Stratford Legends

The Origin Story

How "Stratford City" Became "Stratford CT" The John Buca Story

Sometime in the early nineties, John Buca sat down at his kitchen table and called a sports shop to order new kits for the boys — navy blue, v-neck shirts, matching shorts and socks, snap-button jackets, the works. Twenty minutes of painstaking back-and-forth followed, John's thick Eastern European accent turning every detail into a battle of creative interpretation — "the yackets?" / "the JACKETS, yes" — until the shop owner finally asked for the team name. "Stratford City," John said proudly. Silence. "Stafford City?" "No — Strat-ford City!" "Stratford... Sitting?" John nearly broke the phone. "CITY! Like a city!" The owner swore he had it. Weeks later the box arrived. John pulled out the first jersey — navy blue, beautiful — and read the embroidery across the chest: STRATFORD CT. Not City. CT. He called the shop back immediately, fuming.

When John showed some of the lads the jerseys and told the boys the story, they laughed until they couldn't breathe — and John, still muttering about the shop owner, eventually cracked a smile too. Just like that, they weren't Stratford City anymore. They were Stratford CT — not because anyone chose it, but because a man with a thick accent and a stubborn sense of pride made a phone call, and the shop owner heard something different … but it stuck. Because you can't un-stitch a legend. A mistake that became a name. A name that became a legend. John passed away on December 14, 2017, but that name lives on — in the memory of its former players and the Stratford Old Boys, a story remembering one of the legends of Stratford City Soccer — and now, in this tournament played in his honour. Sometimes, the best things happen by accident.

"Strat. Ford. City."
— John Buca, one last time, to a shop owner who still didn't get it

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