Congratulations to the Washington Spirit of the National Women’s Soccer League on winning their first NWSL with a 2-1 triumph over Chicago Red Stars on November 20th, 2021. Today let’s look back at D.C.’s original championship women’s club, the Washington Freedom, featuring Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach.
Of Washington D.C.’s multitude of professional and semi-pro soccer clubs, the original Diplomats of the North American Soccer League were by far the longest-lasting and most popular until the arrival of Major League Soccer and D.C. United in 1996. The Dips played from 1974 to 1981, spending most of those years at RFK Stadium. At the peak of their powers in 1980, the club shelled out a $1 million transfer fee to acquired Dutch superstar Johan Cruyff. But the Dips’ high powered corporate ownership group quickly soured on their investment and the club was out of business by late 1981. The Diplomats name and logo was later revived by a completely separate and much lower-budgeted American Soccer League club from 1987 to 1990.
The Washington Federals were a dreadful early 1980’s entry in the otherwise fondly remembered United States Football League. The Feds went 7-29 over two seasons of play and were famously compared to “a group of untrained gerbils” by exasperated team owner Berl Bernhard. After two seasons in the nation’s capital, the club was sold and packed off to Orlando prior to the USFL’s third and final season in 1985.
Here we have the third – and presumably last – incarnation of the Washington Diplomats soccer club. The latter day Dips, like their two North American Soccer League predecessors of 1974-1981, played at RFK Stadium. But NFL stadium aside, the 1987-1990 Diplomats were a far more frugal affair than the NASL club that once paid a million transfer fee for Johan Cruyff. On the plus side, Dips 3.0 accomplished something their NASL forebears never managed, capturing a league championship in 1988.
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