Tag: Varsity Stadium

Toronto Falcons Soccer

Toronto Falcons

The Toronto Falcons played two seasons of pro soccer at Varsity Stadium during the late 1960’s. The roots of the team traced back to the Toronto Italia-Falcons of the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League. Italia-Falcons owner Joe Peters backed the promotion of the team into the ambitious National Professional Soccer League in 1967. The NPSL was one of two start-up North American pro leagues that launched that year. The NPSL’s rival, the United Soccer Association also featured a Toronto entry – Toronto City, owned by future Toronto Maple Leafs owner Steve Stavro.

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Toronto Blizzard NASL

Toronto Blizzard

North American Soccer League (1979-1984) Canadian Soccer League (1987-1992) American Professional Soccer League (1993) Born: February 13, 1979 – Re-branded from Toronto Metros-Croatia Folded: Postseason

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1974 Toronto Metros Media Guide from the North American Soccer League

Toronto Metros

The Toronto Metros were a North American Soccer League franchise founded in 1971. The Metros followed closely behind two other failed pro soccer clubs in Toronto during the late 1960’s: Toronto City (1967) and Toronto Falcons (1967-1968). In 1975, the Metros merged with Toronto Croatia of Canada’s amateur National Soccer League. Much to the exasperation of NASL officials, the new management imposed a Croat ethnic identity onto the organization and re-branded the club as Toronto Metros-Croatia. Read more…

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1975 Toronto Metros-Croatia Media Guide from the North American Soccer League

Toronto Metros-Croatia

Toronto Metros-Croatia was an anomaly within the North American Soccer League during the NASL’s boom years of the mid-to-late 1970’s.  The club emerged in 1975 from the merger of the NASL’s Toronto Metros and Toronto Croatia of Canada’s small-time National Soccer League. To the chagrin of NASL executives the merged club played up its ethnic identity, coming up with the awkward “Metros-Croatia” moniker and filling its management (entirely) and roster (largely) with ethnic Croats. But in their finest hour, the club acquired Western European stars Eusebio and Wolfgang Sunholz and rode these late season acquisition to the 1976 Soccer Bowl title.

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Toronto Rifles Continental Football League

Toronto Rifles

The Toronto Rifles were a short-lived professional football team that played at Maple Leafs Stadium and Varsity Stadium from 1965 to 1967. The club originally formed in Montreal in 1964 and played one season there as the Quebec Rifles before moving to Toronto. Unlike teams of the rival Canadian Football League, the Rifles were members of the largely American-based Continental Football League and played by the considerably different American football rules. The financially troubled Rifles folded just two games into their third season in September 1967.

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