Before their first NASL season, the Tornado were sent around the world for seven months. They came home having lost most of their games, finished 1968 at 2–26–4, and won the league three years later.
- Spain and MoroccoA training camp, then a 4–0 loss at Córdoba. In Spain, 19-year-old Mike Renshaw had his appendix removed.2,3
- TurkeyA 2–2 draw with Fenerbahçe in October 1967.3
- Athens to CyprusThe team missed its flight to Nicosia. That plane was bombed in the air, and the players took the next one.3
- Pakistan to IndiaThe squad was split at the border. The British players and Kap crossed, while eleven others were stranded until they got through, by a hole in a fence in one account and after two days waiting for visas in another. A 0–0 draw with India followed in Calcutta.2,3
- Vietnam and SingaporeGames in wartime Vietnam before tens of thousands, and stones thrown by anti-American fans in Singapore.3
- Manila and TaiwanA 7–0 win over the Manila Chinese XI and a 3–2 win over Taiwan in December.3
- Australia and FijiA 3–2 win over South Australia. In Fiji, the players walked out of a reception to mark their six months together on their own, and the local association called it “downright rude.”2,3
- DallasHome in February 1968, then a shorter trip to Costa Rica and Honduras.3
Hunt's idea of a team
Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, was inspired by the 1966 World Cup final. With his partner Bill McNutt, he put a team in the new United Soccer Association in 1967.2,3 That league imported whole overseas clubs for the summer, and Dallas got Scotland's Dundee United. Their 0–0 home opener with Houston drew 20,375 to the Cotton Bowl.1,4
For a team of its own, Hunt hired Bob Kap in July 1967. Kap, a refugee then living in Canada, placed newspaper ads across Europe for young players and is credited with the idea of the tour. The players were 18 to 22, mostly from England and Scandinavia. The one American, Jay Moore, was there because league rules required one.2 Kap was coach, scout, manager, trainer and equipment manager.3
The tour did not produce a good league team. In 1968 the Tornado went 2–26–4 with a goal difference of −81, and almost all the touring players were released.1,3
537 minutes
After 1968, the league shrank from 17 teams to five. Hunt stayed, and Ron Newman took over as coach in 1969.1,5
In 1971 the Tornado won the league's first indoor event, the Hoc-Soc tournament in St. Louis. The outdoor playoffs that year were an endurance test. The semifinal against Rochester took three games, the last going to four overtimes, and Dallas played 537 minutes in 13 days. It lost the first game of the final to Atlanta 2–1 in a third overtime, then won 4–1 and 2–0.1 Renshaw, one of the few left from the tour, scored the winner in the deciding game.6
An American star
In 1973 the Tornado won the regular season and reached the final, losing 2–0 to Philadelphia. Kyle Rote Jr., son of the New York Giants receiver of the same name, led the league in scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists and was Rookie of the Year. He was the first American-born player to win the scoring title.1,7 Dallas sold his contract to the Houston Hurricane in 1978 for $250,000.1,7
On June 15, 1975, the Tornado were the opponents in Pelé's NASL debut, shown nationally on CBS. Crowds followed the league's boom: at SMU's Ownby Stadium, average attendance reached 16,511 in 1977, when the team finished 18–8 under Al Miller.1
| Year | Record | Division finish | Playoffs | Avg. crowd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | 3–6–3 | 6th, as Dundee United | Did not qualify | 9,227 |
| 1968 | 2–26–4 | 4th | Did not qualify | 2,927 |
| 1969 | 2–2–4 | 3rd | None held | 2,923 |
| 1970 | 8–12–4 | 3rd | Did not qualify | 2,228 |
| 1971 | 10–6–8 | 2nd | Champions | 3,326 |
| 1972 | 6–5–3 | 2nd | Lost semifinal | 4,093 |
| 1973 | 11–4–4 | 1st | Lost final | 7,474 |
| 1974 | 9–8–3 | 1st | Lost semifinal | 8,469 |
| 1975 | 9–13 | 4th | Did not qualify | 4,630 |
| 1976 | 13–11 | 2nd | Lost division final | 14,095 |
| 1977 | 18–8 | 1st | Lost conference final | 16,511 |
| 1978 | 14–16 | 3rd | Did not qualify | 8,981 |
| 1979 | 17–13 | 2nd | Lost quarterfinal | 9,321 |
| 1980 | 18–14 | 1st | Lost semifinal | 6,752 |
| 1981 | 5–27 | 4th | Did not qualify | 4,670 |
Merged away
Of the 12 American teams in the 1967 league, Dallas lasted longest, at 15 seasons.1 The last one was 5–27, with the league's lowest average attendance. In September 1981, Hunt and McNutt ended the club, reportedly at least $20 million down over its life, and merged it into the Tampa Bay Rowdies, keeping a minority stake.1,8
Hunt stayed in the game. He was an early Major League Soccer investor, paid for the Columbus Crew's stadium, bought the Dallas Burn in 2003, now FC Dallas, and had the U.S. Open Cup named after him in 1999.5 Bob Kap's papers from the tour are held by the University of North Texas Libraries.2
Sources
- “Dallas Tornado.” Wikipedia.
- Tour of a Lifetime: The Dallas Tornado Soccer Club. University of North Texas Libraries.
- Guzhnay, Jean Pierre. “50 Years Later: The Story of the Dallas Tornado’s Infamous World Tour of 1967.” FC Dallas.
- Lenard, John. “Illustrated History of Dallas Soccer: Part 1.” 3rd Degree, February 5, 2020.
- Lamar Hunt. National Soccer Hall of Fame biography, Society for American Soccer History.
- “Mike Renshaw.” Wikipedia.
- “Kyle Rote Jr.” Texas Soccer Hall of Fame.
- Crossley, Drew. “Dallas Tornado.” Fun While It Lasted, December 16, 2011.