Chicago Sting
Encyclopedia
The Chicago Sting was an American professional soccer
team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League
from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League
from in the 1982-83 season and again from 1984 to 1988. They were North American Champions in 1981 and 1984, the only NASL team (with the exception of the New York Cosmos) to win the championship twice.
The Sting were founded in 1974 by Lee Stern
of Chicago and competed in the NASL for the first time in the 1975 season. A few years after founding the Sting, Stern brought Willy Roy
on as head coach. Roy coached the Sting for the remainder of their outdoor existence.
The team was named in reference to the popular 1973 film, The Sting
, whose action was set in Chicago of the 1930s.
The club played at various venues. The outdoor team spread their home games at Soldier Field
, Wrigley Field
, and Comiskey Park
. The indoor entry called both Chicago Stadium
and the Rosemont Horizon (now the Allstate Arena
) home.
, the former Manchester United defender.
Foulkes built a team of predominantly British players (there were 10 in the 1975 squad and 11 in 1976 and 1977) including Gordon Hill who would later win 6 England caps and play over a hundred games for Manchester United including the 1976 FA Cup Final. In Chicago he hit six goals in the Sting’s inaugural season and firmly established himself as a fan’s favourite.
In the summer of 1975 a sparse crowd of 4,500 watched the Sting’s very first home game and as it began so it continued with an average that year of around the 4,000 mark – although close to 14,000 did turn out to see the Sting take on the 1974 Polish World Cup team in a friendly.
The Sting missed out on the playoffs by a single point losing the final game of the season in a penalty shoot-out (Hill missing his attempt).
. Kowalik had hit the heights with the Chicago Mustangs
eight years earlier scoring 30 goals in 28 appearances in the Mustangs one and only season in the NASL.
Although the British incomers were less well known – John James (from Tranmere Rovers), John Lowey
(from Manchester United’s youth team) , Lammie Robertson
(Exeter City) and Alan Waldron (Bolton Wanderers & Blackpool
) – the side were good enough to win the club its first honour in the form of the Northern Division title.
Although the team were unable to make it past the first round of the playoffs, bowing out to the Toronto Blizzard
, they had doubled the star studded New York Cosmos
in regular season play, winning two-nil in New York, and in front of 28,000 home fans had beaten Pele
, Giorgio Chinaglia
and company in a 4-1 romp.
1977: Head coach Bill Foulkes headed for Britain yet again before the 1977 season to sign a player who would prove to be one of the most successful and popular players in the NASL’s history – Willie Morgan
, the Scottish international midfielder. Morgan, who arrived on loan from Bolton Wanderers had played over 500 games in the Football League for the Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and Manchester United.
Also arriving from the UK was Ronnie Moore
a prolific striker from Tranmere Rovers, but despite these additions the Sting had a very poor year and Foulkes resigned halfway through the season leaving Willy Roy, his assistant, as interim coach.
Roy, a German by birth who had arrived with his family in Chicago at the age of six, was a veteran of the early years of the NASL and its forerunner the NPSL
. The Sting finished the season with a 10 win 16 loss record. Unsurprisingly attendances were not improving, and a dramatic drop seemed likely when the Sting started the 1978 season by losing its first ten games.
as new club president who in turn had hired Malcolm Musgrove
as the teams new head coach. Toye had been one of the men behind the success of the NASL’s leading light the New York Cosmos, while Musgrove, a former left-winger with West Ham United was a coach with a growing reputation.
Musgrove had made expensive forays into the transfer market bringing in four new players in the shape of Karl-Heinz Granitza
(from Hertha Berlin), Arno Steffenhagen
(from FC St. Pauli
), Horst Blankenburg
(who had played in the great Ajax side of the early 70’s alongside Johan Cruyff
, and company) and Jorgen Kristensen (another former Hertha Berlin man).
Swift action was needed and out went Musgrove as Willy Roy was recalled as coach. The effect was immediate – ten wins were recorded in the last fourteen regular season games – and the Sting moved up from last place to second place in the Central Division to win a playoff berth.
Although eliminated from the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Rowdies the Sting (or Der Sting as they would later become known with the shift from British staff to German) won plaudits around the league for their attacking style of play scoring thirty-eight goals in those final fourteen games.
While Musgrove’s reign had been fairly disastrous his signing of Granitza would set the seed for the Sting’s success over coming years, as we shall see.
from Malmo FF
along with former Feyenoord man Peter Ressell.
All number of club records were broken as the Sting scored 70 goals – Karl-Heinz Granitza weighing in with 20 – and the average home attendance increased to a respectable 8,000, 21,000 plus turning out at Wrigley Field to see the New York Cosmos defeated 3-1. The Fort Lauderdale Strikers
were beaten in the first round of the playoffs (the Sting winning the best of three series by two wins to none) but the San Diego Sockers
proved to be too strong for Chicago and booked a place at Soccer Bowl ’79 with a 2-0 win in California followed by a 1-0 victory at Wrigley Field.
1980: Phil Parkes
, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers ‘keeper, became the Sting’s number 1, moving to Chicago from the Vancouver Whitecaps where he had played for the past three seasons and established himself as the NASL’s top glovesman. Also joining the Sting line-up were Ingo Peter (once of Borussia Dortmund
) and Franz Mathieu, a Haitian defender, who joined from FC St. Pauli.
The Sting took the Central Division title with a 21-11 record, 16 of those wins coming in their first 19 games. Karl-Heinz Granitza was again leading marksman with 19 goals and 26 assists, while Arno Steffenhagen took second place with 15 strikes and 15 assists from midfield.
The 1980 campaign, and the 1980-81 Indoor Season that followed (the Sting’s first foray into the world of the indoor game), were major turning points as far as the Chicago public were concerned and the club started to attract large crowds on a regular basis. 26,468 saw the Sting take on the Tampa Bay Rowdies at Wrigley Field, 18,112 watched the Washington Diplomats
home fixture, and two other matches drew crowds in excess of 16,000, while indoors 16,257 packed the Chicago Stadium for one game as the Sting’s reached – but lost – the NASL Championship finals.
– showed coach Will Roy’s attacking intent for the coming campaign, indeed the club would finish as the NASL leading scorers with 81 goals.
The turning point in the season came at the end of the June when a new club record crowd of 30,501 turned out at Wrigley Field to see the Sting beat the New York Cosmos 6-5 after a shootout. This signalled the start of an eight game winning streak.
The Central Division title was confirmed as the Sting completed the regular season with three straight home wins. The Dallas Tornado
were beaten 3-1, the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers by a 7-2 margin and the Tulsa Roughnecks
5-4 to end the campaign with a 23 wins and 9 defeats.
In the first round of the playoffs the Seattle Sounders were beaten by two games to one and the Sting advanced to round two and a date with the Montreal Manic
. A record soccer crowd of 58,542 in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium saw the Manic take the first game 3-2, but the Sting bounced back to win games two and three both by a 4-2 margin, game three being won despite being 2-1 down with nine minutes left to play.
The San Diego Sockers now stood between the Sting and a first Soccer Bowl appearance. Two late goals by the Californian side gave them first blood and a 2-1 win, but the Sting won game two by the same scoreline in front of 21,760 at Comiskey Park. Five days later 39,623 Chicagoans saw the Sting take the series with a 1-0 overtime victory at the same venue. The Sting were heading for a Soccer Bowl showdown with the New York Cosmos.
its first professional sports title since the Chicago Bears had won the NFL Championship Game in 1963
. On that occasion the Bears had beaten the New York Giants
and the Sting’s triumph would be earned against another New York team, the Cosmos.
A crowd of 36,971 – including some 6,000 from Chicago – were on hand at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium
and they could have been forgiven for expecting a high scoring game as the two previous meetings between the Sting and the Cosmos that year had produced fifteen goals. So it was very much against the odds – after the normal 90 minutes and a further 15 minutes of sudden death overtime – that this game would end goalless.
Each side had plenty of scoring opportunities though, the closest of which came from the Sting’s Pato Margetic whose strike was saved by a fully extended Hubert Birkenmeier
in the Cosmos goal, team mate Ingo Peter’s saw his header strike the crossbar and then the upright, and an overhead kick by Giorgio Chinaglia went just wide of the Sting goal.
Despite that effort, Chinaglia, the NASL’s all-time leading scorer, was marshaled well by the defensive partnership of Frantz Mathieu and Paul Hahn, supply from the flanks by the Cosmos wingers was kept to a minimum by Dave Huson
and Derek Spalding
, the Sting’s two fullbacks, while in goal Dieter Ferner put in another exemplary shift. At the other end the Cosmos backline, aided by Birkenmeier, was just as effective.
Twice in regular season play the Sting had needed extra time to beat the Cosmos and the same would be the case in Toronto. New York took the lead after three rounds through Vladislav Bogicevic
, Karl-Heinz Granitza then leveled things up before Ferner made a great save to keep out Ivan Buljan’s
chipped shot. Rudy Glenn
then stepped up to beat Birkenmeier to become the first native North American to score a winning goal in a Soccer Bowl.
Joint captains Ingo Peter and Spalding proudly accepted the Championship Trophy from NASL Commissioner Phil Woosnam
to confirm the Sting as the North American Soccer League champions for 1981.
Chicago had topped the division for most of the season and remained undefeated in regular season play at the Chicago Stadium. Highlights en-route to the title included the 10-3 defeat of the Montreal Manic, a 10-4 victory over the Tulsa Roughnecks and a 6-3 win against the New York Cosmos at home while on the road impressive 6-3 and 6-5 wins were recorded against, respectively, the Toronto Blizzard and Jacksonville Teamen.
Even more impressive were the growing attendances at the Chicago Stadium where the Sting were outdrawing the Chicago Bulls
(NBA) and fast catching up with the crowds pulled in by the Chicago Blackhawks
(NHL). Besides the record crowd of 19,398 for the Tampa Bay Rowdies game, 18,374 saw the New York Cosmos game, 13,000 turned out for the regular season game against the Tulsa Roughnecks while 16,000 attended the playoff game against the Oklahoma side.
It was against the Roughnecks that the Sting made an unexpected and early exit from the playoffs having been widely tipped to add the indoor crown to the Soccer Bowl trophy won the previous summer. The Sting lost the best of three game opener in Tulsa 5-4 but in a dramatic return at the Chicago Stadium the Sting turned a 6-1 deficit into a 7-6 victory, Karl-Heinz Granitza scoring the winner five minutes into sudden death overtime.
With the series tied at one game each a 15 minute mini-game followed. The Roughnecks took a three goal lead, the Sting pulled a goal back but there was to be no dramatic comeback in this game as the Roughnecks advanced into round two of the playoffs with a 3-1 win to take the series by two games to one.
Karl-Heinz Granitza finished the season as the leagues second highest scorer (behind Julie Veee of the San Diego Sockers) with 35 goals and 36 assists. In the home game against the New York Cosmos on January 30th he scored a hat-trick, as the Sting won 5-3, extending his indoor scoring streak to 35 consecutive games. Three games earlier he had beaten the leagues existing record of 32 in the 6-5 overtime win against the Jacksonville Teamen.
The players had had little time to rest after a tough indoor season and the team and its management also had to adjust to a number of rule changes. First, the league had agreed to FIFA's demands that offside rule should apply from the half-way line and not the NASL’s 35-yard line as had been the case since the leagues inception. Second, the league insisted that clubs have at least four North Americans on the field at any one time. The Sting had sufficient players to do so but was left with a surfeit of foreign stars and David Huson and John Tyma – who had both played their part in the 1981 success – were traded to other teams.
The first win of the season came against the Tulsa Roughnecks at Wrigley Field on May 1st but that was just a brief respite as the Sting slumped to a further four defeats to end the month with a 1-7 record. Then remarkably Frantz Mathieu – a firm fan favourite – was traded to the Montreal Manic, with Gordon Hill coming the other way, making his return to Chicago after a seven-year absence.
A break from league action saw the Sting take part in the Trans-Atlantic Challenge Cup. After holding Nacional of Uruguay to a 0-0 tie and defeating Italian Seria A side Napoli 3-1 they lifted the trophy with a 4-3 victory against the New York Cosmos in front of 36,904 at Giants Stadium, New Jersey. But after winning the prestigious trophy it was back to NASL action and another defeat in a 3-0 reverse at the Seattle Sounders.
Defensive mistakes, poor officiating and continuing injury problems dogged the remainder of the season although the Chicagoans did manage a run of three straight wins to briefly keep alive hopes of making the playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers were beaten 3-2 at the start of July, followed by the Fort Launderdale Strikers 3-0 and a 2-1 shootout victory against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Those slim hopes finally came to end with a 3-1 loss at the New York Cosmos, followed, ironically, by two excellent performances that saw the Sting defeat the Toronto Blizzard 3-1 and the Montreal Manic 2-1, both at Comiskey Park, to close out the season, leaving the Sting with the worst win-loss record (13-19) in its history.
Even so, the Sting, who were assigned to the Eastern Division, acquitted themselves well taking place in a three way race for the division title, with the veteran Cleveland Force and the Baltimore Blast, eventually finishing third, two games behind the Blast in first place, and one behind the Force in second place, with a 28-20 record.
In the first round of the playoffs experience was a telling factor at Cleveland eased into the next round winning the best-of-three series 5-9, 5-4 and 7-5.
An improved Sting side completed the season with a 15 win 15 loss record to take second place in the Eastern Conference - behind the New York Cosmos - and a place in the playoffs for the first time in two seasons. It would be a short lived playoff campaign, however, as the Sting went out at the first round stage losing the best-of-three series with the Golden Bay Earthquakes (formerly the San Jose Earthquakes) 6-1, 0-1 and 5-2.
Karl-Heinz Granitza was once again top scorer for the Sting - and the leagues second highest scorer behind Roberto Cabanas of the New York Cosmos - with 15 goals and 18 assists (48 points), Ricardo Alonso was second with 16 goals and 15 assists (47 points) and Pato Margetic third with 12 goals and 8 assists (32 points).
Home attendances averaged 10,937, an improvement of 1,600 fans per game over the previous season, although still below the NASL average of just over 13,000 per fixture.
Division Titles
Transatlantic Challenge Cup
Coach of the Year
All-Star First Team Selections
All-Star Second Team Selections
All-Star Honorable Mentions
(1979) Dick Advocaat
(1978–80) Mervyn Cawston
(1975–78) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#C Eddie Cliff
(1975–76) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#C Geoff Davies
(1976) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#D Gordon Hill (1975/1982) Gerry Ingram
(1978–79) Karl-Heinz Granitza
(1978–88) Horst Blankenburg
(1978–80) Charlie Fajkus
(1979–84, 1987-88) Rudy Glenn
(1980–86) Mark Simanton
(1980–87) Hans Weiner
(1982–84) Heinz Wirtz
(1985–88) Jimmy Kelly (1976–78) Cho Young-Jeung
(1982–83) Duncan McKenzie
(1982) Ronnie Moore
(1977) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#M Jim McCalliog
(1977) Derek Spalding
(1978–82) Clive Griffiths
(1975–79) http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/player2/clivegriffiths.htm Dieter Ferner (1981–83) Jorgen Kristensen (1978–80)
(1975–1977) Willy Roy
(1977–1986) Malcolm Musgrove
(1978)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League
Major Soccer League
The Major Indoor Soccer League, known in its final two seasons as the Major Soccer League, was an indoor soccer league in the USA from 1978 to 1992. After the folding of the North American Soccer League in 1984, the MISL was the Division I soccer league for the United States...
from in the 1982-83 season and again from 1984 to 1988. They were North American Champions in 1981 and 1984, the only NASL team (with the exception of the New York Cosmos) to win the championship twice.
The Sting were founded in 1974 by Lee Stern
Lee Stern
Lee B. Stern is the longest tenured trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. He has been one of the most successful traders in the commodities market throughout his time there, and is well known for his involvement in the Chicago sports scene as well...
of Chicago and competed in the NASL for the first time in the 1975 season. A few years after founding the Sting, Stern brought Willy Roy
Willy Roy
Willy Roy is a retired U.S. soccer forward and coach. He played for several teams in the National Professional Soccer League and the North American Soccer League in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the United States national team from 1965 to 1973...
on as head coach. Roy coached the Sting for the remainder of their outdoor existence.
The team was named in reference to the popular 1973 film, The Sting
The Sting
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Created by...
, whose action was set in Chicago of the 1930s.
The club played at various venues. The outdoor team spread their home games at Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
, Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
, and Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park was the ballpark in which the Chicago White Sox played from 1910 to 1990. It was built by Charles Comiskey after a design by Zachary Taylor Davis, and was the site of four World Series and more than 6,000 major league games...
. The indoor entry called both Chicago Stadium
Chicago Stadium
The Chicago Stadium was an indoor sports arena and theater in Chicago. It opened in 1929, and closed in 1994.-History:The Stadium hosted the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL from 1929–1994 and the Chicago Bulls of the NBA from 1967–1994....
and the Rosemont Horizon (now the Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in Rosemont, Illinois.It is home to the Chicago Rush, of the Arena Football League, DePaul University's men's basketball team, the Chicago Wolves, of the AHL, and the Chicago Sky, of the WNBA.It is located near the intersection of Mannheim Road and...
) home.
Stern, Foulkes and Hill
1974-75: The Chicago Sting were the dream child of Lee Stern, a leading Chicago commodities broker, who in 1974 took a not inexpensive gamble that his hometown would accept soccer as a major league sport. Stern turned to England for a coach in the shape of ‘Busby Babe’ Bill FoulkesBill Foulkes
William Anthony Foulkes is a former English footballer who played for Manchester United in the Busby Babes teams of the 1950s, and also in the 1960s. His favoured position was centre back. For Manchester United, he played 679 games, third to Ryan Giggs and Sir Bobby Charlton, he also made 3...
, the former Manchester United defender.
Foulkes built a team of predominantly British players (there were 10 in the 1975 squad and 11 in 1976 and 1977) including Gordon Hill who would later win 6 England caps and play over a hundred games for Manchester United including the 1976 FA Cup Final. In Chicago he hit six goals in the Sting’s inaugural season and firmly established himself as a fan’s favourite.
In the summer of 1975 a sparse crowd of 4,500 watched the Sting’s very first home game and as it began so it continued with an average that year of around the 4,000 mark – although close to 14,000 did turn out to see the Sting take on the 1974 Polish World Cup team in a friendly.
The Sting missed out on the playoffs by a single point losing the final game of the season in a penalty shoot-out (Hill missing his attempt).
Cosmos doubled, Willie Morgan, Foulkes quits
1976: The Sting’s second season saw the arrival of more players from the British Isles and the return to Chicago of Polish striker Janusz KowalikJanusz Kowalik
Janusz "John" Kowalik was a Polish football striker who scored prolifically in both the European leagues and the North American Soccer League. He was the 1968 NASL MVP.-Professional:...
. Kowalik had hit the heights with the Chicago Mustangs
Chicago Mustangs
The Chicago Mustangs were an American professional soccer team based out of Chicago, Illinois that was a charter member of the United Soccer Association in 1967. The league was made up of teams imported whole from foreign leagues. The Chicago club was actually Cagliari Calcio from Italy...
eight years earlier scoring 30 goals in 28 appearances in the Mustangs one and only season in the NASL.
Although the British incomers were less well known – John James (from Tranmere Rovers), John Lowey
John Lowey (soccer)
John Lowey is a retired English football forward. Aside from three seasons in the North American Soccer League, one in the American Soccer League and one in Australia, Lowey spent the majority of his career in the 2nd division with Blackburn Rovers in England.In 1978, he signed with the...
(from Manchester United’s youth team) , Lammie Robertson
Lammie Robertson
Archibald Lamond Robertson, also known as Lammie Robertson, is a retired Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Burnley, Bury, Halifax Town, Brighton & Hove Albion, Exeter City, Leicester City, Peterborough United and Bradford City.His last Football League appearance was for...
(Exeter City) and Alan Waldron (Bolton Wanderers & Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
) – the side were good enough to win the club its first honour in the form of the Northern Division title.
Although the team were unable to make it past the first round of the playoffs, bowing out to the Toronto Blizzard
Toronto Blizzard (NASL)
The Toronto Blizzard were a professional soccer club based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that played in the North American Soccer League.-History:The Toronto Metros joined the NASL in 1971. Their home field was Varsity Stadium....
, they had doubled the star studded New York Cosmos
New York Cosmos
The New York Cosmos were an American soccer club based in New York City, New York and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York before moving in 1977 to Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, where it remained for the rest of its history...
in regular season play, winning two-nil in New York, and in front of 28,000 home fans had beaten Pele
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
, Giorgio Chinaglia
Giorgio Chinaglia
Giorgio Chinaglia is a former football striker from Italy. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. A year later at age 19, Chinaglia returned to Italy to play for Massese, and then Internapoli, before joining S.S. Lazio in 1969...
and company in a 4-1 romp.
1977: Head coach Bill Foulkes headed for Britain yet again before the 1977 season to sign a player who would prove to be one of the most successful and popular players in the NASL’s history – Willie Morgan
Willie Morgan
William "Willie" Morgan is a Scottish former professional football player.A winger, Morgan started his career with Burnley, making his first-team debut against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in 1963...
, the Scottish international midfielder. Morgan, who arrived on loan from Bolton Wanderers had played over 500 games in the Football League for the Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and Manchester United.
Also arriving from the UK was Ronnie Moore
Ronnie Moore
Ronald David "Ronnie" Moore is an English football manager and former player. He is considered one of the greatest Rotherham United players of all time, and is also considered the best manager Rotherham United have ever had, becoming a club legend. and went on to manage the Millers for seven years...
a prolific striker from Tranmere Rovers, but despite these additions the Sting had a very poor year and Foulkes resigned halfway through the season leaving Willy Roy, his assistant, as interim coach.
Roy, a German by birth who had arrived with his family in Chicago at the age of six, was a veteran of the early years of the NASL and its forerunner the NPSL
National Professional Soccer League (1967)
The National Professional Soccer League was a North American professional soccer league that existed for only the 1967 season before merging with the United Soccer Association to form the North American Soccer League. It had ten charter members, nine from the United States and one from Canada...
. The Sting finished the season with a 10 win 16 loss record. Unsurprisingly attendances were not improving, and a dramatic drop seemed likely when the Sting started the 1978 season by losing its first ten games.
Musgrove disaster, Karl-Heinz Granitza signs
1978: At the beginning of the 1978 NASL season the Sting set a much unwanted record when the team lost its first ten matches. This was not the start that owner Lee Stern had anticipated when he brought in Clive ToyeClive Toye
Clive Toye was inducted to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the United States in 2003.Toye was born in Plymouth, United Kingdom. He was a sports writer for the Express and Echo newspaper in Exeter, and later Chief Sports Writer for the Daily Express....
as new club president who in turn had hired Malcolm Musgrove
Malcolm Musgrove
Malcolm Musgrove was an English football player and manager.Musgrove played for his local side, Lynemouth Colliery, before being called up for national service, which he served in the Royal Air Force...
as the teams new head coach. Toye had been one of the men behind the success of the NASL’s leading light the New York Cosmos, while Musgrove, a former left-winger with West Ham United was a coach with a growing reputation.
Musgrove had made expensive forays into the transfer market bringing in four new players in the shape of Karl-Heinz Granitza
Karl-Heinz Granitza
Karl-Heinz Granitza was a German football player. In the United States, he is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame....
(from Hertha Berlin), Arno Steffenhagen
Arno Steffenhagen
Arno Steffenhagen is a retired German professional football player who played in Germany for Hertha BSC, Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli, in South Africa for Hellenic FC, in the Netherlands for Ajax, and in North America for Chicago Sting, Toronto Blizzard and Vancouver Whitecaps...
(from FC St. Pauli
FC St. Pauli
Fußball-Club St. Pauli is a German sports club based in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg. The football section is part of a larger club that also has Rugby Fußball-Club St. Pauli is a German sports club based in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg. The football section is part of a larger club that...
), Horst Blankenburg
Horst Blankenburg
Horst Blankenburg is a former German football player, who played as a sweeper. He is best known for the time in the beginning of the 1970s, during which he played for Ajax Amsterdam and won the European Cup three times and the Dutch championship and the KNVB Cup twice. In 1976, he won the German...
(who had played in the great Ajax side of the early 70’s alongside Johan Cruyff
Johan Cruyff
Hendrik Johannes Cruijff OON , known as Johan Cruyff, is a retired Dutch footballer and is currently the manager of the Catalan national team as well as a member of the AFC Ajax board of directors. He won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974, which is a record jointly held with...
, and company) and Jorgen Kristensen (another former Hertha Berlin man).
Swift action was needed and out went Musgrove as Willy Roy was recalled as coach. The effect was immediate – ten wins were recorded in the last fourteen regular season games – and the Sting moved up from last place to second place in the Central Division to win a playoff berth.
Although eliminated from the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Rowdies the Sting (or Der Sting as they would later become known with the shift from British staff to German) won plaudits around the league for their attacking style of play scoring thirty-eight goals in those final fourteen games.
While Musgrove’s reign had been fairly disastrous his signing of Granitza would set the seed for the Sting’s success over coming years, as we shall see.
Willy Roy appointed coach, On the brink
1979: At the end of the 1978 NASL season Willy Roy was appointed head coach. The Sting were on their way to becoming one of the best sides in the league and to insure continued success Roy brought in four new players who would all play their part in the franchises best season yet: Wim van Hanegem arrived from Dutch side AZ, Luigi Martini from SS Lazio, Thomas SjobergThomas Sjöberg
Thomas Sjöberg, , is a former Swedish footballer.- Career :Sjöberg played much of his career with Malmö FF in Allsvenskan during the 1970s...
from Malmo FF
Malmö FF
Malmö Fotbollförening, also known simply as Malmö FF, are a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö. The club is affiliated with Skånes Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Swedbank Stadion. The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit, are sky blue and white...
along with former Feyenoord man Peter Ressell.
All number of club records were broken as the Sting scored 70 goals – Karl-Heinz Granitza weighing in with 20 – and the average home attendance increased to a respectable 8,000, 21,000 plus turning out at Wrigley Field to see the New York Cosmos defeated 3-1. The Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Fort Lauderdale Strikers was an American soccer team, a descendant of the Washington Darts, Miami Gatos, and Miami Toros, that played in Fort Lauderdale, Florida....
were beaten in the first round of the playoffs (the Sting winning the best of three series by two wins to none) but the San Diego Sockers
San Diego Sockers
The San Diego Sockers were one of the most successful indoor soccer teams in the sport's short history. The team won ten championships in both the original Major Indoor Soccer League and the North American Soccer League.-History:...
proved to be too strong for Chicago and booked a place at Soccer Bowl ’79 with a 2-0 win in California followed by a 1-0 victory at Wrigley Field.
1980: Phil Parkes
Phil Parkes
Philip Benjamin Neil Frederick "Phil" Parkes is a former football goalkeeper.He was a pupil at Dormston School from September 1961 to December 1965....
, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers ‘keeper, became the Sting’s number 1, moving to Chicago from the Vancouver Whitecaps where he had played for the past three seasons and established himself as the NASL’s top glovesman. Also joining the Sting line-up were Ingo Peter (once of Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia Dortmund, commonly BVB, are a German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. Dortmund are one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund play in the Bundesliga, the top league of German football...
) and Franz Mathieu, a Haitian defender, who joined from FC St. Pauli.
The Sting took the Central Division title with a 21-11 record, 16 of those wins coming in their first 19 games. Karl-Heinz Granitza was again leading marksman with 19 goals and 26 assists, while Arno Steffenhagen took second place with 15 strikes and 15 assists from midfield.
The 1980 campaign, and the 1980-81 Indoor Season that followed (the Sting’s first foray into the world of the indoor game), were major turning points as far as the Chicago public were concerned and the club started to attract large crowds on a regular basis. 26,468 saw the Sting take on the Tampa Bay Rowdies at Wrigley Field, 18,112 watched the Washington Diplomats
Washington Diplomats
The Washington Diplomats were an American soccer club based in Washington, D.C.. Throughout their existence, the club played their home games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium...
home fixture, and two other matches drew crowds in excess of 16,000, while indoors 16,257 packed the Chicago Stadium for one game as the Sting’s reached – but lost – the NASL Championship finals.
'81 Championship Season
1981: The addition of Pato Margetic to the Sting front line – Margetic had joined from the Detroit ExpressDetroit Express
The Detroit Express was a soccer team based in suburban Detroit that played in the now defunct North American Soccer League from 1978 to 1980. Its home field was the Pontiac Silverdome. The Express were co-owned and directed by famous English soccer pundit Jimmy Hill who was also the managing...
– showed coach Will Roy’s attacking intent for the coming campaign, indeed the club would finish as the NASL leading scorers with 81 goals.
The turning point in the season came at the end of the June when a new club record crowd of 30,501 turned out at Wrigley Field to see the Sting beat the New York Cosmos 6-5 after a shootout. This signalled the start of an eight game winning streak.
The Central Division title was confirmed as the Sting completed the regular season with three straight home wins. The Dallas Tornado
Dallas Tornado
Dallas Tornado were a soccer team based in Dallas that played in the NASL. They played from 1967 to 1981. Their home fields were Cotton Bowl , P.C. Cobb Stadium , Franklin Field , Texas Stadium and Ownby Stadium on the SMU campus...
were beaten 3-1, the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers by a 7-2 margin and the Tulsa Roughnecks
Tulsa Roughnecks
-NASL:The Tulsa Roughnecks were a North American Soccer League team from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They played at Skelly Stadium on the campus of the University of Tulsa. The Roughnecks were a regular in the NASL playoffs, and won the NASL Soccer Bowl in 1983, defeating the Toronto Blizzard at B.C. Place...
5-4 to end the campaign with a 23 wins and 9 defeats.
In the first round of the playoffs the Seattle Sounders were beaten by two games to one and the Sting advanced to round two and a date with the Montreal Manic
Montreal Manic
Montreal Manic were a soccer team based out of Montreal that played in the NASL. They played from 1981 to 1983. Their home field was Olympic Stadium...
. A record soccer crowd of 58,542 in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium saw the Manic take the first game 3-2, but the Sting bounced back to win games two and three both by a 4-2 margin, game three being won despite being 2-1 down with nine minutes left to play.
The San Diego Sockers now stood between the Sting and a first Soccer Bowl appearance. Two late goals by the Californian side gave them first blood and a 2-1 win, but the Sting won game two by the same scoreline in front of 21,760 at Comiskey Park. Five days later 39,623 Chicagoans saw the Sting take the series with a 1-0 overtime victory at the same venue. The Sting were heading for a Soccer Bowl showdown with the New York Cosmos.
Soccer Bowl '81
Eighteen years without a major sporting honor ended for the city of Chicago as the Sting won the NASL Championship to give the Windy CityChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
its first professional sports title since the Chicago Bears had won the NFL Championship Game in 1963
1963 NFL Championship Game
The 1963 National Football League Championship Game was played on December 29, 1963 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The game pitted the visiting New York Giants against the Chicago Bears in the 31st annual championship game...
. On that occasion the Bears had beaten the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Sting’s triumph would be earned against another New York team, the Cosmos.
A crowd of 36,971 – including some 6,000 from Chicago – were on hand at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium
Exhibition Stadium
Canadian National Exhibition Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, that formerly stood on the Exhibition Place grounds, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada....
and they could have been forgiven for expecting a high scoring game as the two previous meetings between the Sting and the Cosmos that year had produced fifteen goals. So it was very much against the odds – after the normal 90 minutes and a further 15 minutes of sudden death overtime – that this game would end goalless.
Each side had plenty of scoring opportunities though, the closest of which came from the Sting’s Pato Margetic whose strike was saved by a fully extended Hubert Birkenmeier
Hubert Birkenmeier
Hubert Birkenmeier is a retired German professional footballer who played professionally in Germany, the North American Soccer League, Major Indoor Soccer League and American Soccer League. His greatest success came with the New York Cosmos in the NASL.Birkenmeier began his career in West Germany...
in the Cosmos goal, team mate Ingo Peter’s saw his header strike the crossbar and then the upright, and an overhead kick by Giorgio Chinaglia went just wide of the Sting goal.
Despite that effort, Chinaglia, the NASL’s all-time leading scorer, was marshaled well by the defensive partnership of Frantz Mathieu and Paul Hahn, supply from the flanks by the Cosmos wingers was kept to a minimum by Dave Huson
Dave Huson
Dave Huson is a retired Channel Island football player who played professionally in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League....
and Derek Spalding
Derek Spalding
Derek Spalding is a former soccer player, who played as a defender. Spalding played for Hibernian in the Scottish Football League until he emigrated to the United States in 1977. He then played seven seasons in the North American Soccer League and at least two in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He...
, the Sting’s two fullbacks, while in goal Dieter Ferner put in another exemplary shift. At the other end the Cosmos backline, aided by Birkenmeier, was just as effective.
Twice in regular season play the Sting had needed extra time to beat the Cosmos and the same would be the case in Toronto. New York took the lead after three rounds through Vladislav Bogicevic
Vladislav Bogicevic
Vladislav Bogićević is a Serbian former football player. He is a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame.-Club career:...
, Karl-Heinz Granitza then leveled things up before Ferner made a great save to keep out Ivan Buljan’s
Ivan Buljan
Ivan Buljan is Croatian sport manager and a former Yugoslavian footballer, he was a member of the Yugoslavia squad at the FIFA World Cup 1974 and the 1976 European Football Championship....
chipped shot. Rudy Glenn
Rudy Glenn
Rudy Glenn is a retired U.S. soccer player who coaches youth soccer and works in the Chicago Power front office.-High school and college:Glenn attended Mannheim American High School in Mannheim, Germany . He attended Indiana University from 1976-1979 where he played on the men’s soccer team. ...
then stepped up to beat Birkenmeier to become the first native North American to score a winning goal in a Soccer Bowl.
Joint captains Ingo Peter and Spalding proudly accepted the Championship Trophy from NASL Commissioner Phil Woosnam
Phil Woosnam
Phillip Abraham Woosnam is a Welsh former Association football inside-right and manager. He went on to become commissioner of the North American Soccer League.-Playing career:...
to confirm the Sting as the North American Soccer League champions for 1981.
Sting set US indoor attendance record
1981-82 (Indoor): A dramatic and high scoring season saw the club top the Central Division pipping the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the title in the final game of the regular season. A then record attendance for an indoor soccer game in North America of 19,398 saw the Sting come from 8-4 down to beat the Rowdies 10-9 in sudden death overtime.Chicago had topped the division for most of the season and remained undefeated in regular season play at the Chicago Stadium. Highlights en-route to the title included the 10-3 defeat of the Montreal Manic, a 10-4 victory over the Tulsa Roughnecks and a 6-3 win against the New York Cosmos at home while on the road impressive 6-3 and 6-5 wins were recorded against, respectively, the Toronto Blizzard and Jacksonville Teamen.
Even more impressive were the growing attendances at the Chicago Stadium where the Sting were outdrawing the Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
(NBA) and fast catching up with the crowds pulled in by the Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
(NHL). Besides the record crowd of 19,398 for the Tampa Bay Rowdies game, 18,374 saw the New York Cosmos game, 13,000 turned out for the regular season game against the Tulsa Roughnecks while 16,000 attended the playoff game against the Oklahoma side.
It was against the Roughnecks that the Sting made an unexpected and early exit from the playoffs having been widely tipped to add the indoor crown to the Soccer Bowl trophy won the previous summer. The Sting lost the best of three game opener in Tulsa 5-4 but in a dramatic return at the Chicago Stadium the Sting turned a 6-1 deficit into a 7-6 victory, Karl-Heinz Granitza scoring the winner five minutes into sudden death overtime.
With the series tied at one game each a 15 minute mini-game followed. The Roughnecks took a three goal lead, the Sting pulled a goal back but there was to be no dramatic comeback in this game as the Roughnecks advanced into round two of the playoffs with a 3-1 win to take the series by two games to one.
Karl-Heinz Granitza finished the season as the leagues second highest scorer (behind Julie Veee of the San Diego Sockers) with 35 goals and 36 assists. In the home game against the New York Cosmos on January 30th he scored a hat-trick, as the Sting won 5-3, extending his indoor scoring streak to 35 consecutive games. Three games earlier he had beaten the leagues existing record of 32 in the 6-5 overtime win against the Jacksonville Teamen.
Defending champions fail to make playoffs
1982 (Outdoor): The possibility that the Sting would become the first defending champions to fail to make the playoffs since the Soccer Bowl's inauguration in 1975 was certainly far from anyone’s minds when Chicago resumed NASL outdoor action in April. However, four straight losses in the opening month set the trend for what would become a topsy-turvy campaign.The players had had little time to rest after a tough indoor season and the team and its management also had to adjust to a number of rule changes. First, the league had agreed to FIFA's demands that offside rule should apply from the half-way line and not the NASL’s 35-yard line as had been the case since the leagues inception. Second, the league insisted that clubs have at least four North Americans on the field at any one time. The Sting had sufficient players to do so but was left with a surfeit of foreign stars and David Huson and John Tyma – who had both played their part in the 1981 success – were traded to other teams.
The first win of the season came against the Tulsa Roughnecks at Wrigley Field on May 1st but that was just a brief respite as the Sting slumped to a further four defeats to end the month with a 1-7 record. Then remarkably Frantz Mathieu – a firm fan favourite – was traded to the Montreal Manic, with Gordon Hill coming the other way, making his return to Chicago after a seven-year absence.
A break from league action saw the Sting take part in the Trans-Atlantic Challenge Cup. After holding Nacional of Uruguay to a 0-0 tie and defeating Italian Seria A side Napoli 3-1 they lifted the trophy with a 4-3 victory against the New York Cosmos in front of 36,904 at Giants Stadium, New Jersey. But after winning the prestigious trophy it was back to NASL action and another defeat in a 3-0 reverse at the Seattle Sounders.
Defensive mistakes, poor officiating and continuing injury problems dogged the remainder of the season although the Chicagoans did manage a run of three straight wins to briefly keep alive hopes of making the playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers were beaten 3-2 at the start of July, followed by the Fort Launderdale Strikers 3-0 and a 2-1 shootout victory against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Those slim hopes finally came to end with a 3-1 loss at the New York Cosmos, followed, ironically, by two excellent performances that saw the Sting defeat the Toronto Blizzard 3-1 and the Montreal Manic 2-1, both at Comiskey Park, to close out the season, leaving the Sting with the worst win-loss record (13-19) in its history.
Sting debut in MISL
1982-83 (Indoor): In the fall of 1982 agreement was reached between the NASL and the MISL to allow three franchises – the San Diego Sockers, the San Jose Earthquakes and the Chicago Sting – to join the MISL for the upcoming 1982-83 indoor season. With a regular season stretching from November to mid-April and comprising 48 games per team (compared to just 18 games in the NASL Indoor League the previous season) the Chicagoans had effectively signed up to play two full seasons a year, of two very different types of soccer.Even so, the Sting, who were assigned to the Eastern Division, acquitted themselves well taking place in a three way race for the division title, with the veteran Cleveland Force and the Baltimore Blast, eventually finishing third, two games behind the Blast in first place, and one behind the Force in second place, with a 28-20 record.
In the first round of the playoffs experience was a telling factor at Cleveland eased into the next round winning the best-of-three series 5-9, 5-4 and 7-5.
Financial problems mount for NASL
1983 (Outdoor): An ongoing salary war between the NASL and the Major Indoor Soccer League was continuing to cause financial problems across the two leagues, and losses continued to pile up as the 1983 outdoor season got underway with just twelve teams (three down on 1982).An improved Sting side completed the season with a 15 win 15 loss record to take second place in the Eastern Conference - behind the New York Cosmos - and a place in the playoffs for the first time in two seasons. It would be a short lived playoff campaign, however, as the Sting went out at the first round stage losing the best-of-three series with the Golden Bay Earthquakes (formerly the San Jose Earthquakes) 6-1, 0-1 and 5-2.
Karl-Heinz Granitza was once again top scorer for the Sting - and the leagues second highest scorer behind Roberto Cabanas of the New York Cosmos - with 15 goals and 18 assists (48 points), Ricardo Alonso was second with 16 goals and 15 assists (47 points) and Pato Margetic third with 12 goals and 8 assists (32 points).
Home attendances averaged 10,937, an improvement of 1,600 fans per game over the previous season, although still below the NASL average of just over 13,000 per fixture.
Outdoor
| Year | Record | Regular Season Finish | Playoffs | Avg. Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 12–10 | 2nd, Central Division | Did Not Qualify | 4,330 |
| 1976 | 15–9 | 1st, Northern Division, Atlantic Conference | Division Championships | 5,801 |
| 1977 | 10–16 | 4th, Northern Division, Atlantic Conference | Did Not Qualify | 5,199 |
| 1978 | 12–18 | 2nd, Central Division, American Conference | First Round | 4,188 |
| 1979 | 16–14 | 2nd, Central Division, American Conference | American Conference Semifinals | 8,036 |
| 1980 | 21–11 | 1st, Central Division, American Conference | First Round | 11,672 |
| 1981 | 23–9 | 1st, Central Division | NASL Champions | 12,889 |
| 1982 | 13–19 | 4th, Eastern Division | Did Not Qualify | 9,377 |
| 1983 | 15–15 | 2nd, Eastern Division | Quarterfinals | 10,937 |
| 1984 | 13–11 | 1st, Eastern Division | NASL Champions | 8,376 |
Indoor
| Season | League | Record | Regular Season Finish | Playoffs | Avg. Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80/81 | NASL | 13–5 | 1st, Central Division | Lost Championship | 6,164 |
| 81/82 | NASL | 12–6 | 1st, Central Division | First Round | 13,322 |
| 82/83 | MISL | 28–20 | 3rd, Eastern Division | First Round | 9,201 |
| 83/84 | NASL | 20–12 | 2nd | First Round | 11,974 |
| 84/85 | MISL | 28–20 | 2nd, Eastern Division | First Round | 10,628 |
| 85/86 | MISL | 23–25 | 6th, Eastern Division | Did Not Qualify | 7,345 |
| 86/87 | MISL | 23–29 | 5th, Eastern Division | Did Not Qualify | 5,879 |
| 87/88 | MISL | 24–32 | 5th, Eastern Division | Did Not Qualify | 5,977 |
Honors
NASL Championships- 1981
- 1984
Division Titles
- 1976 Northern Division, Atlantic Conference
- 1980 Central Division, National Conference
- 80/81 Central Division Indoor
- 81/82 Central Division Indoor
- 1981 Central Division
- 1984 Eastern Division
Transatlantic Challenge Cup
- 1982
Coach of the Year
- 1981 Willy RoyWilly RoyWilly Roy is a retired U.S. soccer forward and coach. He played for several teams in the National Professional Soccer League and the North American Soccer League in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the United States national team from 1965 to 1973...
All-Star First Team Selections
- 1975 Gordon Hill
- 1979 Bruce WilsonBruce Wilson (soccer)Bruce Alec Wilson was a NASL and Canadian international soccer player. He played the second most games of any player in the former league, 299 . He also captained the Canadian team at the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals, the sole time Canada has appeared...
- 1980 Phil ParkesPhil Parkes (Wolves)Phil Parkes is an English former professional football goalkeeper. He was Wolverhampton Wanderers' first-choice keeper for much of the late 1960s and early '70s.-Career:...
- 1981 Frantz MathieuFrantz MathieuFrantz Mathieu is a Haitian former footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a defender.-Professional:Mathieu spent the 1978-79 season in West Germany with FC St...
, Arno SteffenhagenArno SteffenhagenArno Steffenhagen is a retired German professional football player who played in Germany for Hertha BSC, Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli, in South Africa for Hellenic FC, in the Netherlands for Ajax, and in North America for Chicago Sting, Toronto Blizzard and Vancouver Whitecaps... - 1982 Arno Steffenhagen
- 1983 Pato Margetic
- 1984 Karl-Heinz GranitzaKarl-Heinz GranitzaKarl-Heinz Granitza was a German football player. In the United States, he is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame....
- 84/85 Karl-Heinz Granitza
All-Star Second Team Selections
- 1978 Bruce Wilson
- 1979 Karl-Heinz Granitza, Arno Steffenhagen
- 1980 Karl-Heinz Granitza
- 1981 Karl-Heinz Granitza
- 1982 Karl-Heinz Granitza, Pato Margetic
- 1983 Ricardo AlonsoRicardo AlonsoRicardo Alonso was a soccer player who began as a forward before moving to defender later in his career. Alonso spent six seasons in the North American Soccer League, four in Major Indoor Soccer League, at least three in the American Indoor Soccer Association, one in the American Soccer League and...
, Young Jeung Cho, Karl-Heinz Granitza - 1984 Pato Margetic
All-Star Honorable Mentions
- 1977 Willie MorganWillie MorganWilliam "Willie" Morgan is a Scottish former professional football player.A winger, Morgan started his career with Burnley, making his first-team debut against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in 1963...
- 1978 Karl-Heinz Granitza, Jorgen Kristensen
- 1979 Jorgen Kristensen
- 1980 Frantz Mathieu
- 1981 Dave HusonDave HusonDave Huson is a retired Channel Island football player who played professionally in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League....
, Pato Margetic - 82/83 Pato Margetic
- 1983 Dave Huson
- 84/85 Gerry GrayGerry GrayGerard "Gerry" Gray is a former Canadian national soccer team player who is currently the head coach of Tacoma F.C..-Club career:...
- 86/87 Batata
Notable players
Willem van HanegemWillem van Hanegem
Willem "Wim" van Hanegem is a Dutch football player and coach born in Breskens, Zeeland. In a playing career spanning over 20 years he won several domestic honours in the Netherlands, as well as two UEFA trophies, all with Feyenoord. He was also a finalist in the FIFA World Cup 1974...
(1979) Dick Advocaat
Dick Advocaat
Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat is a Dutch football manager and former player currently the manager of the Russia national football team.He has been moderately successful as a football player and as a coach, which included two stints with the Dutch national football team...
(1978–80) Mervyn Cawston
Mervyn Cawston
Mervyn Cawston is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Active in both England and the United States, Cawston made over 300 career appearances.-Career:...
(1975–78) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#C Eddie Cliff
Eddie Cliff
Eddie Cliff is an English former professional footballer who played as a full back. Active in both England and the United States, Cliff made over 120 career appearances. He is sometimes confused with Eddie Cliff of Charleston, S.C., a famous Southern gentleman and socialite.-Career:Cliff began his...
(1975–76) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#C Geoff Davies
Geoff Davies
Geoffrey Peter "Geoff" Davies is an English retired professional footballer who played in England and the United States as a midfielder.-Playing career:...
(1976) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#D Gordon Hill (1975/1982) Gerry Ingram
Gerry Ingram
Gerald "Gerry" Ingram is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. Active in both England and the United States between 1966 and 1980, Ingram made nearly 500 professional league career appearances, scoring nearly 200 goals.-Career:Born in Beverley, Ingram began his career...
(1978–79) Karl-Heinz Granitza
Karl-Heinz Granitza
Karl-Heinz Granitza was a German football player. In the United States, he is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame....
(1978–88) Horst Blankenburg
Horst Blankenburg
Horst Blankenburg is a former German football player, who played as a sweeper. He is best known for the time in the beginning of the 1970s, during which he played for Ajax Amsterdam and won the European Cup three times and the Dutch championship and the KNVB Cup twice. In 1976, he won the German...
(1978–80) Charlie Fajkus
Charlie Fajkus
Charlie Fajkus is a former U.S. soccer midfielder who spent six seasons in the North American Soccer League and five in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He also earned three caps with the U.S. national team between 1982 and 1985.-Youth and college:Fajkus grew up Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb of...
(1979–84, 1987-88) Rudy Glenn
Rudy Glenn
Rudy Glenn is a retired U.S. soccer player who coaches youth soccer and works in the Chicago Power front office.-High school and college:Glenn attended Mannheim American High School in Mannheim, Germany . He attended Indiana University from 1976-1979 where he played on the men’s soccer team. ...
(1980–86) Mark Simanton
Mark Simanton
Mark Simanton is a retired American soccer midfielder who spent his entire professional career with the Chicago Sting.Simanton graduated from New Trier West High School. He attended the Indiana University where he played on the men's soccer team from 1976 to 1979.In 1980, Simanton turned...
(1980–87) Hans Weiner
Hans Weiner
Hans Weiner is a German former footballer who played as a defender. He spent much of his career in Berlin, with three years at Tennis Borussia, and nine years in two spells at Hertha BSC. He also spent two years with Bayern Munich, where he had his greatest successes, winning two Bundesliga titles...
(1982–84) Heinz Wirtz
Heinz Wirtz
Heinz Wirtz is a retired German soccer defender who played professionally in the North American Soccer League, Major Indoor Soccer League and American Professional Soccer League. He also coached in the National Professional Soccer League.-Career:...
(1985–88) Jimmy Kelly (1976–78) Cho Young-Jeung
Cho Young-Jeung
Cho Young-Jeung is a South Korean former footballer who plays as a defender. He is now leader of Paju National Football Center .He was a member of Technical Committee of FIFA until 2002 to 2007...
(1982–83) Duncan McKenzie
Duncan McKenzie
Duncan McKenzie is an English former footballer who played as a striker in the Football League for Nottingham Forest, Mansfield Town, Leeds United, Everton, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers in the 1970s, in Belgium for Anderlecht, in the North American Soccer League for the Tulsa Roughnecks and the...
(1982) Ronnie Moore
Ronnie Moore
Ronald David "Ronnie" Moore is an English football manager and former player. He is considered one of the greatest Rotherham United players of all time, and is also considered the best manager Rotherham United have ever had, becoming a club legend. and went on to manage the Millers for seven years...
(1977) http://home.att.net/~nasl/players.htm#M Jim McCalliog
Jim McCalliog
James "Jim" McCalliog is a Scottish former footballer who played for Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United and Southampton....
(1977) Derek Spalding
Derek Spalding
Derek Spalding is a former soccer player, who played as a defender. Spalding played for Hibernian in the Scottish Football League until he emigrated to the United States in 1977. He then played seven seasons in the North American Soccer League and at least two in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He...
(1978–82) Clive Griffiths
Clive Griffiths (footballer)
Clive Griffiths is a retired Welsh footballer.Griffiths was born in Pontypridd. He played for Manchester United, Plymouth Argyle and Tranmere Rovers...
(1975–79) http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/player2/clivegriffiths.htm Dieter Ferner (1981–83) Jorgen Kristensen (1978–80)
Head coaches
Bill FoulkesBill Foulkes
William Anthony Foulkes is a former English footballer who played for Manchester United in the Busby Babes teams of the 1950s, and also in the 1960s. His favoured position was centre back. For Manchester United, he played 679 games, third to Ryan Giggs and Sir Bobby Charlton, he also made 3...
(1975–1977) Willy Roy
Willy Roy
Willy Roy is a retired U.S. soccer forward and coach. He played for several teams in the National Professional Soccer League and the North American Soccer League in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the United States national team from 1965 to 1973...
(1977–1986) Malcolm Musgrove
Malcolm Musgrove
Malcolm Musgrove was an English football player and manager.Musgrove played for his local side, Lynemouth Colliery, before being called up for national service, which he served in the Royal Air Force...
(1978)
- Erich GeyerErich GeyerErich Geyer is a retired German football defender who spent most of his career in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League. Following his retirement from playing, he coached for over twenty years.-Player:...
(1986–1988) Gary HindleyGary HindleyGary Hindley is an American soccer coach. He has coached youth soccer, high school, college and professional teams. He won Coach of the Year honors in 1984 in the United Soccer League, 1991 American Professional Soccer League and 1998...
(1988)