North American Soccer League (1978-1980)
Tombstone
Born: November 15, 1977 – NASL expansion franchise
Moved: October 1980 (Montreal Manic)
First Game: April 1, 1978 (L 3-0 vs. Washington Diplomats)
Last Game: August 22, 1980 (L 4-2 @ Fort Lauderdale Strikers)
Soccer Bowl Championships: None
Stadium
Veterans Stadium (56,000)11978 North American Soccer League Guide
Opened: 1971
Demolished: 2004
Marketing
Team Colors: Burgundy, Gold & White21978 North American Soccer League Guide
Ownership
Owners: Frank Barsalona, Elliot Hoffman, Larry Levine, Peter Rudge, et al.
Attendance
The Fury ranked last in the attendance charts for the 24-club NASL in both 1979 and 1980.
Tap (mobile) or mouse over chart for figures. Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.
Source: Kenn.com Attendance Project
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Philadelphia Fury Logo T from Old School Shirts
Background
The Philadelphia Fury marked the second go round for the North American Soccer League in the City of Brotherly Love. The Fury followed on the heels of the Philadelphia Atoms (1973-1976), who won the league championship as an expansion team in 1973 and became the first NASL team featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. A handful of popular players from the Atoms era returned, including goalkeeper Bob Rigby and defender Bobby Smith.
Cellar Dwellers
The Fury weren’t able to replicate the on-field success of the Atoms or anything close to it. In their debut season of 1978, the club was managed by player-coach Alan Ball. Thanks to the NASL’s forgiving playoff system, the Fury squeaked into the postseason despite a 12-18 last place record. They were quickly dispatched by fellow expansioneers the Detroit Express in the opening round.
In 1979 the Fury were worse, dropping to 10-20 in the regular season. They became the first club in the 12-year history of the NASL to go through the entire regular season winless on the road. Incredibly, this wretched performance was once again good enough to qualify for the NASL playoffs. And it set up the club’s finest hour in August 1979 when the Fury stunned the league by sweeping the conference’s best team, the Houston Hurricane (22-8), in a two-leg first round playoff series. The decisive victory at the Houston Astrodome on August 20th was the Fury’s only road win of the year.
The Philadelphians were eliminated by eventual Soccer Bowl ’79 finalists Tampa Bay Rowdies in the quarterfinals. Scottish forward David Robb finished 5th in the NASL in scoring in 1979 with 16 goals and 20 assists, but he would not return to the club in 1980.
In 1980 the Fury hired Eddie Firmani to manage the club. Firmani was one of the NASL’s most successful coaches, having won three of the previous five Soccer Bowls as manager at Tampa Bay and New York Cosmos. But the club regressed again, finishing with a franchise worst 10-22 record and missing the playoffs for the first time. Worse yet, the Fury had the poorest home attendance in the 24-team NASL for the second season in a row, pulling fewer than 5,000 per match at Veterans Stadium.
Move To Montreal
In October 1980 Molson Breweries purchased the franchise and moved it to Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. The former Fury franchise played three more seasons as the Montreal Manic before going out of business in November 1983.
Trivia
With their mediocre performance on-field, the Fury were best known for their sprawling 15-man ownership group. The syndicate included rock music impresarios such as Rolling Stones manager Peter Rudge, concert promoter Frank Barsalona and stars Paul Simon, Rick Wakeman (of the band Yes) and Peter Frampton.
Philadelphia Fury 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.
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Philadelphia Veterans Stadium T from Old School Shirts
Philadelphia Fury Video
Grim times for the Fury in 1980 in a near-empty Veterans Stadium:
The Fury on the road at Tampa Bay in the 1979 NASL quarterfinals. August 25, 1979
Downloads
July 16, 1980 Fury vs. New York Cosmos Press Notes
7-16-1980 Philadelphia Fury vs New York Cosmos Game Notes
8-23-1979 Fury vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies Playoff Game Roster
Links
North American Soccer League Programs
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One Response
The player on the cover of the Fury’s 1980 Media Guide is Tony Glavin, a midfielder from Scotland who would later become a star with the St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League. He know runs a youth soccer academy in the St. Louis area.