Savannah Rug Ratz

Eastern Indoor Soccer League (1997)

Background

The Savannah Rug Ratz were a minor league indoor soccer club that existed for two summers in the Eastern Indoor Soccer League in 1997 and 1998.

The first season was wobbly, with the franchise languishing under absentee ownership from Anchorage, Alaska of all places.  The club hired Roy Turner, a veteran indoor coach, promoter and administrator, who spent more than a decade with the Wichita Wings of the Major Indoor Soccer League.  At the time, the Wings (1979-2001) were the longest-running indoor soccer club in the United States.  Turner’s involvement was promising, but little else was.

“I got here five days before the first game and we didn’t even have a telephone”, an obviously frustrated Turner told The Savannah Morning News towards the end of the 1997 season.  By that point the future of the team was in considerable doubt.  The Rug Ratz finished well out of the playoff hunt with a 7-17 record.

Second Season

The Rug Ratz were saved the following winter when Ken Silver, the long-time owner of Savannah’s minor league baseball team, the Sand Gnats, stepped up to operate the team.  But despite Silver’s local connections and expertise, the Rug Ratz continued to struggle, starting with an embarrassing opening night debacle at the Savannah Civic Center in 1998.  The Ratz earned the dubious distinction of cancelling an indoor soccer game due to wet turf.  A cleaning crew attempted to wash the Savannah Civic Center soccer carpet several hours before game time.  The carpet failed to dry and water seeped to the surface, forming puddles and even causing an injury to Rug Ratz forward Hugh Richeson, who slipped and fell on the soggy surface during pre-game warm-ups.

The Rug Ratz finished their second season in last place with a 6-22 record and last in attendance as well, with announced attendance of 1,747 per game.

The End

Silver was reportedly ready to move forward with a third season, but the EISL folded in late December 1998 after the Huntsville, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida clubs dropped out, leaving the team with only five active members.  Efforts to attract a sixth team to make the 1999 season viable failed, even after the league slashed its expansion fee from $50,000 to just $5,000.  The EISL officially closed its doors on New Year’s Eve 1998.

Downloads

6-10-1998 Savannah Rug Ratz Roster

Links

Eastern Indoor Soccer League Media Guides

Eastern Indoor Soccer League Programs

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