Did any of you spend your time in the late 1970s to mid 1980s watching the Arrows and Express at Nassau Coliseum? I did. I remember the first Arrows season when the PA Announcer used to say "Thank You!" whenever a ball was retrieved from the stands. I remember "Go-Go" their Big Bird style mascot. I also remember the goal-scoring exploits of (as the PA announcer would say) "STEEEEEEEVVVVE ZUNGULLLLLLLL!!!!". Warner Wolf, who is a fixture on the TV news here in New York, would always call him "Steve Jungle" on his sports reports. I also liked Branko Segota's goal-scoring and Shep Messing's play in goal. Of course, the theatrics in introducing the players to the theme from "Superman" was fun. It was theatrics, but still it was fun. It was too bad when the team folded. They traded Zungul in 1982 or thereabouts and also dealt Segota to the Rochester Lancers of the NASL. In their last season, they lost in the playoffs to Baltimore and then folded. A couple of years later, the NY Express came along and went 3-23 before folding. This team was run on a skinflinty budget (so it seemed) and folded halfway through the season. They played in what looked like practice uniforms and not real honest to goodness game uniforms! The team had no prolific goal-scorer and I remember coach Ray Klivecka saying in the press that he had a feeling that Ricky Davis (signed for $100K) would just "burst out" and start scoring goals. Problem was, he was not that kind of a player. Davis would later say "there wasn't enough money from the word 'go'". One bright spot on the team was a guy named Chris Whyte who had come up in Arsenal's youth/reserve system and later went on to play for Leeds United and West Brom. Someone sitting near me at one of the games called him "Geese" because of Whyte's resemblance to Geese Ausbie of the Harlem Globetrotters. I have lots of memories of NY indoor soccer. What are yours? Let me know. Write away!
I grew up in PA, but our cable system carried WOR and so used to watch the Arrows. A couple other great players that they had were GK Zothon Toth and D Fernando Calvijo. Don't forget two other indoor teams that playd in the area. The Cosmos playd in both the NASL indoor and MISL version. The later pulled an Express and folded during thier first season in the MISL. It should be noted that they were also coached by Ray Klivecka. Also there was the New Jersey Rockets that playd one season at the Meadowlands arena.
Gawd...such great memories! I was a season ticket holder of the Arrows for 5 yrs and the Express for one (or was it a half). I also worked in the front offices for both teams. After watching the Arrows win 4 championships, one of the best memories was watching the Express win their first game after dropping 13 in a row. It was a cold January night in front of maybe 500 people at the Coliseum. After the game, we were all screaming and cheering like we won the World Cup. That night, Express owner Stan Henry presented me with a Express game jersey (I still have it, but it doesn't fit anymore LOL). It's one of my prized possessions!
I used to watch the Arrows on Channel 9 and the Philadelphia Fever on Channel 17 (me being in Trenton). I remember the orange ball, the ugly long-sleeved jerseys (when, pray tell, did they go to short-sleeved exclusively?), the floppy goalie pants (Bob Rigby, etc) and the strategy, "Hit the MISL sign." Just wondering --- why doesn't the bank off the end boards result in more scoring chances these days in indoor footy?
hey i have been trying to find stats for ny express, especially rosters and attendance. any help you can provide is much appreciated.
Attendance was not particularly large! I have no online list, but I can name a few of the players for you. Some were ex-Cosmos and Arrows players. Some players were Chris Whyte (ex Leeds, West Brom, Arsenal), Ricky Davis, Eskandarian, Sisko and Keder Filipovich (I believe that was their last name), Michael Collins, Luis Alberto, Njego Pesa, Shep Messing, et al. I will try to get a complete list for you. I know the team finished 3-23 before folding in mid-season. Perhaps that was just as well.
Futbollives.... If you e-mail me at indoorkick@aol.com and let me know exactly what you're looking for, I'll see if I can help. I'm currently writing a statistics/history book on the original (read REAL) MISL.
Michael Lewis Breaking: Don Popovic, who directed the New York Arrows to the first indoor soccer dynasty, and who also coached the Rochester Lancers, passes away - frontrow.soccer/q3byj
sorry, while he did probably deserves his own RIP thread for what he meant to the game...just decided against it.