The New England Sharks were an obscure 2nd Division American Soccer League (1933-1983) club that folded midway through their only season of existence in the summer of 1981.ย The Sharks started out in New Bedford, Massachusetts but moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in July 1981 in a cost-saving effort.
This Long Island-based indoor soccer club hoped to convert lingering fondness for the recently deceased New York Cosmos into a hit promotion at the Nassau Coliseum. But a roster full of aging ex-Cosmos such as Shep Messing, Ricky Davis, Mark Liveric, Hubert Birkenmeier and Andranik Eskandarian couldn’t adapt to the indoor game or overcome the ownership problems that doomed the New York Express after just 26 matches.
New York Raiders vs. Winnipeg Jets October 12, 1972 Madison Square Garden Attendance: 6,273 World Hockey Association Programs Debut game for the ill-fated New
The New England Colonials entered the Atlantic Coast Football League for the minor league circuit’s final season of 1973. The Colonials shared Schaefer Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts with the New England Patriots and had strong ties to the NFL club. The expansion club won the ACFL title in their debut season of 1973, but the league folded not long afterwards.
Grimy Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island was the CBGB’s of New York City sporting venues.ย In 1975 – the same year that the Ramones, the Heartbreakers, Blondie and the Talking Heads were igniting the punk scene at Hilly Kristal’s dank nightclub in the Bowery – Downing Stadium was the home to the New York Cosmos at the seismic moment that Pele arrived in American to play for that iconic club.ย For American soccer junkies of a certain age, proclaiming “…and I was there” at Randall’s Island remains a form of cultural cred that belies the now-demolished oval’s brief and inadequate life as a pro soccer ground.
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