Football kits are good when they employ an aesthetically pleasing design. But if they can do that while paying homage to the club’s history, that’s when they become great. This is the story of how the Rochester Lancers’ new set of kits are not just pretty to look at, but also tell a story 50-plus years in the making.
Soccertown, USA has been a title associated with several American cities over the years, be it in Kearny, New Jersey, Portland, Oregon, or Atlanta, Georgia. But if you ask certain soccer fanatics in the country, they’ll tell you there was another, perhaps forgotten, locale deserving of that moniker: Rochester, New York.
Salvatore “Soccer Sam” Fantauzzo is certainly one such fanatic. As his nickname would suggest, Fantauzzo has been a central figure in the Rochester soccer scene for decades — as a fan, a businessman, and team owner alike.
His journey begins in 1970, when he attended his first Rochester Lancers game as a 10-year-old child. The Lancers had just joined the NASL, soccer’s first foray in the United States on a national scale.
Names like Pele, Eusebio, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, and Johann Cruyff all famously took their talents Stateside to play in the NASL, and while the Lancers never had one of these flashy A-list players, they would win a league title in their inaugural season in 1970. Fantauzzo was instantly enamored with the sport, and it would come to define his life.
“The Lancers was special,” Fantauzzo said. “It was the Greeks, the Yugoslavians, the Italians, the Ukranians, it was everyone just hanging out. We all came from different countries, our parents came from different countries, but we all combined with the same love and passion for soccer.”
Unfortunately for the Lancers, the success would be short lived, and the team folded in 1980. By 1985, the NASL had dissolved entirely. It would be a while until soccer would return to Rochester — the Raging Rhinos would take the nation by storm starting in 1996 — but in the meantime, the Lancers’ legacy was kept alive by fans like Fantauzzo, who began to amass an eclectic trove of Lancers memorabilia.
In 1995, Fantauzzo took things a step further by buying the name and logo of the Lancers, which he initially thought would make a nice addition to his collection. But what he didn’t know was that this purchase would not just uphold the history of the Lancers, but create new memories as well.
The name and logo certificate would serve solely as a point of intrigue in Fantauzzo’s collection until in 2011, when he was approached with an opportunity to create a new team in the USL’s indoor soccer league. He toyed around with the idea of other names for his new team, but there was really only one that made sense. He sought the blessing of Charlie Schiano, the original Lancers general manager, who agreed to revive the Lancers name under one condition: all kids received free admission.
It was a policy Schiano enacted in the Lancers’ NASL days, and was a major reason why Fantauzzo and countless other kids of that era fell in love with the game. Fantauzzo agreed to the clause with no hesitation, and a new era of Lancers was born.
An NPSL and women’s team soon followed, both of which used the same crest. The Lancers are today the oldest American soccer brand currently active.
That brings us (finally) to the kits. Working with Admiral, who supplied the Lancers in addition to several other NASL clubs throughout the ‘70s, the Lancers have introduced a new set of jerseys that maintain the legacy of the original team while also standing out on their own.
“When I started the new Lancers in 2011, I had a bunch of old jerseys,” Fantauzzo said. “I’d been a collector forever, and Admiral was the jersey. We reached out to the Admiral people back then, and they formulated a similar jersey, and we’ve been with Admiral ever since.”
For the 2024-25 season, Admiral hooked up the Lancers, who currently play in the second division of the Major Arena Soccer League, with a trio of striking kits in addition to two goalkeeper shirts, all designed by The Concept Club.
Starting with the home kit, Admiral continued the club’s tradition of pink to honor breast cancer awareness, with a design inspired by Fantauzzo’s trademark suit, which he has worn for decades going back to the Rhinos days in the ‘90s.
He had the suit jacket custom made from his mother’s drapes that resembled soccer balls, and he has had it altered several times as he’s lost and gained weight over the years.
“That same jacket went from a guy that was 400 pounds, to a guy that was 200 pounds, to a guy that was 240,” said Fantauzzo, who underwent a life changing weight loss surgery in 2009. “I had that jacket custom fit so many times.”
The same pattern on Fantauzzo’s suit is featured throughout the jersey, and front and center is the shirt sponsor, Salvatore’s Pizzeria.
Fantauzzo started Salvatore’s in 1978 just after graduating high school, and he has expanded to over 30 locations across New York and Florida. He intends to use the jerseys as workplace uniforms in all Salvatore’s locations, further spreading the Lancers’ legacy.
“We are gonna wear the Admiral jerseys for our staff,” Fantauzzo said. “I’m gonna be at some fancy meeting with some big wigs with their suits and ties on, and I’m gonna have my Admiral jersey with my Salvatore’s logo on the front.”
The away kit pulls from the traditional Lancers jersey from the NASL days, with a royal blue base and gold accents along with the signature Lance logo pattern throughout the body. It makes for a classic kit, further emphasized by the retro polo collar.
The third kit goes back to the pink motif, albeit it is used as an accent piece rather than the main color. A black base makes the pink pop, and a subtle checker pattern with Fantauzzo’s suit graphics adds a nice touch of detail.
The same pattern on the home kit is used for the goalkeeper shirts, which respectively come in shades of cyan and black. All in all, it’s a collection that you won’t see for any other second-division arena soccer team. But then again, no other MASL 2 team has the history that the Lancers do.
Fantauzzo understandably loves the collection, which is a product of his dedication to the Rochester soccer and business community. Without Soccer Sam, there could be no collection of this magnitude, nor perhaps any soccer in Rochester at all.
“They’re so hot,” Fantauzzo said. “That’s why we wanted to introduce them into our restaurants. Because they’re so hot. It’s beyond a soccer jersey.”
You can shop the entire Admiral x Lancers collection here.
