Winston Earle on the cover of a 1968 Baltimore Bays program from the North American Soccer League

Baltimore Bays (1967-1969)

National Professional Soccer League (1967)
North American Soccer League (1968-1969)

Tombstone

Born: 1967 – NPSL founding franchise
Folded: September 24, 1969

First Game: April 16, 1967 ( vs. Atlanta Chiefs)
Final Game: August 30, 1969 (L 6-2 @ Dallas Tornado)

NPSL Championships: None
NASL Championships: None

Stadia

1967-1968: Memorial Stadium (55,000)

1969: Kirk Field

Marketing

Team Colors: Red, White & Gold

Ownership

Owner: Jerold Hoffberger, et al.

 

Background

The original Baltimore Bays were a short-lived pro soccer team that was owned and operated by the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. Orioles owner Jerold Hoffberger was one of ten founding members of the National Professional Soccer League in 1967. The NPSL was an effort to capitalize on moderate American interest in the 1966 World Cup, which was broadcast on U.S. television for the first time.  The league featured a number of heavy hitter owners from Major League Baseball and the NFL, including the Hoffberger, the Rooney family in Pittsburgh, Bill Bartholomay in Atlanta and Los Angeles Rams’ owner Dan Reeves.

Baltimore Bays 1967 NPSL Championship Game Program

1967 NPSL Final

The Bays won the NPSL’s Eastern Division with a 14-9-9 record.  Defender Badu DaCruz, midfielder  Juan Santisteban and forward Art Welch were named to the All-NPSL 1st Team.  The Bays advanced to the two-leg NPSL championship series against the Western Division champion Oakland Clippers. Baltimore won the first match 1-0 at home before 16,619 fans at Memorial Stadium on September 3, 1967.  But the Clippers roared back with a 4-1 victory in the second leg in Oakland on September 9th. The Bays lost the series 4-2 on aggregate goals.

Formation of the NASL

Following the 1967 season, the NPSL merged with the rival United Soccer Association to form the 17-club North American Soccer League (NASL).  The Bays dipped to 13-16-3 and missed the playoffs in their second season.

The NASL collapsed in late 1968 as investors lost hope in soccer’s potential with the American audience.  The 17-team membership shrank to just five clubs for the 1969 campaign.  The Bays were one of the five survivors, but they gave up on 50,000-seat Memorial Stadium, where the club averaged only around 5,000 fans for its first two seasons.  The Bays would play their final season at Kirk Field, a high school football oval in Northeast Baltimore.

Demise & Aftermath

With the league in disarray, NASL officials split the 1969 season into two sections.  The first section – dubbed the “International Cup” – saw the NASL import top shelf English clubs to represent the five remaining NASL cities. During the International Cup, the “Baltimore Bays” were actually West Ham United, featuring Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore, two of the great stars of England’s 1966 World Cup championship team.  West Ham/the Bays acquitted themselves well in the round robin tournament. Baltimore finished 2nd to the “Kansas City Spurs” (who were actually Wolverhampton Wanderers).

For the second half of the 1969 season, the Brits went home. The NASL clubs re-grouped with actual rosters of their own players.  The real Bays? They were horrid. The team finished in last place with a 2-13-1 record and drew barely a 1,000 fans per match. The Bays folded shortly after the 1969 season ended, having lost over a million dollars in three years for the Baltimore Orioles.

A lower-budget reboot of the Bays appeared for one season in the 2nd division American Soccer League in 1973, hosted a couple of international exhibitions against British and Mexican opponents, and then quietly vanished after one season.

The NASL returned to Baltimore in the mid-1970’s with the short-lived Baltimore Comets.

 

Baltimore Bays Shop

Editor's Pick

Rock n' Roll Soccer

The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League

by Ian Plenderleith

The North American Soccer League – at its peak in the late 1970s – presented soccer as performance, played by men with a bent for flair, hair and glamour. More than just Pelé and the New York Cosmos, it lured the biggest names of the world game like Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Gerd Müller and George Best to play the sport as it was meant to be played-without inhibition, to please the fans.

The first complete look at the ambitious, star-studded NASL, Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer reveals how this precursor to modern soccer laid the foundations for the sport’s tremendous popularity in America today. 

 

When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

 

 

 

Downloads

3-15-1968 Bays to Face Dundalk of Ireland at Memorial Stadium on May 22nd Press Release

3-15-1968 Bays to Face Dundalk of Ireland at Memorial Stadium on May 22nd Press Release

 

Links

National Professional Soccer League Media Guides (1967)

National Professional Soccer League Programs

North American Soccer League Media Guides

North American Soccer League Programs

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