The Philadelphia Atoms won the North American Soccer League championship in the debut season of 1973. In doing so, they became the first American pro soccer club to earn the cover of Sports Illustrated. After that charmed first season, though, the Atoms’ fortunes fizzled out and the club was out of business by the end of 1976.
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. The Apollos replaced Atlanta’s previous NASL franchise, the Chiefs, who folded following the 1972 season.
A couple months back, I logged into my WordPress back-end late one night and discovered with some delight a two-word review awaiting approval in the
The original Fort Lauderdale Strikers were an entertaining soccer club that made their home for seven seasons in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale aggressively sought Major League sports during the mid-1970’s. The city nearly poached the NBA’s Buffalo Braves in 1976 and courted several World Hockey Association clubs to play at the crummy Hollywood Sportatorium. But ultimately soccer was the game that alighted in Broward County in 1977. And it was the 7,800-seat city-owned Lockhart Stadium, rather than the oft-jilted Sportatorium, that would host the city’s first Major pro sports franchise. At their peak, the Strikers employed international superstars and World Cup veterans such as George Best, Gordon Banks Gerd Muller and Teofilo Cubillas. In 1980, the Strikers played for the NASL Soccer Bowl, losing in the final to the New York Cosmos before 50,000 fans in Washington, D.C. The Strikers name would be revived in Fort Lauderdale on several occasions, but the 1977-1983 NASL club was the original and best edition.
The original ‘Quakes were part of a major expansion of the NASL in 1974 that also saw the formation of the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps clubs. The ‘Quakes were the toast of the league that summer. English forward Paul Child won the golden boot with 15 goals and 6 assists. At the box office, San Jose set a new league attendance record.
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