, though, wanted soccer to continue growing in popularity, and feared that the FA's rigid stance would lead to a damaging split. His experience with cricket had taught him that professional athletes weren't the pariahs that many FA (and RFU) committee members suggested they were, and he took a softer approach. In his 1881 Football Annual, Alcock wrote: 'There is no use to disguise the speedy approach of a time when the subject of professional players will require the earnest attention of those on whom devolves the management of Association Football.'

Over the next few years, other FA officials gradually came around to Alcock's way of thinking, and professionalism was finally legalized in July 1885. The Football League was formed three years later, helping to raise soccer's profile even higher. In contrast, rugby tore itself apart over the amateurism issue: the breakaway semi-professional Northern Rugby Union (later becoming the Rugby Football League) was formed in 1895, and soon began to change its playing rules.

Alcock stepped down as FA secretary that year, becoming a vice president. In 1899 he played a small part in taking the game into the wider world, accompanying an English squad on an FA tour in central Europe. He also found time, in the 1890s, to become involved in local politics and legal affairs. But his health deteriorated in the early years of the new century, and he died from a variety of afflictions on February 26, 1907, aged 64.

Charles Alcock left quite a legacy behind. He was the driving force behind the birth of the FA Cup and international soccer. He pushed for the acceptance of professionalism in soccer, paving the way for the Football League and other leagues around the world. These were the changes that transformed the game from a middle-class hobby into a national, and eventually international, obsession.

Alcock also, albeit indirectly, inspired the beginning of international rugby. He helped to bring cricket into the modern era, helping to foster a more organized and competitive framework, both in England and on the international scene. The soccer World Cup, and countless other sports tournaments, can be traced back to the blueprint that Alcock established when he launched the FA Cup in 1871. Without his organizational skills, foresight and pragmatism, our sports world would almost certainly have been a very different place.