American Soccer League (1969-1975)
Tombstone
Born: 1969 – Joined American Soccer League
Folded: Postseason 1975
First Game:
Last Game: September 20, 1975 (T 1-1 @ New York Apollo)
ASL Champions: 1975 (co-Champions)
Stadia
1969: Dilboy Stadium
1971: Brother Gilbert Stadium
1971-1972: Nickerson Field
1972: Everett Memorial Stadium
1973: Alumni Stadium
1974-1975: Nickerson Field
1975: Foley Stadium
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: John Bertos
Trophy Case
ASL Most Valuable Player
- 1975: Jose Neto
FWIL FAVORITE
Boston Astros Logo T-Shirt
Though just a footnote in New England Soccer history, the lower division Boston Astros played more seasons than any of the better-financed Boston pro clubs that followed them, such the Minutemen, Tea Men or the Bolts. Only the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer have had more staying power.
This Astros design is available today from American Retro Apparel in Grey or White and in sizes small through XXXL today!
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Background
The Boston Astros were a classic mom & pop operations in the rough & tumble business of American pro soccer in the 1970’s. The “pop” in this instance was John Bertos, a Greek immigrant and former soccer player who more or less single-handedly organized, financed and coached the Astros for their seven seasons in the lower rungs of the professional game.
The Astros claimed to trace their origins back to the early 1950’s with the formation of an amateur team called the Lowell Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club. This was a bit of a stretch. The main connection here was that Bertos started coaching Pan-Hellenic in 1964. The real history of the Astros as a pro club began in 1969 when they were invited to join the American Soccer League, the nation’s longest running soccer loop, dating back to the early 1930’s. Despite the ASL’s long history, it was comically disorganized and perpetually on the brink of implosion.
Bertos ran the Astros with the proceeds from his Lowell-based janitorial service and helped to employ some of his immigrant players in the business. His Astros’ squads of the 1970’s had a heavy Brazilian presence. Two of his top Brazilian finds were strikers Helio “Boom Boom” Barbosa and Jose Neto. The ASL named Barbosa Most Valuable Player of the 1973 season. Neto captured the same honor after lighting up the league scoring tables as a 20-year old rookie in 1975.
Move From Lowell To Boston
The Astros initially played their home matches in the Northern Massachusetts industrial city of Lowell, but moved into Boston in 1972, splitting the next few years between various college and high school stadiums in Boston, Malden, Newton and Somerville.
In 1974, Bertos got some outside investment help for the first time, in the person of Worcester fuel company executive David Adams. But competition also arrived in the form of the Boston Minutemen, a 1974 expansion club in the superior North American Soccer League. In 1975, the Minutemen moved in to Nickerson Field. Boston now had two pro teams playing the in the same stadium.
1975 Nine-Overtime Championship Match
Bertos couldn’t survive the competition and moved his club to Worcester late in the 1975 season, setting up shop at Foley Stadium to finish out the year. Occasionally, the 1975 team is referred to as the Worcester Astros. Thanks to Jose Neto’s scoring heroics, the team advanced the the ASL championship against New York Apollo in Mt. Vernon, New York. When the decisive game went into overtime and then remained knotted for nine more overtime periods until the local curfew was reached, ASL Commissioner Bob Cousy (yes, that Bob Cousy) stepped in and simply declared the Apollo and the Astros co-champions. Minor league soccer’s version of a hung jury.
The Astros folded after the 1975 season. In 1976, Bertos briefly assumed the General Manager and Head Coach position of his former rivals, the NASL’s Boston Minutemen. But his job was only to oversee the club’s dissolution. The Minutemen were also out of money and in the midst of their own messy demise.
In 1977, Bertos returned to the American Soccer League as Head Coach of the Providence-based New England Oceaneers for a single season.
Boston Astros Shop
Our Favorite Stuff
American Soccer League
T-Shirt
For most of its existence, the American Soccer League was a collection of ethnically-based semi-pro clubs clustered in the northeast. But in the 1970’s, the ASL expanded nationwide and became American’s de facto 2nd Division, underneath the bigger-budgeted NASL. This logo was used by the league from the 1970’s until its demise in 1983.
Our favorite distressed ASL logo tee is made by American Retro Apparel and available today in sizes small through XXXL!
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Downloads
6-24-1972 Boston Astros Roster
6-24-1972 Boston Astros Roster
Links
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