A friend of mine worked for the team in the late 80s, he enjoyed his time in Whichita and thought the fans were great.
Hard not to remember them. Riding down I35 as a 12 year old to see my Comets play you guys was too much fun. Interesting to hear Mike Dowler is back in Wales. Unfortunatly though, for those who have not heard, former Wing and Kansas City Comet Barry Wallace passed away last week at the age of 47 after a short battle with cancer.
ANOTHER FORMER WINGER IS SPOTTED!!! Denver rocks since break 10/13/2006 1:01:00 PM With an 11-week regular season, it's rare to get a week off in college soccer, but that's what has turned around Denver's season. Since skipping the weekend of Sept. 22-23, the Pioneers have been on a roll, winning four MPSF games, all by shutouts, and moving into the Soccer America Men's Top 25. The streak began with a 1-0 win over last year's NCAA Division I runner-up, New Mexico, and continued with big victories over UNLV (5-0) and Air Force (3-0). On Thursday night, the No. 20 Pioneers opened a two-game road trip to California with a 1-0 win at San Jose State. Before the break, the Pioneers were inconsistent. They were 4-3-1 but failed to beat the teams they needed to. The rest allowed injured players to heal. ''We worked hard,'' Denver coach Chad Ashton said, ''but I think the break was beneficial to the overall health of the team.'' Ashton grew up in Colorado, starred at North Carolina, where he still holds the career assist record, then bounced around the APSL, MISL and NPSL before going into coaching. He first coached the Pioneer men in 1995, took 1996 off to play for MLS's Dallas Burn in its inaugural season, then returned to Denver as a men's and women's assistant in 1997 before retaking the reins of the men's program in 1998. Scoring was a problem in 2005 when the Pioneers only tallied 19 goals in 18 games and finished 7-10-1. No player has more than three goals this season, but the Pioneers are finding ways to win. Against San Jose State, Vanderbilt transfer Josh Fallin scored the lone goal, fighting off defenders to head in a long throw-in from freshman Kellan Christensen for his first goal of the season. Ashton is also blessed with two good goalkeepers. Matt Bredehoft, the incumbent, has started eight games. Freshman Joe Willis, who has a 0.45 goals-against average in four starts, debuted for the U.S. U-20s on Wednesday night in their 5-1 win over Haiti's U-23s in Sunrise, Fla.
Hello all. I read this once in a while but this is my first post. I started going to Wings games in November of 1982 and spent many a cold night at the Kansas Coliseum in the subsequent years wearing orange orange orange. I could live to be 1000 and I don't think the excitement of those years could be replicated. I have been very fortunate to amass a decent collection of classic Wings games on video but I am ALWAYS looking to add more. Old MISL games on tape/DVD are absolute time capsules for anyone who grew up with the old league. I've also googled a few of the past names and here's what I found. Terry Nicholl- coaching in the Cincinnati area Norman Piper- coaching in California Mike Stankovic- owns a soccer school, can't remember the area Andy Chapman- coaching in Michigan Kim Roentved- is partner in a roofing company in Kansas City Erik Rasmussen- appears to be coaching in Wisconsin or Minnesota Kevin Kewley is still here in Wichita and is coaching. Roy Turner is still here as well and runs the annual Nike golf tourney. I'm sure there are more but these are what I can remember off the top of my head. Again, if anyone here has any old games please let me know.
Wow, its been a year since this thread started and replies are still trickling in ... it really made me smile to stumble on this thread. I was a locker boy for the Wings during the glory years ... what a time!
Mike Stankovic was assistant coach 1992-94 of the Baltimore Spirit, and retired in Baltimore, Maryland and now has a soccer school here.
Thanks for the update on the players. I tried the Google approach on a few more names, but didn't have your success. I thought maybe you could find out about a few more names. Jurgen Kristensen Mike Dowler Omar Gomez Dale Ervine Jeff Bourne Also, does anyone else still have an intense hatred for anything connected with the St. Louis Steamers/Ambush/whatever the hell they wanted to call themselves?
I have found a few more former Wings names to add to the where-are-they-now? list. Brad Higgs- owns a soccer school in Coquitlam, B.C. (He was a backup goalie on the 1980-81 Wings and he took over for Mike Dowler in the infamous 1981 playoff game in St.Louis.) Don Tobin- director of coaching of a Florida soccer club. (Played for the Wings in 1981-82 and also played for the L.A. Lazers.) George Ley- coach of the River City (Austin, TX) Rangers Jimmy Ryan- unconfirmed but might be a coach w/ a Manchester United youth team. Tony Peznecker- a girls' soccer coach in Wayzata, MN Steve Wegerle- soccer coach of Black Watch Soccer Club in Tampa. Glen Myernick- Died in October 2006 (Played on the original Wings team in 1979.) Jeff Bourne- appears he is living in Derby County, UK. I found one picture and I'm almost sure it was him. Drago Dumbovic- coach of the women's team at Saginaw Valley State University. I think I read somewhere that Dale Ervine owns a car dealership in back home in southern CA. Mike Dowler is back home in Wales though I don't know what he's doing. It's known on these boards that Barry Wallace died in Oct 2006. And despite my best efforts I cannot find a thing on Jorgen or Omar. Also, I don't think the info I wrote here on Erik Rasmussen is correct. It doesn't appear to be THE Erik Rasmussen. Oh yes, the Steamers were our version of the Yankees in terms of hatred (and we were the Red Sox). I find it highly amusing that the St.Louis Steamers of today sport ORANGE AND BLUE UNIFORMS!
I don't understand this source of hatred for the Steamers? Where does it stem from? Hell I wish Wichita was in the league now, why exactly did they fold, they were the only pro team in the city right?
Yes, the Wings were the only major league sports franchise the state has ever known. They folded for the usual reasons, i.e. financial issues, ownership issues, etc. As for the "hatred" you have to go all the way back to 1981 when the Wings and Steamers played a one game semi-final at the old Checkerdome. The Wings were on their way to winning big with a 6-1 lead in the 3rd. At one point Don Ebert crashed into Wings goalie Mike Dowler thus breaking his leg and putting him on the bench for the rest of the game, a move many believed Ebert did deliberately. St.Louis went on to tie the game and send the game to a shootout which they eventually won on a penalty kick thanks to a controversial tripping call on the Wings backup goalie. For a long time many Wings fans (and players) believed the referees were paid off (or at least "instructed") to make sure the Steamers won that game because the team was sort of the flagship franchise in those days whatwith 17,000+ people in the stands every night. (Also, the winner would play the league champion N.Y. Arrows.) For years after the Wings and Steamers had a bad-blood rivalry that sometimes got out of hand. (But those were GREAT games.)
I have that game on tape.....quality game.....sure it was before i was born, but still a quality game.
Without a doubt. Any goodwill the team had left in Wichita was destroyed by Randy and Shirley, who were a couple of arrogant, incompetent pricks. By the time they wised up and hired a real, experienced GM in Mike Ferguson, the damage was irreversable. Twenty two years of indoor history, shot to hell. Sadly, I feel that Wichita, a city that deserves a top-flight indoor soccer team, had it's future destroyed by a husband and wife who are lower than whale snot.
I also have that game on tape but I'm always looking for a better copy. Does your copy have the St.Louis radio play-by-play broadcast dubbed in? Mine is weird in that respect: I'm fairly sure it's the Wichita TV broadcast but the audio is that of the St.Louis radio.
I remember the Wings from back in the glory days of Indoor Soccer. I was a Penalty Box Official for 2 years. I saw alot of great action. Those games between the Wings and St. Louis Steamers were classics. We were known for our skillful one touch passing and the Steamers were known more for being physical. Don Ebert and Steve Petcher were the two that come to mind. The Kansas Coliseum, where the Wings played was the hottest ticket in town back in the 80's. Every home game was a near sellout(9,000) fans at every game. The place would just be rockin. It's a shame that it all had to end after 22 long years. I believe we still hold the record for the longest Professional Soccer Franchise in America.
Indeed. The Wings' early-to-mid 1980s average announced attendances: Code: 1982-83...8,341 1983-84...9,034 1984-85...8,710 2985-86...8,447 1986-87...8,069 1987-88...9,001 1988-90...8,644 A couple guys I know used to play for the Wings and said it was amazing. Nope. You did for a while there, though. The Wings played 22 seasons (1979-80 in the MISL I to 2000-2001 in the NPSL). This is Milwaukee's 23rd season (going back to 1984-85 in the AISA). Baltimore's had professional indoor soccer continuously since 1980, but the current Blast franchise was a new franchise that started as the Spirit when the original Blast franchise went under, so I don't count them. Ditto for the Cleveland Force/Crunch/Force - the Crunch was a different franchise that eventually took the Force name again. The Dallas Sidekicks played the last eight years of the original MISL, jumped to the CISL when the MISL I went under and played there for all five years of that league, then started the PSA which became the WISL and played four years there, then came into MISL II for two seasons before going on the dreaded "hiatus." That was 19 seasons over the course of 20 years. Fans of the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps of USL-1 will try to tell you that they're the same franchises that started in the NASL in the early 1970s, but their claims are a bit dubious to me.
Just a footnote, Cleveland didn't have a team for the 1988-89 season. Dallas played 19 seasons in 20 years, but didn't actually miss a season.
Correctamundo. Dallas played in the 1991-92 MSL season, then didn't play again until the 1993 CISL season because it was in the summer. Well, I think they played some exhibitions in 1992, but not a league schedule.
Wow the Fever and the Avalanche had terrible logos. And apparently the band Weezer stole their logo from the Wings.