Anyone here an old MISL/MSL fan (1980s-90s?)

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

I was a faithful Wichita Wings fan for several years. I was just nosing around today and learned of the deaths of a couple of Baltimore Blast players (Paul Kitson last month and Domenic Mobilio last year). I'm very sad! They died so young. Life is truly fragile.

[enigmatic]

1. Cleveland Force

Keith Furphy, dammit!

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

2. Hey!

I remember him! I don't think we liked him much, as I recall!

Boy, those were the days, weren't they?

[enigmatic]

3. Baltimore was the Force's main rival

but Wichita was, too. That was a fun league; growing up in Clevo I used to say that if Clevo had a midget lacrosse team that won, I'd support it:) The original MISL was just a blast to see in person..

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

4. Oh, it was so much fun

My friends and I lived and died for those games. Wichita had quite a rivalry with St. Louis (BOO EBERT!) and Kansas City. Sad that the Wings left Wichita several years ago. I know there's soccer being played now, but it's just not the same.

Scott Manning was a platonic friend of mine for a while; I was the only person who supported him when he temporarily joined the Wings to help out in goal because Wichitans hated the Blast!

Remember Kai Haaskivi? I wonder if he's still active in soccer.

[enigmatic]

5. That's a name out of the past...

I just read an article in one of the Clevo-area papers about a month ago; I'll see if I can find it..

[peekaloo]

6. In Florida we had the NASL....Tampa Bay Rowdies!

I still have a pair of socks one of the players gave me.

"The Rowdies are a kick in the grass".

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

7. Didn't Perry Van Der Beck play for them?

He was a Wing for a time.

[peekaloo]

8. I believe you are correct. He was a kid at the time.

I think he went to Dallas after Tampa.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

9. Gosh, the memories are just flooding back!

Can't believe it's been 21 YEARS since I started going to those games!

[Awsi Dooger]

17. Rodney Marsh took more dives than Greg Louganis

He was a star for the Rowdies maybe mid-to-late '70s, when I was a Ft. Lauderdale Strikers fan. That was a huge rivalry and very intense home-and-home games. Seemed like whenever we played the Rowdies it would be tied late then Marsh would intentionally stick his right foot behind his left and trip himself in the box, sprawling all over the place. There would even be articles in the papers predicting it, but sometimes the damn ref would call the penalty anyway. I remember the Striker radio broadcaster, Rick Weaver, who also did the Dolphin games, practically jumping out of the press box in fury after Marsh flailed in the box.

That was a great slogan, kick in the grass. At virtually the same time Ft. Lauderdale also commisioned an ad agency for a slogan. Really creative: "Soccer is the name of the game."

[peekaloo]

21. LOL! He was loved for that in Tampa (obviously).

He was a big ol' lovable lush, lots of fun if you ever crossed paths in Tampa bars, er, pubs back then.

Derek Smethurst was another entertaining guy to hang out with...he gave me his smelly socks after a game.

Their slogan/theme song made for a great, drunken sing along at their games.

I had forgotten how much fun I had at those soccer matches!

[ok_cpu]

10. Were Canton Invaders MISL?

Loved going to their games.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

11. They weren't in the league when I was going, but they sound very familiar

Hmmm...will have to do some Googling...

[ok_cpu]

12. I think they were NPSL or AISA

I remember the Kalamazoo Kangaroos too.

And Kia ruled Canton during the 80's.

[Left Is Write]

13. Minnesota had an NASL team and later an MISL team.

We had the Kicks, whom we lost to Dallas (foreshadowing the loss of our hockey team to Dallas also). The Kicks were our NASL team.

Our MISL team was the Strikers.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

15. Tino Lettieri, the parrot man!

Oh, how we detested him! But he was awfully fun to watch!

[NaturalHigh]

14. I only followed it in soccer digest.

I was also a bit of a Wichita fan, but most of the magazine coverage went to the New York team (Arrows, I think). Having played a few indoor soccer games when I was stationed in Denver, I have a lot of respect for these guys. You really have to be in shape to play that game.

[JanMichael]

16. I went to a couple of Wings games in Wichita!

Way way way back in the before times.

[Merrick]

18. San Diego Sockers

how many championships did we win? like, all of them?

Julie Veee and Zoltan Toth coached my club team for awhile when I was 15 and we went to their native Budapest to play in a tournament as well as Zurich to play a couple games against FC Grasshopper's youth squads. pretty cool. got really drunk for the first time in Hungary - which is a great place for 15 year old punks to get their hands on really cheap booze.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

20. I could tell you some things about Zoltan Toth!

:evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[Merrick]

23. Go on, go on...

please do!

[nevergiveup]

19. The Chicago Sting

at the old Chicago Stadium ......those were good times!!!!!!

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

22. Then they moved to the Rosemont Arena, right?