The U.S. Open Cup annual soccer tournament was originally called what?

The U.S. Open Cup annual soccer tournament was originally called the National Challenge Cup. Its first tournament was played during the 1913–14 season, establishing what became the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States.

The competition was created soon after the United States Football Association, now the U.S. Soccer Federation, emerged as the country's national governing body. At the time, American soccer had competing organizations and regional tournaments, including the older American Cup. The National Challenge Cup was designed to bring affiliated clubs from across the country into one national knockout competition.

Brooklyn Field Club won the inaugural tournament, defeating Brooklyn Celtic 2–1 in the final. The champion received the Dewar Cup, donated by Scottish whisky magnate Sir Thomas Dewar to promote soccer in the United States. The trophy remained associated with the competition for decades.

The tournament kept the National Challenge Cup name for most of its early history. In 1999, U.S. Soccer renamed it the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to honor the influential soccer executive and promoter. The older name is therefore not a separate tournament; it is the original title of today's U.S. Open Cup.