- Dallas Tornado
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Dallas Tornado 
Full name Dallas Tornado Nickname(s) The Tornado Founded 1967 Dissolved 1981 Stadium Cotton Bowl
Capacity: 70,000
Turnpike Stadium
Capacity: 20,000
P.C. Cobb Stadium
Capacity: 22,000
Texas Stadium
Capacity: 65,000
Ownby Stadium
Capacity: 20,000Chairman Lamar Hunt League North American Soccer League 
Home colorsAway colorsDallas Tornado were a soccer team based in Dallas that played in the NASL. They played from 1967 to 1981. Their home fields were Cotton Bowl (1967–1968), P.C. Cobb Stadium (1969), Franklin Field (1970–1971), Texas Stadium (1972–1975, 1980–1981) and Ownby Stadium on the SMU campus (1976–1979). The club played Indoor soccer at Reunion Arena (1980–81).
The franchise was one of the original clubs that played in the United Soccer Association, one of the two precursors to the NASL, in 1967. In fact, the USA was made up of international clubs playing in U.S. cities as American teams. The team that played as the Dallas Tornado were Dundee United of the Scottish Football League. The following season when the USA merged with the NPSL, owners Lamar Hunt and Bill McNutt had to build a new team from scratch. They hired Bob Kap, a Serbian born soccer coach who had escaped with his family during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Kap had studied with Pushkash at the Soccor Academy in Hungary. Kap was recruited from Toronto, Canada, where he had relocated after the 1956 Revolution.
During the first 6 months as coach, Kap traveled throughout Europe to form the new Dallas Tornado. Hiring young players from England to Turkey, the fledgling Dallas Tornado learned to play as a team on the world tour. Their world tour took them from England to India, from Indonesia to Vietnam during the height of the war. The tour gave the new Dallas Tornado Team an international face at a time when American soccer was relatively unknown. The gallant effort resulted in a 2-26-4 record.
Following the 1968 NASL season, the league was in trouble with ten franchises having folded. The 1969 season was split into two halves. The first half was called the International Cup, a double round robin tournament in which the remaining NASL clubs were represented by teams imported from the United Kingdom. The Tornado was represented again by Dundee United. The Tornado came in tied for third in the Cup with a 2-4-2 record. For the second half of the 1969 season, the teams returned to their normal rosters and played a 16 game schedule with no playoffs.
Fortunes improved for the club as they won the NASL championship in 1971, defeating the Atlanta Chiefs 2-0 in the final game of a three game series, Mike renshaw scoring the winning goal. Several division titles followed in the years after that league title. Two players, Kyle Rote, Jr. (son of former New York Giants wide receiver Kyle Rote) and Steve Pecher, won the league Rookie of the Year award in 1973 and 1976, respectively. As was the case with most NASL clubs, a drop in attendance contributed to the demise of the club in 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the USA in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest—15 seasons.
Lamar Hunt did not give up on soccer in America, however, and was one of the founding owners in Major League Soccer.
Ex-Manchester United goalkeeper, Alex Stepney played for Dallas.
Contents
Year-by-year
Year Record Regular Season Finish Playoffs 1967 3-3-6 6th, Western Division, USA Did Not Qualify 1968 2-4-26 4th, Gulf Division Did Not Qualify 1969 2-4-2 3rd no postseason 1970 8-4-12 3rd, Southern Division Did Not Qualify 1971 10-8-6 2nd, Southern Division NASL Champions 1972 6-3-5 2nd, Southern Division Semifinals 1973 11-4-4 1st, Southern Division Runners-up 1974 9-3-8 1st, Central Division Semifinals 1975 9-13 4th, Central Division Did Not Qualify 1976 13-11 2nd, Southern Division, Pacific Conference Division Championships 1977 18-8 1st, Southern Division, Pacific Conference Conference Championships 1978 14-16 3rd, Central Division, National Conference Did Not Qualify 1979 17-13 2nd, Central Division, National Conference National Conference Quarterfinals 1980 18-14 1st, Central Division, National Conference National Conference Semifinals 1981 5-27 4th, Central Division Did Not Qualify Indoor Season
Year Record Regular Season Finish Playoffs 1980–81 5 – 27 3rd, Southern Division Did Not Qualify Honors
NASL Championships
- 1971
Division Titles
- 1973 Southern Division
- 1974 Central Division
- 1977 Southern Division, Pacific Conference
- 1980 Central Division, National Conference
Rookie of the Year
- 1973 Kyle Rote, Jr.
- 1976 Steve Pecher
All-Star First Team Selections
- 1969 Kirk Apostolidis, John Best, Ilija Mitic
- 1970 John Best
- 1971 John Best, Dick Hall, Mirko Stojanovic
- 1972 John Best, Ken Cooper
- 1973 John Best, Ken Cooper, Ilija Mitic
- 1974 Dick Hall, Albert Jackson, Ilija Mitic
All-Star Second Team Selections
- 1967 (USA) Doug Smith
- 1970 Kirk Apostolidis, Mike Renshaw, Roy Turner
- 1972 Dick Hall
- 1973 Dick Hall, Rick Reynolds
- 1975 Ken Cooper
- 1976 Jeff Bourne, Bob Hope, George Ley
- 1977 George Ley, Steve Pecher
All-Star Honorable Mentions
- 1971 Momcilio Gavric, Oreco
- 1972 Mike Renshaw
- 1973 John Collins, Nick Jennings, Kyle Rote, Jr., Roy Turner
Players
Oreco (1970-71)
Jeff Bourne (1978-79) [1]- Cliff Calvert (1981)
- Len Cantello (1981)
- Dave Chadwick (1974-75)
- Alan Hinton (1977)
- Brian Kettle (1978) [2]
- Kevin Kewley (1976-79) [3]
Wolfgang Rausch (1979-81)- Alex Stepney (1979-80)
- Klaus Toppmöller (1980-81)
- Gert Trinklein (1979-80) [4]
Bill Irwin (1981)
Tim Huff (1981)
Bobby Hope (1976-78) [5]
Angel Pichardo- Jimmy Ryan (footballer born 1945) (1976-79) [6]
- Jim Benedek (1970-1973)
- Kyle Rote Jr. (1972-1978)
Head coaches
- Jerry Kerr 1967
- Bob Kap 1968 [7]
- Keith Spurgeon 1968
- Ron Newman 1969 - 1975
- Al Miller 1976 - 1980
- Mike Renshaw 1981
- Peter Short 1981
Yearly Average Attendance
- 1967 - 9,227
- 1968 - 2,927
- 1969 - 2,923
- 1970 - 2,228
- 1971 - 3,326
- 1972 - 4,093
- 1973 - 7,474
- 1974 - 8,469
- 1975 - 4,630
- 1976 - 14,095
- 1977 - 16,511* record average for any Dallas soccer club
- 1978 - 8,981
- 1979 - 9,321
- 1980 - 6,752
- 1981 - 4,670
Categories:- Association football clubs established in 1967
- Association football clubs disestablished in 1981
- Defunct soccer clubs in the United States
- North American Soccer League teams
- Soccer clubs in Dallas, Texas
- Texas soccer clubs
- Dundee United F.C.
- United Soccer Association franchises
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