You're right on the ASL guide (I'm thinking it was '83, now, because Rodney Marsh was the Carolina Lightnin's coach and he coached the Rowdies the next year). And the WHA book, yeah, self-published. I am a big fan of self-publishing, obviously.
I looked it up and was almost right...How about that? The championship was won by the Detroit Express 1-3, 1-0 and 4-1. Total attendance for the championship series was 33,762. Thus, a professional league soccer trophy was brought to the Motor City for the first time.
Huh. I'd have to look and see what they said in the guide. I was led to believe it was one game, but for that league in that time and place, that's still good. Of course, they'd have gotten swallowed up in the Silverdome, which was the NFL's largest stadium for a time.
I want to say it was. This guy was kinda short, can't remember his hair, but I was really surprised to actually meet an ASL vet, other than the guy I met at a HS ref clinic (Griff Sims, I believe his name is), who played for the Georgia Generals.
Well, if a book isn't doable, it's still be great to have at least a website, with the available records, and especially pictures. I have the book Tim Considine did back in the day that had a few pics from ASL matches (mostly the '76 Western Division championship and the ASL championship the same year (LA-Tacoma, LA-NY Apollo, respectively). Heck, I wish there was a comprehensive photo gallery of the NASL, much less the ASL. I talked to Colin on the phone a few years ago about an ASL book, and he related the difficulty in getting records, so I know it'd be a daunting task. I'd be grateful and tickled pink with any effort (BTW, your stuff is gold, Steve, solid gold. Keep it up! And Dave L. too, I might add).
Considering I never saw an ASL match, I'd say it was a good memory.... I got all my kniowledge from reading Soccer Corner magazine.....remember those?
True, an ASL 2.5 registry may come across dry to the masses (except for us old-timers), but an anthology of anecdotes and short tales from that area would certainly be worth it. Plenty of priceless material on those bus rides and from that group of motley owners and execs (Otto Radish with your salad?). Even some of the match-day programs stick in my mind to this day: The Chicago Cats had this full-pager with a photo of this proud Greek restauranteur beckoning the reader to his Chicago establishment and "EAT LIKE A GOD!" You gotta see it to appreciate it, I guess. And then there was that "coach", the ex-prize-fighter, who openly compared his Latin players to dogs, and then punched one out on the sideline during a match. Cleveland misplaced their game shorts as well as the Star Spangled Banner one night. Guess who performed it a capella... and then got publicly scorned in the Plain Dealer? Crueller than Harry Chapin's Mr. Tanner. St. Louis Frogs? St. Louis Mules? Like Bush-Gore, they couldn't decide on the lesser evil. Enough good material. Maybe not quite on par with Terry Pluto's "Loose Balls" ABA tome, but stuff that would raise hairs on MLS fans. Always appreciate any contribution by Colin Jose. Crown jewels in print to us die-hards.
I've got lots of Stoners stuff dating from 79-81, at least. A lot of it is water damegaed, but legible... I'd be happy to help in my limited way...
Two of the most successful and finest NASL coaches (IMHO) were both Tony Waiters & Ron Newman. I wish they had coachedcontinued in the MLS. I know Newman had some success with KC but I never understood why he was fired. I haven't read about either of them in years...
'Cause the Wizards were 0-4 at the start of the 1999 season. And because he had gone 12-20 the year before that.
Two of the Stoners in that photo played for the old Earthquakes, too. Charlie Kadupski (fifth from right on top) and Ken McDonald (sixth from right, on top) both played in San Jose). Where did you get that shot?
Yeah I GOOGLED it too.. I think (but not positive) Charlie Kadupski was traded from the Aztec to the Strikers for George Best....yes or no? Is that him on the bottom withthe mustache?
That would be a hell of a trivia question if it's true. I just watched a DVD of an Aztecs/Tornado game from June 5, 1977. Bestie had a goal and an assist and some nice moves. Good times, good times.
It was either Charlie or George Dewsnip……I just got a flashback however, & I’m pretty sure it was Dewsnip…
Don't know that about Chaz, as he started with us in 1981... He MAY have been in Houston... I'll tell you one thing for sure: if Charlie had been rtraded for Georgie Best, EVERYONE of the guys in that photo would have heard about it, ad nauseum... Check this page: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=594039&goto=newpost. It's the place I'm a partner in and manage... I'm sure most of the shots come from there.
Is that him on the bottom withthe mustache? That's the guy... he's the sport source now: http://www.thesportsource.com/ Check out the thing about the founder...
Plenty of American Football leagues have failed in the USA too...the one that has stayed around has been around for decades....the others were all gone in a few years or less.
The NASL was a success for a while and laid some important groundwork. If folding means that nothing it accomplished was worth anything, well, then, I just can't agree with you.
You know, it's a tough call. The NASL was a financial failure for those involved. They lost their shirts. It was, however, a soccer success. Lots of kids got their first tatse of real soccer through it. The way clubs and players made efforts to reach out to the grassroots showed countless kids that the game was bigger than they were, gave them heroes and even models for success. It's hard to imagine, but a trip to Bethlehem by the Philadelphia Atoms was a big thing for us. When I lived in NYC, my dad (himself a former pro in France and Hungary) took me to plenty of Santos games and those of other European teams, as well. Nothing, but nothing matched watching Bill Straub score the goal that won the NASL championship for the Atoms in 1973. The NASL gave us kids a sense of being part of something. It was cool., it was fun and it gave us something to shoot for. Sure, most of us were even lucky to be in the ASL, but it was a great experience that we pass on to kids today. It's that experience that makes us support MLS, USL, NPSL and lots of high school and college teams. Sure, Time-Warner and others took a bath. They planted the seeds all over the country. It was no longer a game belonging just to the ethnic east coast leagues, St Louis' CYO grads and the variety of ethnic leagues in LA and and SF. That league gave the same love of the game, previously restricted to immigrants, to American kids all over. You had to see 77,000 at a game at the Meaowlands or 8,000 in Allentown tounderstand what it meant to soccer players and how they viewed the game afterwards.... To simply call the NASL (or even the ASL) a failure does it no justice. You had to be there to see what existed before, how it made us feel to be soccer players in a land where soccer used to be foreign game. Then you have to see what happened because of theose kids who grew up with the experience. You have to see who they bacame and who they coached. Without knowing all of it, it's a very difficult call to make... I'm really glad to have been one of those kids. I'm even glad I got to take pay cuts, and even to take van trips to Detroit, Rochester and Charlotte. Even if the league was more like Slap Shot than the EPL, it was the coolest thing that ever happened until then. The NASL was as important as a seminal moment in American soccer's development as the 1950 World Cup, Pele or the 1994 World Cup; in fact the 1994 World Cup would not have been here without what came before...
My second guess/instinct was the best! How about that? The boys needed an offensive spark so the club pulled off a big trade the day before the match . In exchange for George Dewsnip, Andy Roland and a #1 draft pick in 1980, Irish legend George Best was acquired from the Los Angeles Aztecs. Georgie paid immediate dividends for his new side as he scored two goals against the Cosmos. The Strikers went 8-4 to finish the regular season, but could not reproduce the division championship of the previous season. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dulyjs/strikers/strikers_history.html I wonder who was the #1 pick of the 1980 NASL college draft? Was it Angelo DiBerbardo ,Joe Morrone Jr. or Jim Stamatis? College All-Americans: G - Randy Phillips, Southern Methodist D - Saeid Baghvardani, Southern Methodist D - Mike Freitag, Indiana D - Barry Nix, Columbia D - Jerry Reardon, Adelphi D - John Young, Hartwick F - Armando Betancourt, Indiana F - Steve Charles, Columbia F - Clyde O'Garro, St. Francis (NY) F - Ray Taylor, Western Illinois Hermann Trophy: Jim Stamatis, Penn State 1980 College All-Americans: G - Randy Phillips, Southern Methodist D - Saeid Baghvardani, Southern Methodist D - Tim Gagan, Lock Haven D - Erhardt Kapp, Connecticut D - Joseph Morrone, Jr., Connecticut D - Kevin Murphy, Rhode Island F - Trevor Adair, Lock Haven F - Herman Borja, NJ Inst. of Technology F - Damien Kelly, Eastern Illinois F - Kamal Khilian, Southern Methodist F - Robert Meschbach, Virginia Hermann Trophy: Joseph Morrone, Jr., Connecticut NSCAA Coach of the Year: Jerry Yeagley, Indiana