Playing for Uncle Sam

by David Tossell

  For once, the off-season between the 1971 and 1972 NASL seasons did not see any teams disbanding, although the Washington Darts, after only two years in the league, moved to Miami to become the Gatos – Spanish for ‘cats’. Things were not exactly going smoothly, however, and in an attempt to stabilise the league, the season was reduced to 14 games. ‘It was partly to reduce costs,’ Woosnam explains, ‘and also we weren’t sure if we could attract people midweek.’

  On the personnel front, Atlanta entered the year with many of the same players who had been lining up since 1969, although there was a significant addition in Paul Child, a 19-year-old striker who had been unable to force his way into the picture at Aston Villa. He scored eight goals in a season that was a preview of what was to come throughout his NASL career.

  While Brian Talbot was returning for another season in Toronto, the Montreal Olympic – coached by Graham Adams, who had played for Plymouth 14 years earlier – brought over Graeme Souness, a dark-haired 19-year-old midfielder. The man whose skill and streak of menace would win worldwide renown in the heart of the Liverpool and Scotland midfields was still waiting for his opportunity at Tottenham, although he had not endeared himself to the London club when he disappeared back to Scotland because he was feeling homesick. Souness stayed to play ten games in Canada, scoring a couple of goals. Also in the Olympic line-up was centre-half Mike Dillon, a teammate in the Spurs reserve team who would return to the NASL as a member of higher-profile teams in later years. Dillon made his mark as a goalscorer, netting seven times in his ten games.

  The two Canadian teams managed only four wins apiece and by the time Toronto were winning their third and fourth games in mid-season, Leggat was gone. ‘The crunch came after we had played about six games,’ he explains. ‘We played a friendly against Werder Bremen and the day before the game the general manager, Jack Daley, said Arthur Rodrigues, my assistant, was complaining because I was not giving him anything to do. I said, “There is not much he can do.” I was told they wanted him to take charge of the next day’s game. I said, “I don’t agree, but you are the boss.” We were holding on until just before half-time, when our trainer came up to me and said my son had been rushed to hospital for an appendix operation. I said, “I am not in charge so I am going to the hospital.” I rang the trainer after the game and he said we had lost 6–0. Arthur had substituted this player and that player.

  ‘The next day, Jack Daley called me into his office and said, “I am not at all satisfied with last night’s game.” I said, “Neither am I, but it was out of my hands. The players were confused about what they were supposed to do.” He said, “From now I am going to fine players for playing badly.” I said, “In that case you put on a tracksuit and I will stay in the office. My players will never shirk anything. Often the harder players try, the worse things get.” I got up to leave and he said, “If you leave this office, you are fired.” That was a red rag to a bull and I walked out. The papers were brilliant, they all wrote good things about me and in the next 10 days I had about 50 job offers.’

  While Leggat was settling down to his new role in the public relations department of a local brewery, the New York Cosmos, relocated to Hofstra University on Long Island, were enjoying their first taste of NASL success by winning the Northern Division. Bradley and Mahy helped to anchor the defence, the only Brits in a line-up that had added a promising young American defender called Werner Roth and Scottish-born Canadian international midfielder John Kerr. Bermudan striker Randy Horton provided most of the goals.

  Although they remained a predominantly American team, the St Louis Stars supplemented their American roster with two seasoned British defenders. Wilf Tranter, a former Brighton and Fulham defender, had played a dozen games for Baltimore in 1968, while full-back John Sewell had played in more than 400 League games for Charlton and Crystal Palace, where he had helped to earn the club promotion to Division One. The Stars were unbeaten until the sixth game and held on to win the Southern Division. Running them closest were the Dallas Tornado, whose defence of their title ended in the one-game semi-final tie against New York. The Stars booked their place in the final when Sewell scored one of the goals in a 2–0 win against Rochester.

  The final was staged at the Cosmos’ new home, before a crowd of 6,012. Goals by Horton and St Louis player-coach Kazimierz Frankiewicz had the game level until four minutes to play, when Czech international Josef Jelinek scored from the penalty spot. The New York Cosmos had won their first championship, and few in the United States had noticed. It would be very different when they won their second, five years later.

  Attendance in league games was up by 39 per cent to 5,340 per game, although New York, despite their championship, could still only average 4,282. As usual, many overseas teams visited the US, with Dallas pulling in a 24,742 crowd at Texas Stadium for their scoreless draw against Moscow Dynamo. The attendance figure was another step forward for the NASL, although coach Ron Newman admits, ‘We cheated a little bit on some of the crowds. For some games we would invite all the local kids’ teams to the game, let them wear their uniforms and carry team banners round the field. Then we counted them in the crowd.’

  There had been a significant day midway through the NASL season when, on 26 June 1972, the league introduced its new offside law. A line was painted across the field in each half, 35 yards from the goal line, and it was declared that players could not be offside unless they had crossed that line. In the rest of the world, of course, players could be offside once they crossed into the opponents’ half, but the NASL saw its version of the rule as a way to encourage more attacking football. Even though the league initially had permission from FIFA to conduct the experiment, it was one of the rules that would most upset the purists in years to come. It was hardly an overnight success, with the first weekend after the introduction of the rule producing only three goals in three games. But the 35-yard line, which helped to give the NASL’s style of play a unique identity, was here to stay.

  5. Southport’s Mighty Atoms

  The eyes of British sport were on Southport in the spring of 1973 as racehorse trainer Ginger McCain made headlines by preparing fancied Grand National runner Red Rum along the beaches of the Lancashire coastal town. Unknown to most, a new NASL club was looking in the same direction in search of a team that could win them the championship. McCain’s methods paid off when Red Rum got his nose to the line ahead of Crisp at Aintree. And so would those of Al Miller, head coach of the Philadelphia Atoms.

  Lamar Hunt, owner of the Dallas Tornado and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, had set the story off on its unlikely course to the English north-west when he was in Los Angeles in January for the Super Bowl. Hunt heard that Tom McCloskey, a success in the construction industry and owner of a minor league ice hockey team, was looking for nine seats for the game. Hunt came up with the tickets, adding, ‘How would you like to have a soccer franchise in Philadelphia?’ McCloskey, eager to see the Washington Redskins and Miami Dolphins do battle, took the hint and, for a $25,000 fee, became the NASL’s newest owner. The team’s name was selected in a competition in the Philadelphia media, the prize for which was a trip to see Sunderland play Leeds in the FA Cup final at Wembley.

  Al Miller, coach at Hartwick College in New York, was chosen to take charge of the team, the job interview having included an impromptu soccer game between McCloskey and Miller’s son in which the owner broke a window in Miller’s house. Miller put aside his scepticism about the NASL and accepted the job, with the brief to recruit as many good American players as possible.

  The 1972 season had seen the introduction of an NASL college draft, similar to that used by all the major American sports leagues, whose teams stocked their squads by taking turns to select the best players coming out of the college sports system. But whereas a gridiron star at the University of Notre Dame was a good bet to succeed in the NFL, even the best college soccer talent was hardly likely to pose a threat to the European professionals inhabiting NASL rosters.
With his group of Americans assembled, including goalkeeper Bob Rigby, promising forward Bobby Smith and Casey Bahr, the son of one of America’s 1950 World Cup heroes, Miller set off for pre-season training in England.

  The destination was Lilleshall, where Miller hoped to impress his team with top-rate facilities in a real football country. He also took the opportunity to scout for British players to pad out his team. He wanted players with speed and alertness to match the style of play he envisaged for his side, although the men he came back with were hardly names to send shivers down opponents’ spines. It was Southport, the new Division Four champions, to whom he turned to borrow a trio of players. Defender Chris Dunleavy had been a member of the Washington Darts in 1970, while forward Andy Provan had made a career out of lower-division football at teams like York, Chester and Wrexham and had just notched 13 goals in Southport’s title-winning season. Centre-forward Jim Fryatt, the club’s top scorer with 21 goals, had enjoyed a nine-team career that had produced 188 League goals. He had earned a place in the record books in 1964 when, playing for Bradford Park Avenue, he scored a goal timed at four seconds against Tranmere.

  Joining the Southport contingent was Liverpool full-back Roy Evans, whose eight-year career at Anfield had seen him play only nine League games. ‘While they were talking to Southport they got hold of my name and were told by Liverpool that I might be available on loan for three months,’ says Evans. ‘I was not playing that many games in the first team and I had just got married, so this was a chance for a honeymoon as well.’

  The team enjoyed good coverage from Philadelphia newspapers becoming jaded by covering under-performing major sports teams. Following a parade of 3,000 children in full soccer kit, the Atoms kicked off their home programme with a 1–0 win in front of 21,700 fans. Their opponents were the St Louis Stars, which meant that 12 of the 22 starting players were Americans, a ratio previously unheard of in the NASL. The other seven teams in the league had only 19 Americans in total. The Atoms quickly established themselves as the team to beat with a 12-game undefeated run. A back four of converted striker Smith, Dunleavy, former Aston Villa and Lincoln player Derek Trevis and Evans won the nickname of the ‘No Goal Patrol’ and the Atoms conceded only 14 goals in 19 games.

  Evans recalls that rookie professional coach Miller was happy to rely heavily on his English players. ‘The big thing about Al was his enthusiasm, which is always a great thing if you can get it over to the players. The English lads had a reasonable amount of experience and he was prepared to listen to us. He was his own man and did his own thing, but he was happy to ask us what we thought and listen to us. We were a very close team. The American players were all willing to learn and, as you would expect, were all great athletes. There was a good balance in the team.’

  It was the forward players who captured the imagination, none more so than Provan. At 5 ft 5 in. and only 10 stone he earned the nickname ‘The Flea’ because of his size and ability to jump and win balls that seemed beyond him. He finished as top scorer with 11 goals, winning over the fans as early as his second game. In a town where the love of a good fight is legendary, Provan took exception to the way 6 ft 2 in. New York Cosmos forward Randy Horton landed on top of him after they challenged for a high ball. Provan jumped angrily to his feet and began shaking his fist in the bearded face of Horton, who had been the NASL’s Most Valuable Player in 1972. Then he slapped Horton, sparking a fight that ended with both men being sent off. A legend was born.

  Meanwhile Fryatt, powerful in the air, proved to be the perfect foil and scored seven goals himself. ‘Jim and Andy were the ideal partnership,’ says Evans. ‘Jim was the big centre-forward who could get hold of the ball, while Andy had decent pace and good goalscoring ability. They were both skilful and they were so different in size that they became a novelty as well to the Americans.’

  The Atoms’ success extended to the gate, where they set a league record by averaging 11,382, contributing to an increase of 18 per cent around the league. By the end of the season, Philadelphia, in their distinctive white shirts with the word ‘Atoms’ inside two blue horizontal stripes, had lost only two games, winning nine and drawing eight, and had won their division by thirteen points from the Cosmos. In the semi-finals, against the Toronto Metros, Fryatt and Provan each scored goals as the Atoms delighted a crowd of 18,766 by winning 3–0. The fans even saw them off to the NASL final with a rousing rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

  The league’s search for new foreign players had brought reports early in 1973 of a bid by the New York Cosmos to sign George Best, who had fallen out yet again with Manchester United. Suspended for two weeks after skipping training late in 1972, Best was placed on the transfer list at £300,000 by manager Frank O’Farrell. The softly spoken Irishman was under considerable pressure in his second season in charge of a fading United team, pressure that increased when former manager Sir Matt Busby, still the dominant figure at Old Trafford, agreed to take Best off the list several days later. A 5–0 defeat against Crystal Palace spelled the end for O’Farrell and the team was placed temporarily in the care of European Cup-winners Paddy Crerand and Bill Foulkes. Best decided not to hang around to see who the next man in charge would be, announcing his intention to quit the club.

  It did not take long for the news to reach America and Clive Toye, now installed as general manager of the Cosmos, was soon telling reporters that coach Gordon Bradley was visiting England to talk to Best and discuss a contract worth £40,000 a season. Bradley explains, ‘George was still a Manchester United player so I went over to see him. I spent some time with Paddy Crerand and he said, “If you get George he will set the field alight.” George came over to New York and he spent a couple of weeks with me at my home on Long Island. You could see he was interested. But in the end he never said anything. He just went. We found out he had gone to Spain, where he had a bar. I felt I should have gone out there and got on to him. Paddy was very upset and apologetic about the whole thing. It would have been great.’

  Best would admit years later in his book, Blessed, that he was scared away by the ‘madness’ of New York. One United player on his way to the States, however, was centre-half David Sadler, who signed for Miami, now known as the Toros. Capped four times by England and one of the men who just missed out on a place in the final squad of 22 for the Mexico World Cup, Sadler had played 266 games as the successor to Foulkes in the United defence. Playing alongside Sadler, although for only seven games, was Willie Henderson, capped 29 times by Scotland during his Rangers career and coming off his first season in English football with Sheffield Wednesday.

  At the Dallas Tornado, Ron Newman’s side was almost entirely made up of British professionals, with the exception of a strike force of Yugoslav Ilija Mitic, scorer of 12 goals, and American Kyle Rote Jr. As Dallas compiled the best record in the league, winning eleven and drawing five of their nineteen games, Rote captured the headlines by becoming the first – and only – home player to win the NASL’s individual scoring championship. Rote had been something of a project for Newman after being the Tornado’s selection in the NASL’s inaugural draft early in 1972. ‘I had never even heard of a draft,’ Newman remembers. ‘Someone came in and was talking about a draft and I said, “Well, shut the door then. That will get rid of it.” I couldn’t see the point of a draft at first because there was virtually no one playing in college at that time.’

  Newman, however, recognised the marketability of a young man whose father, Kyle Senior, had been a famous player for the NFL’s New York Giants throughout the ’50s, revelling in the nickname ‘The Mighty Mustang’. ‘I thought it would be good PR if I picked him because of his dad. Kyle was a great athlete, but he didn’t have the fine touch he would have had if he had played at a young age. We promoted the crap out of him because we needed an American hero. He didn’t really play in his first season, but in 1973 I put him in and we told him to go for everything in the box because he could jump so high. We scored a bunch of goals when he jumpe
d and won the ball or it hit him on the shoulder or he just put the defender off.’

  The individual scoring title was based on awarding two points for every goal scored and one point for an assist and Newman could see the value of having an American player challenging for that honour. ‘I told our players, “Whenever we score, go to Kyle and pat him on the back so they will think he had an assist.” We got a few like that. Towards the end of the season he was only a few points away from being the top points scorer and in the last game we got a penalty against the New York Cosmos. Ilija put it down to take it like he normally did, but I ran over to him and said, “Let Kyle take it. If he scores he gets the individual championship.” Up goes Kyle and he whomps it right down the middle. The keeper took off, but if he had stayed where he was it would have smacked him in the nose. It meant Kyle was top scorer and that was terrific for the league.’

  It was Rote who headed the only goal in the semi-final victory against the Cosmos, who had qualified for the semi-finals as the division runner-up with the best record. With their superior regular season record, Dallas earned the right of playing host for the final against Philadelphia, while Tornado general manager Joe Echelle was able to name the date for the game. His selection, 25 August, was the day that the Atoms’ two scoring stars, Provan and Fryatt, were due to report to Southport for the opening game of the Division Three season against Cambridge United.