Detroit Mustangs

American Soccer League (1972-1973)

Tombstone

Born: 1972 ASL expansion franchise
Folded: Postseason 1973

First Game:
Last Game:

ASL Championships: None

Stadium

Keyworth Stadium

Branding

Team Colors:

Ownership

Owner: Willie Dewald

Background

The Detroit Mustangs were a lower-division pro soccer club that toiled in obscurity for two summers in the early 1970’s. The team made its home a Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a Works Progress Administration building opened in 1936.

The Mustangs played in the American Soccer League, a bare bones collective that fielded fourteen clubs in 1972. To keep travel costs down, the Mustangs exclusively played against the other five expansion teams in the ASL’s newly formed Midwestern Conference. The team’s 1972 opponents included the Chicago Americans, Cincinnati Comets, Cleveland Stars, Pittsburgh Canons and St. Louis Frogs. The Mustangs’ debut game at Keyworth Stadium on July 2, 1972 drew a small gathering of around 650 fans, according to The Detroit Free Press.

The 1972 Mustangs finished 2-4-2 and out of playoff contention. The club returned for a second and final season in 1973. The 1973 squad was absolutely dreadful and put up a 0-10-2 mark. The team vanished at the end of the season.

Pro soccer would return to Detroit in 1978 with the arrival of the big-budget Detroit Express of the North American Soccer League. The Express played at the 80,000-seat Pontiac Silverdome. Mustangs owner Willie DeWald, an Austrian emigre who ran a travel agency that specialized in booking international tours for soccer clubs, acquired a 10% minority ownership interest in the Express.