United Soccer League (1984-1985)

Tombstone

Formed: January 1984¹
Disbanded: June 25, 1985²

First Game: May 12, 1984
Last Game: June 22, 1985

Seasons: 1.5
States: 5
(FL, NC, NY, OK, TX)

Leadership

President & Commissioner:

1984 – April 1985: Dr. William Burfeind
April 1985 – June 1985: Kalman Csapo

Attendance

Trophy Case

Background

The United Soccer League was a 2nd division outdoor pro league in the United States during the spring/summer of 1984 and the spring of 1985.

The USL rose out of the ashes of the defunct American Soccer League (1933-1983), which collapsed in early 1984. The Dallas Americans, Jacksonville Tea Men, an Oklahoma City franchise, and the Rochester Flash came over from the ASL and were joined by five new expansion franchises to field a league of nine clubs in 1984. The USL also announced plans to play an indoor season in the fall/winter of 1984-1985, but the indoor plans never came to fruition.

When the league returned in the spring of 1985, six of the nine franchises had disbanded. The Houston Dynamos, one of the league’s most stable clubs, elected to operate as an independent club playing an exhibition scheduled rather than continue in the USL. This left the league with only two holdovers – the champion Ft. Lauderdale Sun (now known as the South Florida Sun) and the Dallas Americans. Oklahoma City moved to Tulsa and a new team was added in the El Paso-Juarez border region.

The league managed only a handful of games in 1985 before chronic financial problems caused the league to disband at the end of June 1985.