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38-639: In 1982 , the Oklahoma City Slickers were one of two new clubs to join the long-standing but struggling American Soccer League (at the time the unofficial 2nd division league in the US). Head coach Brian Harvey and General Manager Jim Walker assembled a team that was composed largely of young Americans but that was bolstered by a handful of older English and German players who had experience playing in top European leagues, including Wolfgang Rausch , Phil Parkes and Jeff Bourne . Among this mix were

76-598: A 1.61 Goals Against Average and three shutouts to key the defense. The revitalized club finished atop the Southwest Division and tied with the Fort Lauderdale Sun for the best regular season record (15–9). The league's points system (which awarded five points for a win, two for a shootout loss and up to three bonus points per game for regulation goals) gave the Stampede the top seed heading into

114-860: A few days later creditors foreclosed on the USL and locked officials out of their offices. The season was suspended on June 25th. In February 1993, the United States Interregional Soccer League announced the merger of the Oklahoma City Warriors of the USISL and the Oklahoma City Spirit of the Lone Star Soccer Alliance . The new team would compete in the USISL using the name the Oklahoma City Slickers. Brian Harvey coached

152-700: A few weeks the NASL had cancelled its upcoming season and five USL teams (including the Sun's division rivals in Charlotte and Jacksonville) had officially folded, while another had withdrawn to become an independent club. The renamed South Florida Sun were joined by only the Dallas Americans , Tulsa Tornado's (who had moved from Oklahoma City and re-branded), and an expansion team in El Paso/Juarez for

190-402: A last-ditch set of USL/NASL merger discussions that hoped to bring a financial boost to the USL and a boost in membership to the flagging NASL ended without an agreement. In short order the NASL cancelled the 1985 outdoor season (a move that was to mark the end of the league despite their plans at the time to relaunch in 1986), and six of the nine USL teams either ended operations or withdrew from

228-595: A month into the season for alleged participation in a large drug smuggling operation. In the playoff semifinals, the Sun crushed the Buffalo Storm by scores of 3-0 and 5-1. The championship round against the Houston Dynamos would be much more closely contested. Houston won the first game at home in a shootout. The Sun won Game 2 by a score of 3-0, setting up a decisive Game 3 on September 1st. This game also ended tied after regulation and overtime, but

266-483: A much tougher and more familiar opponent in the Houston Dynamos . Despite owning a 4-2 record against Houston in the regular season, The Stampede was eliminated by the Dynamos two games to none. The USL had plans to promote stability and increase community presence by operating its teams year-round with an indoor season in the winter, and owner David Fraser spoke early on about playing in the winter of 1984/85 in what

304-450: A number of capable players who had spent time in the top division North American Soccer League but had found themselves squeezed out as the league had shrunk by ten teams since 1980, and they began to make waves in the smaller pond of the ASL fairly quickly. After an uneven start, the squad found its footing, surprising many on their way to a regular season record of 19–3–6 (good for 2nd best in

342-427: A performance bond to guarantee their return for 1985. The first division NASL was also in deep trouble, with only a few of its remaining nine teams willing to commit to another outdoor season. A last-ditch idea to merge the USL and NASL to salvage some form of professional outdoor soccer that summer was discussed, but USL commissioner William Burfeind announced that this merger would not go through on March 5th. Within

380-424: A three-year contract in mid-June. On June 22nd, with no new teams having joined the league, the Sun began regular season play at home against Dallas. The 3-1 victory would turn out to be the final USL game and the only game in which Neeskens would suit up for South Florida (despite the "three-year contract," he would never receive a paycheck). Before the Sun's next scheduled match on the 26th, creditors foreclosed on

418-412: A typo), hoping to fill the void left by the folding of the NASL's Tulsa Roughnecks the previous September. But in the months following this announcement, it would become clear that despite respectable attendance figures and measures to keep salaries and costs in this new league manageable, profitability and stability would be just as elusive for the USL as it had for its predecessor, the ASL. In February

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456-461: The USL's 1985 season . To buy time to attract a few more members, the USL decided to re-arrange the schedule by splitting the season into two parts. In the first part of the season, the four teams would compete for the "USL Cup" in a round-robin style tournament capped off by a championship between the top two teams. A "regular season" was to begin in late June. USL Cup play got underway on May 19th, but

494-586: The "USL Cup," with plans to have a twelve game regular season in the second half of the summer. The Tornado's organization immediately began showing signs of serious financial distress. The owners faced a lawsuit from investors related to stadium rent payments, and after not receiving pay for some time, the players boycotted a June 6 exhibition game at home and a June 8th USL Cup game in Dallas. Coach Harvey resigned and some players began to take their leave. New investors began talks to take over principal ownership from

532-618: The 1982 season. Note: Numerous errors in the table above. Fort Lauderdale Sun Fort Lauderdale/South Florida Sun was a professional U.S. soccer team which played two seasons in the United Soccer League . In November of 1983, The Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League , motivated in part by the lack of a suitable arena in the Fort Lauderdale area for

570-424: The 1985 NASL season. When the NASL cancelled the 1985 season, the "new" Roughnecks announced a 20-game exhibition schedule that was to start in the same month as the USL season, leaving the city of Tulsa with two hastily assembled and underfunded clubs competing for the attention of the town's soccer fans. The USL re-arranged its schedule to open the season in late May with a round-robin series of games to compete for

608-438: The ASL was too hampered by unwieldy league rules and not financially disciplined enough to have much of a future. They broke away to form a more stable, financially sound league that they would call the United Soccer League . The USL accepted Sharp and Co.'s application for membership, and the rest of the teams in the ASL either also defected to the new league or folded over the next few months. The new Fort Lauderdale club chose

646-594: The Frasers, and the Tornado's did manage to piece together a roster and find funding to travel to Fort Lauderdale for the final match of the USL Cup series. However, the 1–0 loss on June 15 would be the team's swan song. The opening of Tulsa's "regular season" on June 22 was cancelled due to still unresolved stadium rent and team payroll issues. The league's other teams and the league itself were not faring any better, and

684-694: The Oklahoma City Stampede. Though the name and colors of the new team were different heading into the 1984 season (the Slickers' black and gold was replaced with red and white), fans of the Slickers from the previous two summers would have been familiar with the majority of the Stampede's roster as well as GM Walker and coach Harvey. Two experienced forwards from the NASL, David Kemp and Thompson Usiyan , provided an offensive boost to this young core of former Slickers (finishing 2nd and 3rd in league scoring), and goalkeeper Delroy Allen posted

722-484: The Slickers in their first year with Warriors head coach Chico Villar serving as an assistant and team general manager. The team also returned to Taft Stadium. In 1994, Duane Cummings replaced Harvey as head coach. The Slickers withdrew from the league and disbanded after the 1995–96 USISL indoor season . 1982 American Soccer League Statistics of the American Soccer League II for

760-562: The Sun one of the most talented rosters in the league. This paid dividends, as they played to a 15–9 record, scoring fifty-three goals and giving up only thirty-four. The Sun finished at the top of the Southern Division and just a few standings points behind the Oklahoma City Stampede for the top seed in the playoffs. They would achieve this on-field success despite primary owner Ronnie Sharp's arrest less than

798-524: The Sun would win the shootout round this time to clinch the first USL championship. Later in the month, an investors group comprised primarily of local doctors who had sat together at Strikers games purchased the team from the troubled Ronnie Sharp. Though the USL tried to help teams operate within their means through strict salary caps and schedules that heavily featured regional play to reduce travel expenses, virtually all of its teams were losing money during their first season. Several teams failed to post

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836-509: The USL Cup, so when the Sun defeated Tulsa 1-0 at Lockhart Stadium on June 15th, they were declared cup winners due to having clinched the best record. As a harbinger of things to come, the acting commissioner was not there nor was an actual trophy presented to them, causing Sun player-coach, Keith Weller , to quip, "There ain't no cup." The Sun did their best to proceed as though it was business as usual, even managing to sign former New York Cosmos and Dutch national team star Johan Neeskens to

874-612: The gate receipts from the match. Team owners soon came to grips with the fact that the organization simply did not have the means to carry on. They officially announced the suspension of operations a few days later, and the players began to disperse back into everyday life. On June 27, 1984 the Sun made their only appearance in the Florida Derby , falling to the Tampa Bay Rowdies , 5–1, in an inter-league friendly. Two more derby matches were planned for in 1985, but

912-577: The league and locked officials out of their offices. The USL voted to suspend play on June 25th. Following the league’s collapse, the Sun were the only USL club that did not immediately fold. The ownership group, who had just taken over the previous September, scrambled to find a new way forward. They began to tentatively plan exhibition matches against a Haitian Select team, the Minnesota Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies , among others, hoping to earn enough in ticket sales to cover back pay that

950-545: The league being down to only four active teams, their application was rejected at the league meetings in January of 1984 because ASL by-laws allowed the owner of a "dormant" franchise in Miami to retain territorial control over the area. This rejection would be the catalyst for a seismic change in the second tier of pro soccer, as the owners of the ASL's Jacksonville Tea Men and Dallas Americans would see it as confirmation that

988-489: The league's Coach and GM of the Year. In 1983 , the Slickers faced changes and turmoil on and off of the field. The year began with Jim Walker being fired in January. The team also lost several key players during the offseason, with Wolfgang Rausch leaving to become a player-coach for the expansion Dallas Americans , who also snapped up three other starters from the ‘82 squad (including leading scorer Jeff Bourne). Then, just as

1026-466: The league's future looked bleak. Commissioner William Burfeind resigned just as the games were starting. The teams in Tulsa and Dallas were both having trouble making payroll, and unpaid players in Tulsa refused to participate in one exhibition and one USL Cup game. South Florida finished at the top of the table in round robin play with a 4-2 record. The league abandoned plans for the championship round of

1064-499: The league's winter indoor season, announced that they would be moving to Minnesota. The outdoor version of the Strikers had attracted a relatively robust fan base in the late 1970s and early 80s, and former Miami Toros player Ronnie Sharp headed up a group that believed that the city was still a good market for the game. They applied to field an expansion team in the de facto second division American Soccer League in 1984. Despite

1102-748: The league). They entered the playoffs on an eleven-game win streak and cruised through the first round against the Carolina Lightnin ’. In the best-of-three championship round, they beat the Detroit Express at the Pontiac Silverdome in the first game; however, they failed to capitalize on their chance to close out the series at home in Game 2 and went on to lose the deciding Game 3 in Detroit. Brian Harvey and Jim Walker were named

1140-472: The league. Only Dallas and Fort Lauderdale (renamed South Florida) along with an expansion team in El Paso/Juarez joined Tulsa to attempt the USL's 1985 outdoor season . Further compounding the challenges of attracting fans and sponsors in a new town on short notice, the Roughnecks' former general manager, Noel Lemon, announced in January that he was starting up a new version of the Roughnecks to return for

1178-625: The name Sun, and they joined the Tea Men and Charlotte Gold in the Southern Division of the nine team USL. When the Sun built its team for the 1984 season , they were able to secure the services of several former Strikers who had chosen not to go north with the NASL club. Teófilo Cubillas , Jim Tietjens , Ernst-Jean Baptiste, and player-coach Keith Weller all signed with the Sun (though Cubillas would only commit to playing home games), and they were joined by former English international Dave Watson and Scottish international Asa Hartford , giving

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1216-486: The owners of the Jacksonville Tea Men and Dallas Americans decided to break from the slowly dying ASL and worked over the weekend to form a new league they would name the United Soccer League . Fraser saw in the USL a chance to try his hand at team ownership again without the red ink he had inherited in taking over the Slickers. He revived much of the Slickers' operation in order to found a new franchise,

1254-421: The playoffs, and the team initially believed this meant a first-round matchup with the winners of the relatively weak Northern Division, the Buffalo Storm . However, a last-minute conference call among owners clarified that the top seed should face the wild card play-in winner regardless of the standings points, and the Stampede found out just a few days before the semifinals began that they would instead be facing

1292-403: The season was getting underway, news emerged that majority owner Ralph Penn had been stripped of many assets, including his shares in the team, due to a variety of legal and financial troubles. The shares were placed into court-appointed receivership and then sold at auction. The players and coaches who remained had to endure missed paychecks and uncertainty about whether the club would last through

1330-476: The season with a league worst 7–17 record. When Fraser returned his shares to the minority owners in November, citing unsustainable out of pocket spending and an overwhelming level of debt that the club was still carrying, it appeared that Oklahoma City's first experience with professional soccer was coming to an end. But when the remaining American Soccer League owners held their annual meetings in January 1984,

1368-401: The season, and the team started 0–8. Local businessman David Fraser provided cash to help the club meet its financial obligations and assumed control of Penn's shares, and Walker returned to the front office to help stabilize the floundering franchise. Their efforts allowed the players and coaches to focus on soccer, and the team began to find ways to win some games; however, they still finished

1406-517: Was owed to players and staff. The only one of these matches that would actually be played, though, was a July 4th match against the Topez-Haitian All-Stars in which the soccer game preceded the town's Independence Day fireworks. The Sun rallied to win what was to be their final game, 4–3, before a crowd of 3,529. After the game, the Sun players, who had not received their full paychecks since May 31st, voted on how to equitably share

1444-596: Was then Oklahoma City's largest indoor sports arena, the Myriad Convention Center. However, these plans never materialized for the team or the rest of the league, and the playoff loss to Houston on August 24 would be the last game the team would play in Oklahoma City as the Stampede. In December, Fraser announced plans to move the team to Tulsa and rename it the Tornado's (the apostrophe is not

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