The Buffalo Storm were a professional soccer club that played in the United Soccer League during the summer of 1984. The team was composed largely of offseason players from the far more popular Buffalo Stallions indoor soccer team. The Storm were hampered by numerous problems including the lack of lights for night time play at All-High Stadium and folded after only one season of play.
So grim was the state of professional outdoor soccer in the United States in 1985 that only 13 games were staged by American pro clubs that calendar year. All of these matches were put on by the United Soccer League (USL), a barely solvent gaggle of four teams spread across Florida, Texas and Oklahoma that folded after only one month of competition. The Tornado’s – the team’s nonsensical apostrophe is not a typo – were one of the USL’s many trouble spots.
The Oklahoma City Stampede were a 2nd division pro soccer franchise that operated under a handful of names in Oklahoma during the mid-1980’s. The club originated in 1982 as an expansion called the Oklahoma City Slickers in the American Soccer League. After the ASL folded in early 1984, Slickers owner David Fraser was one of several team owners that banded together to form the new United Soccer League. As part of the shift to the USL, Fraser changed the name of the team to the Stampede. Fraser moved the team to Tulsa in 1985 and the club disbanded along with the rest of the USL later that spring.
The Charlotte Gold played one season of lower-division men’s professional soccer in the summer of 1984. The franchise was a successor/replacement for the more popular Carolina Lightnin’ team that played in the 2nd Division American Soccer League from 1981 to 1983. The Gold played at American Legion Memorial Stadium.
The Dallas Americans were a lower division U.S. pro soccer club active for parts of three seasons in the mid-1980’s. The Americans replaced the NASL’s Dallas Tornado (1967-1981) on the local soccer scene. The Americans featured a number of former Tornado players on the roster, including Jeff Bourne, Neil Cohen, Billy Phillips and player-coach Wolfgang Rausch. The club played at John Clark Stadium in Plano.
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