The Aztecs were L.A.’s sporadically glam soccer club of the 1970’s. The club won the North American Soccer League championship in their expansion season of 1974. At various times, the Aztecs had ties to everyone from George Best to Elton John to the Dutch midfield genius Johan Cruyff. But the club also bounced from one ill-fitting stadium to another every year or two and suffered from revolving door ownership.
The Caribous of Colorado were a One-Year Wonder in the North American Soccer League during the summer of 1978. The expansion Caribous were the NASL’s second effort at gaining a foothold in the Mile High City. The two-year run of the Denver Dynamos (1974-1975) ended with that club’s relocation to Minneapolis in 1976. Like the Dynamos, the Caribous played out of Mile High Stadium, home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos. The Caribous are best remembered for their garish uniforms, which – in a nod to country & western culture – featured a horizontal strip of tan leather fringe across the lower rib cage. The franchise relocated to Atlanta ahead of the 1979 season.
North American Soccer League (1981-1983) Born: October 1980 – The Philadelphia Fury relocate to Montreal Folded: November 1983 First Game: June 2, 1981 (L 2-1
Arguably Las Vegas’ first Major League sports team, soccer Quicksilvers lasted only for one season during the summer of 1977. The club’s finest hour came in their home opener at Las Vegas Stadium on April 9th, 1977. The match pitted the Quicksilvers’ aging Portuguese superstar Eusebio against the glamorous New York Cosmos and Brazilian legend Pele. Pele knocked Eusebio out of the match with a hard slide tackle in the 38th minute. But the Quicksilvers shocked the powerful Cosmos 1-0 on a goal by Victor Arbelaez.
That the Dallas Tornado existed as long as they did – 15 seasons from 1967 to 1981 – is a testament to the endurance of American Football League founder Lamar Hunt and fruitcake baron Bill McNutt. The Tornado existed longer than the famed New York Cosmos. They developed the first American-born “Superstar” of the soccer (at least by ABC’s definition) in Kyle Rote Jr. But the team was never wildly popular in Dallas. The club wandered around the metroplex in nomadic fashion, shifting among five different stadiums in little more than a decade of play.
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