Showing posts with label Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Insight into my varied soccer resume and "expertise," gleaned first-hand from the sidelines & seats watching Pelé, the NMB Chargers, Miami Toros, Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, Indiana Hoosiers and Premier League; Insightful observations and good questions from @TimothyJPratton on soccer development in the United States


@TimothyJPratt  My first story w/the Guardian asks: Are European giants exploiting US soccer or improving it?









Me, I'm the sort of soccer fan who got up very early last October to watch SkyTV's EARLY morning reporting, via my desktop, on the new English National Team football HQ at St George's Park, in Staffordshire.

The cameras literally showed the sun rising on beautiful-but-dewy empty pitches that Prince William later came by to offically christen.
So, yes, with that said, I think this article is very timely.

When I was a kid growing up in South Florida in the 1970's, my Mother worked as a secretary for Pavarini Construction as part of the Pavarini Gerrits team involved in constructing One Biscayne Tower on the corner of Flagler Street and Biscayne Blvd, the heart of what was Miami for most people I knew at the time.

One Biscayne Tower in Miami, 39 floors, 1973 Pavarini Construction, 
http://skyscrapercenter.com/miami/one-biscayne-tower/4008

That mammoth construction project was just across the street from where the office was located until the bldg. was finished in 1973, which at 39 stories, made it the largest building south of Atlanta until some time in the '90's, when I was already working up in D.C. area and not quite so aware of what new taller buildings were going up.

Their whole office could bring their families in late in the afternoon on New Years's Eve since one of the perks of that location was we could all watch the Orange Bowl Parade from their second floor balcony as it made the turn onto Flagler. That was back when NBC aired that LIVE every year across the country but the local NBC affiliate in Miami aired it the next morning, because they wanted bodies on the streets, not ratings, at the behest of the Miami business community and powers-that-be tried to put on a good face for the rest of the country.

Mr Stass had all sorts of pull and despite the great competition to get them, managed to get some tickets for the January 1975 Orange Bowl Game between Bear Bryant's Alabama squad and Notre Dame in Ara Parseghian's last game as Irish head coach. 
And he gave some of them to my Mom!
We sat in the East (open) End Zone of The Orange Bowl and we were surrounded by the extra Alabama cheerleaders, pep team, and marching band. 

For a big sports fan like me who'd grown-up watching Lindsey Nelson's ND highlight show on Sunday mornings in the fall, it was like heaven, since by then I'd already been going to U-M home games for years when Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens played for some truly terrible U-M teams. Teams which drew so poorly that I'd often have that end zone all to myself.

Years later I often wondered whether one of the cheerleaders near me whose good looks and sweet Southern accent made me melt in my seat might've included Sela Ward.

In those days, Sela dated future Dolphin 'Killer B' defensive star Bob Baumhower. 
The romantic in me likes to imagine that Sela was sitting there, somewhere, in that row behind me, so I'd like to think that game was where I first heard and saw the wonderful Sela, whom I've admired and adored since first seeing her on the big screen in Chicago at the theatre at Water Tower in 1986's "Nothing in Common," starring Tom Hanks and Jackie GleasonIronically, a film set in Chicago. 

My mother's boss, Frank J, Stass was also a public policy, civic-minded type -back when Miami
had more of them them- who was always willing to do his part to help local Miami businesses.
When the NASL came to Miami as the Gatos, he bought some season tickets for the games at the Orange Bowl, for employees and they were excellent seats!
Right in the middle of the stadium and about 15 rows up, back when the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Cosmos were their biggest and most bitter of rivals.

I first started going when they were the Gatos in 1971, as a ten-year old, and kept going after they were re-christened the Toros. Before the Robbies moved the Toros up to Fort Lauderdale and they become the Strikers, they played the Cosmos in Pele's first game in Miami his first year in the NASL.

For some reason that I don't quite recall, they played the game out on the VERY NICE soccer field out at FIU which later became the FIU football team's many, many years later once they got D-1 football and expanded the facility. 

(That was the best soccer field in South Florida outside of Lockhart Stadium, where my junior year at IU, 1982, we beat Duke there for the NCAA championship on the 2nd or 3rd day of my Christmas Break, which created an awesome scene back at the Yankee Trader Hotel hotel afterwards with all my close friends on the team -and their parents and the whole IU and Hoosier sports administrators, plus Indy media.)

Team photo of 1982 NCAA Champion Indiana Hoosiers coached by Jerry Yeagley

But for the Pele first match, the capacity was just over 10,000 and since we were season ticket holders of a sort, we got first dibs and I was even able to persuade my non-soccer loving father to come long. He'd come to some of my youth games once in a while but he was not someone who was a natural fan 

Yes, I think it's fair to say that from 1971 to 1976, there were few people in South Florida who 
attended more Miami Gatos/Toros NASL soccer games at the Orange Bowl than yours truly.

I witnessed all their great FEISTY and bitter games against their arch-rival Tampa Bay Rowdies back when that was the only pro team Tampa had, and their fans WOULD travel in droves and tailgate HERE. I even witnessed their heart-breaking loss on penalty kicks in the 1974 NASL title game at the Orange Bowl -televised by CBS- to the Los Angeles Aztecs. AFTER two over-times on a hot and humid afternoon! 

Somewhere, I still have the Toros game programs, esp. the ones that on the cover proclaimed Kyle Rote, Jr. of the Dallas Tornadoes as "the American Pelé." 
As many of you may recall, Rote was a tremendously talented player who understood his unique role as an ambassador for the sport, but even though I was a kid at the time, I thought that putting things like that on the cover of game programs was FAR TOO MUCH pressure for a kid just barely out of college!

Because of our location and demographics, I was fortunate to play for some very talented Optimist teams in North Miami Beach -after football and baseball season were over- that had a mix of styles and lots of telnted kids from lots of different countries, esp. Latin America.
After that,  was fortunate to go to North Miami Beach Senior High, a high school in South Florida with a great soccer reputation, despite it being only a few years old, thanks entirely to the devotion, dedication and hard work of our head coach Victor "Vic" Cappillo, who also drove the team bus to all points on the compass. 
(Coach Cappillo later wrote a letter of recommendation for me to IU.)

While I was still in eight-grade at JFK Junior High, with my personality, nose for news and media inclinations being roughly the same as they are now, just less developed, in part because I was already known to most of the players, and a friend to many, I persuaded Coach Cappillo to let me be the Team Manager, attending all home and away matches and handled calling the two Miami newspapers afterwards to drum up support in getting us some publicity.
And I was very successful.
But our great talent on the field certainly helped!

The following year, 1975-76, when I was a freshman, this good relationship continued and thanks to a historic Ciro Martinez-led last-second Charger win at arch-rival North Miami, a game whose last two minutes seemed to go in slo-motion, we eventually won the 1976 Florida high Scool soccer championship.
Days afterwards at a team dinner to honor the team and its supporters, I unexpectedly received a blue Varsity Letterman's jacket that quickly became my most valuable possession for years afterwards, despite how impractical a jacket is in NMB for most of the year because of the weather.
I'd wear that jacket every chance I had whenever it got under 50 degrees.

In 1977, with most of the team returning, one of our two arch-rivals, nearby Miami Norland Senior High School, inflicted a painful loss on the Chargers, knocking us out of the Florida state playoffs at Lockhart Stadium and ending our hope of winning back-to-back Florida state soccer championships. The Norland Vikings eventually finished as the state runner-up that year.

When Joe and Elizabeth Robbie relocated the team to Ft. Lauderdale and Lockhart Stadium for the 1977 season, much closer to my friends and I in North Miami Beach, we were ecstatic. The drive to Lockhart up I-95 was so much quicker, as we joined other "Striker Likers," eager to literally yell ourselves hoarse watching their exciting brand of soccer, esp, against the dreaded Rowdies and Cosmos! 
Oh, did we ever hate them!

(This happened to coincide with a time period when the Dolphins were less successful due to the reign of the Steelers and Raiders and the rise of the Bert Jones-led Baltimore Colts, so it was great to be able to cheer in-person at a home game and not have it be sarcastic.) 

When the NASL folded and then went indoor via the awful MISL, I never looked back at pro soccer teams in the U.S. because at the time it meant that my IU friends -and neighbors like Mike Hylla and Dave Boncek, who were always doing impressive skill and control drills in front of the swimming pool at out apt. complex- could never play for teams outdoors in their own country, as soccer was clearly intended to be played.

Even now, after all these years and all the effort they've put into trying to make it palatable, I've NEVER watched even one minute of the MLS on ESPN. 

To me, it's largely unwatchable, so I just stick to English Premier League games. 
I did go see some of the WUSA games, though, while I was in DC when Mia Hamm played for the Freedom.

I will be updating this post over the next few days, looking to include some photos.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

¿Ya es lunes? Dear Dolphins: Do we have to wear our orange sombreros, too? Me gusta Lana Parrilla!

Orange you glad I reminded you?

Below, excerpt from a recent email
I received from the Dolphins.

Is It Next Monday Yet?

Fresh off the big win against AFC East rival Buffalo Bills, the Miami Dolphins face another rival, the New York Jets, next Monday, October 12th at 8:30 p.m. at Land Shark Stadium.

Be here to see live:

  • Dolphins players wear ORANGE jerseys for only the third time ever. The last two times the team wore orange jerseys resulted in Dolphins’ victories!
  • The Dolphins along with the NFL celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Among the festivities is Latin Grammy award-winning Jesse and Joy performing live at the Land Shark Tailgate Stage, Marc Anthony singing the national anthem and a special “Celebration of the Americas” halftime show with participation by Gloria Estefan and a live performance by Jocelyn Rivera.

So be here for what promises to be an unforgettable night in South Florida in this Monday Night Football game. Wear your Dolphins ORANGE and come ready to FIESTA!

---------------------
Actually, I have quite a lot of orange
t-shirts, but this makes as much marketing
sense as having IRL drivers in Davie at
Dolphins HQ, and the Herald mentioning
that the drivers were photographed next
to the Dolphins Super Bowl trophies
from 35 years ago, plus the the racing
trophy.

But be sure to call me if you spot
Lana Parrilla of CBS-TV's upcoming
drama Miami Trauma before kickoff!
Her I adore!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0663469/
Ever since Boomtown seven years ago.

(
Per Lana's show Miami Trauma,
where she'll play surgeon Eva Zambrano,
-"It could be paradise.
But even paradise needs its angels",
see
http://twitpic.com/32l5u
and
http://www.jbfilms.com/archive/home.html
-
some of the well-informed people
I hear from regularly in LA, plus,
the plugged-in folks at The Wrap,
http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/cbs-says-yes-more-flashpoint-8265
have suggested it could air in a few
months on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. after
NCIS:LA's time slot if the Juliana
Margulies vehicle The Good Wife
is eventually axed.

Personally, I think there are other CBS
shows that really ought to get axed before
Good Wife, which I really enjoy because
of its excellent cast and nuanced intelligent
approach to a situation seldom dealt with
well on TV -family life after a political
scandal
.

Plus Margulies is not only a very talented
actress, but is also very, very likable and
someone that other talented people enjoy
working with.
That still counts for something, even in the
Hollywood of 2009.

Personally, I think NCIS: LA is a better
idea for a TV series than reality has proven
thus far, since it leaves me cold so far,
even though I'm a big fan of NCIS,
having watched it from the very beginning.
)

Don't want to even think about the 1,001
ways the Herald and Sun-Sentinel will
use the word "siesta" on Tuesday if los
Dolphins lose to los Jets.

If so, I will have todo sobre ESPN
using Spanish in particularly galling,
over-the-top ways throughout the
ballgame.

Which Hispanic celebs will they interview
at halftime?

What's the over-and-under on someone
on the broadcast team using the words
"salsa" or "caliente"?

What sort of ridiculous and cringe-worthy
things will new owner and celebrity groupie
Stephen Ross or possibly
Dolphins
Enterprises
CEO Mike "Hanging Sox"
Dee
say about the Dolphins trying to
're-connect' with South Florida's Hispanic
population?
(Re-connect? Where did they go?)


It could get very bad very quickly when
they start spouting their marketing nonsense,
something which plagued all the early media
stories about both men, esp. Ross' very
dopey comments about his making the
Dolphins more Miami-er, read,
they were too Broward under Huizenga.

excerpt from June 26, 2009
Miami Herald

by Daniel Chang and Adam H. Beasley

MIAMI DOLPHINS:
SINGING WITH THE DOLPHINS?
...Ross emphasized that the Dolphins' priority remains winning games, but he said the team is serious about reaching out to Hispanics, even in a community, Miami-Dade County, where more than half the population identifies as Hispanic.
Jose Cancela, principal of Hispanic USA Inc., a Hispanic market communications firm, said the union of the Dolphins and two of Miami's best known entertainers was a long time coming.

"This is the home of [Spanish-language TV networks] Univision and Telemundo, the home of some of the most famous stars of Latin America," he said. "This is really the Spanish-language Hollywood . . . and it's been sitting at the Dolphins doorstep for a number of years, and it was smart to take advantage of it."

While most marketing efforts in South Florida will naturally reach Hispanics, Cancela said the Dolphins will benefit by personalizing the pitch with recognizable faces and in Spanish.

"You want to do it in language, in culture he said of marketing efforts that target Hispanics. "If you go in language and nuanced correctly, you'll reach them even deeper and create a deeper bond."

BILINGUAL DUET
Ross said all team press releases will now be issued in Spanish and English. A Spanish-language website for the team will launch Aug. 15. And Gloria Estefan and Hank Williams Jr. will debut a bilingual duet of the Monday Night Football theme song, Are You Ready for Some Football, on the Oct. 12 telecast -- the night the Dolphins host their archnemesis, the New York Jets, at LandShark Stadium.

Mike Dee, the Dolphins' chief executive, said the team wants to motivate more Hispanics to become "active fans" who attend games.

And although home-game attendance is about 37 percent Hispanic, according to Dolphins marketing director George Torres, Dee said that's not good enough.

"We're not where we want to be," he said. "We want to be the best in the NFL."

Ross first approached the Estefans shortly after acquiring the team in January from H. Wayne Huizenga. Ross' mediator was Miami condo developer Jorge Perez, a friend and business partner.

Perez said Ross had the "laid-back Anglo" demographic covered with Buffett, and wanted to broaden the team's appeal to the largest ethnic group in Miami-Dade.

Perez immediately thought of the Estefans, and he arranged a meeting.

"Steve has been looking to make the Dolphins a totally integrated team," Perez said. "There needed to be great outreach and inclusion in the Hispanic community and not just token representation."
Why, do they give an attendance award?
Win games -period!

Why does the Herald continue their
absurd policy of asking people -and
the very same
people at that!-
with a clear economic interest in a
subject what they think, like
Jose
Cancela
, above
?

Or like continually quoting former
Miami Beach mayor and current
lawyer/lobbyist Niesen Kasdin,
who's also the Vice-chair of the
Downtown Development Authority.

He was quoted for what seemed like
a week
straight on Miami 21.

Question never asked of him:
If he and his business pals with
their castle-in-the-sky condos
were as sophisticated
and dynamic
as they claim to be,
why wasn't
there a single general
interest
bookstore within the Miami

city limits?

(For more on Kasdin, see this

July 2, 2007 Eye on Miami post
titled,
Niesen Kasdin and Dan Ricker,
polar opposites by gimleteye
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2007/07/neisen-kasdin-and-dan-ricker-polar.html
and see his Akerman Senterfitt bio, too
http://www.akerman.com/public/attorneys/aBiography.asp?id=1083)

Were there no savvy business professors
to be found in all of South Florida?

Just wondering, how many Dolphin players
do you think live in Miami-Dade now?
A handful, maybe?

This isn't 1973 when few Dolphin players
lived north of Miami Lakes or the county
line, and Pembroke Pines and Miramar
were treated by folks in NMB like they
were small obscure Arctic fishing villages,
largely beyond the reach of civilization:
out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

And where is the Dolphins training camp
and HQ located now?
Nope, not 330 Biscayne Blvd. anymore,
where once upon a time, I could actually
run into Joe Thomas on my way in to
pick-up some more of those Dolphin decals
that used to be ubiquitous down here on
cars, and he'd talk to me for ten minutes
about what he liked about IU.

'Nuff said about Ross and his concern
about the Dolphins not being sufficiently
Miami-centric.

By the way, does anyone know why
no stories about Ross ever include a
mention of when he first became a
Dolphins fan, or what big games he
actually attended in person at the OB?

Or was he just a TV fan in NYC as
many rightly suspect?
He's no Bob Kraft, that's for sure.

¿Ya es lunes?

See also:

N
FL Latino Effort Pits Jets Fan vs. Dolphins Fan

Monday Night Game Centerpiece of League's

Hispanic Heritage Month Campaign

Posted by Laura Martinez, October 9, 2009
http://adage.com/bigtent/post?article_id=139573

This column features the line,
"Who says Latinos were only into
soccer?"


That's a straw man, especially down here.
Nobody says that.

Except when the Toros were here,
Miami area sports fans were told in that
same condescending marketing B.S.
way that Cubans weren't just into beisbol,
and would flock to the Orange Bowl.
Except that it never happened.

The Toros home games at the
Orange Bowl were largely populated
by kids like me from North Dade
-NMB, Miami Shores, Palm Springs
North, Norland
- and the
Karl Kremser-influenced duchies
of the Kendall area around Dade-South,
which is why the Toros moved to
Fort Lauderdale and became more
European-centric in their player
selections as the Strikers and the
rest is history...

By the way, Donald Trump ruined
the NASL for everyone, including
my friends on the IU soccer team,
who weren't really too interested
in playing the bastardized indoor
soccer after Trump ruined the
competitive financial structure of
the NASL.

Below, from my South Beach Hoosier
blog, which I've really neglected the
last few months and plan on revamping
in time for IU's basketball season
in a few weeks
http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/

NASL - Ft. Lauderdale Strikers

& Miami Toros/Gatos

The NASL Ft. Lauderdale Strikers & Miami Toros/Gatos
I think it's fair to say that from 1971-'76, there were few people in South Florida who attended more Miami Toros/Gatos NASL soccer games at the Orange Bowl than yours truly, including their game against Pelé at F.I.U.
I first started going when they were the Gatos in 1971, as a ten-year old, and kept going after they were re-christened the Toros, a much better name.
I witnessed all their great FEISTY games against their arch-rival Tampa Bay Rowdies.
I even witnessed their heart-breaking loss in the 1974 NASL title game to the Los Angeles Aztecs in penalty kicks, after two over-times.

Somewhere, I still have the Toros game programs, esp. the ones that on the cover proclaimed Kyle Rote, Jr. of the Dallas Tornadoes as the American Pelé.
Rote was a tremendously talented player who understood his unique role as an ambassador
for the sport, but putting things like that on the cover of game programs was FAR TOO MUCH pressure for a kid just barely out of college!)

When Joe and Elizabeth Robbie relocated the team to Ft. Lauderdale and Lockhart Stadium for the 1977 season, much closer to my friends and I in North Miami Beach, we were ecstatic.

The drive to Lockhart up I-95 was so much quicker, as we joined other "Striker Likers", eager to literally yell ourselves hoarse watching their exciting brand of soccer, esp, against the dreaded Rowdies and N.Y. Cosmos!
Oh, did we ever hate them!!!

For more info, see http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dulyjs/strikers/strikers.html