The Detroit Cougars were a short-lived effort to bring pro soccer to Detroit in the late 1960’s. Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford and Detroit Tigers owner John Fetzer headlined the list of financial backers for the Cougars. The Cougars played for two seasons in 1967 and 1968 in separate leagues and with entirely different rosters each year. Both campaigns were dreadful with the club posting a combined lifetime record of 9 wins, 27 losses and 7 draws.
The original Baltimore Bays were a short-lived pro soccer team that was owned and operated by the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. The team played at Memorial Stadium in 1967 and 1968 and Kirk Field in 1969. The Bays played for NPSL championship in 1967, losing a two-leg series to the Oakland Clippers. The original Bays went out of business after three seasons. A separate club revived the name briefly in the early 1970’s for a series of international exhibition matches and competition in the lower-vision American Soccer League.
The Houston Hurricane languished in a nearly empty Astrodome for three summers before being euthanized in the autumn of 1980. Houston was the sixth and final new club added to the North American Soccer League during a euphoric expansion orgy during the winter of 1977-78. The addition of Houston brought the NASL membership to an all-time peak of 24 clubs. However, none of the six clubs added in 1978 would survive beyond 1980. The expansion misfires of 1978 would later be cited by NASL observers and insiders as a factor in the league downward spiral in the early 1980’s and eventual closure in 1985.
North American Soccer League (1975-1984) American Indoor Soccer Association (1986-1987) American Soccer League (1988-1989) American Professional Soccer League (1990-1993) Born: 1974 – NASL expansion franchise
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.
