North American Soccer League (1973)
Tombstone
Born: January 1973 -NASL expansion franchise
Folded: October 5, 1973
First Game: May 11, 1973 (W 3-2 vs. Montreal Olympique)
Last Game: August 10, 1973 (T 2-2 vs. Toronto Metros)
NASL Championships: None
Stadium
Grant Field (54,000)11973 North American Soccer League Press Guide
Marketing
Team Colors: Red & White21973 North American Soccer League Press Guide
Ownership
Owners: William Putnam, et al.
Attendance
The Apollos, playing in the football stadium on the campus of Georgia Tech, had the worst attendance in the 9-club NASL in 1973.
Source: Kenn.com Attendance Project
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Background
The Atlanta Apollos were a One-Year Wonder in the North American Soccer League that competed for just four months between May and August 1973 before closing up shop.
Atlanta’s previous NASL franchise, the Chiefs, folded following the 1972 season. The Chiefs were owned and operated by the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball. The Apollos, similarly, were owned by the Omni Group, who ran Atlanta’s new Omni arena as well as the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA and the Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League.
Omni Group President Bill Putnam, who held a 10% stake in the corporation3UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL. “Bill Putnam Fired as President of Hawks-Flames Corporation.” The Herald (Miami, FL). July 12, 1973, served as the front man of the ownership group.
One & Done
The Apollos were the worst team in the NASL in 1973 with a record of 3 wins, 9 losses and 7 ties.
English forward Paul Child, a holdover from the 1972 Atlanta Chiefs squad, scored eight goals and earned Honorable Mention NASL All-Star selection. He was the only member of the team recognized in the league’s post-season honors.
Off the field, the Omni Group fired Bill Putnam as President in July 1973, midway through the Apollos’ NASL campaign. The new leadership of the corporation pulled out of the NASL less than three months later, folding the team in October 1973.
The NASL returned to Atlanta for a third and final time in 1979 with a revival of the Atlanta Chiefs, once again owned by the Atlanta Braves baseball team. The new Chiefs closed their doors after three seasons in late 1981. The NASL went out of business following the 1984 season.
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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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Downloads
1973 Atlanta Apollos Season Ticket Brochure
1973 Atlanta Apollos Season Ticket Brochure
Links
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