Friday night MLS Soccer action will feature round two of the 2017 Texas Derby in Houston, when MLS sides Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas compete for the 2018 rights to hold El Capitán, a replica 18th century cannon.

50 years ago on June 3rd and June 10, 1967, the first professional iterations of the Texas Derby were played in Dallas and Houston between the United Soccer Association’s (USA) Houston Stars and Dallas Tornado.

The background on the short-lived league (tournament) start-up and the Houston Stars can be found in the first post in this series:

https://txsoccerjournal.com/2017/06/13/50-years-ago-professional-soccer-is-introduced-to-texas/

The Dallas Tornado:

1967 Dallas Tornado (Dundee United): Credit to nasljerseys.com and dundeeunitedfc.co.uk)

Because the United Soccer Association started up with little preparation, the league brought in complete foreign teams to represent the franchises established in 12 North American cities.  The Lamar Hunt owned Tornado were actually in reality Dundee United FC, one of three Scottish First Division clubs brought to America for the tournament that summer.

The Tornado had opened the USA tournament on the previous weekend with a 1-0 road victory against the Mustangs (Cagliari/Italy) in cold and rainy Chicago on May 28, 1967. The Chicago Tribune writer covering the match, James Fitzgerald, somewhat sardonically expressed his amusement about the game and the foreign nature of the league with this lede the next day (1):

A Dane scored the winning goal for a Scottish team representing Dallas which defeated an Italian team wearing Chicago’s colors last night in the United Professional Soccer league opener in front of 9,872 in Comiskey park.”

The Dane who scored the winning goal was 23-year old Finn Dossing off an assist from Tommy Millar from 5 yards out.  The Mustangs were lacking many of their best players, as they had not even arrived in the U.S. yet, and were outshot by the Tornado 28-2. Dallas goalkeeper Sandy Davie did not have to make a save that day.

Finn Dossing (scored 3 goals in 1967 tournament and 76 goals for Dundee United)
(Credit to nasljerseys.com and dundeeunitedfc.co.uk)

Dundee United had originally arrived in Dallas on May 23 to find a gathering of 200 media, fans and pipers from the Highland Park High School band. The team was initially quartered at a SMU fraternity, which was a source of much griping by the players, and practiced at a school field across the street. Dallas mayor Erik Jonsson issued a proclamation declaring the week of May 28-June 4 “Soccer Week in Dallas”. (2)

The first Texas Derby match:  June 3-Cotton Bowl, Dallas

A crowd of 16,431 showed up to see the opening Derby match between the Tornado and Houston Stars (Bangu/Brazil).  The mystery for spectators about this first Texas Derby was expressed in this game report from the Grand Prairie Daily News on June 6th.

According to accounts in the excellent book Summer of ’67 by Ian Thomson, the game struggled to gain any traction early as the players adjusted to the heat and the narrow Cotton Bowl field, which only allowed 60 yards of space vs. the 75 yards available today at FC Dallas’s Toyota Stadium in Frisco.  The game report by Charles Clines in the Denton Record-Chronicle reported that the Tornado controlled the game early, but midway thorough the half the Stars came to life and forced Tornado goalkeeper Sandy Davie to make three saves, including two back-to-back saves on shots by Stars high-scoring forward Paulo Borges. (3)

The halftime break was originally scheduled to last 45 minutes, but was shortened to 10 after player complaints.  According to game accounts, the Tornado controlled play in the second half and scored a goal that was disallowed by a dubious offside call.  The Stars missed two golden opportunities to pick up the full three points near the end when Cabralzinho missed a shot at an open goal and hit the crossbar on a follow up after a poor clearance.  The fans apparently got into the spirit of the game, chanting “Score, Dallas Score!” near the end of the scoreless match.  How about that for a modern supporters group chant!  It must have been an entertaining match as the Tornado outshot the Stars 24-18

One humorous event happened during game play in the second half according to Thomson in Summer of ’67.  The Tornado had planned to have a parachutist deliver the ball to center circle for the start of the second half. Apparently nobody told the pilot that game had restarted, so midway through second half, according to the Tornado’s Donald Mackay,  “All of the sudden a gentleman in a parachute landed in the center of the park with the ball to kick off the second half.” (4)

Imagine how often this mix-up would have aired on SportsCenter or shared via social media if it had happened today.

The match box score from the Denton Record-Chronicle game report:

The Rematch-June 10, 1967-The Astrodome, Houston 

The Houston Stars won their first game of the ASA tournament in the Texas Derby rematch before 20,375 in the Astrodome.  Goals were scored by Borges and Peixinho in the first half to secure the victory.  The game story from AP has the details below, but in Summer of ’67, author Ian Thomson focused most of his match description on the challenges Dundee United faced playing indoors and on artificial turf for the first time.

The Astrodome “soccer” field configuration presented complications for both teams, but especially the visitors.  The field surface, set up for baseball a few days later, was a combination of dirt and grass, complete with holes where the bases had been removed. Also in Summer of ’67, Tornado player Mogens Berg attributed part of the issues to not having the appropriate shoes, stating that the Tornado players had not been informed about what type of field was used in the Astrodome before the match:  “We didn’t have the right shoes for playing on that.”  Because it was there, of course, once the Tornados entered the field they had to organize a competition to see if anybody could hit the roof with a soccer ball, which they quickly determined was impossible.

To add insult to injury, Dallas had played a midweek game in Vancouver three days previously and then traveled by bus to Houston.  Before the players expressed their dissatisfaction, the Tornado management had planned to bus down the day of the game and return to the dorms at SMU immediately after the game ended.  The team ended up coming in a day early, but still rode the bus back to Dallas Saturday night, arriving at 4:15 a.m. the next morning. (5)

8:00 p.m. on Friday evening in Houston the inter-state fun continues.

I will publish a story on Texas Soccer Journal in July to discuss the final results of the Tornado and Stars in this tournament played 50 years ago this summer.  I also highly recommend Summer of ’67-Flower Power, Race Riots, Vietnam and the Greatest Soccer Final Played on American Soccer by Ian Thomson if you would like to learn more about the single season of the defunct United Soccer Association.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18158248-summer-of-67

Credits:

(1) http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1967/05/29/page/43/article/2-mustangs-spark-teams-to-victories

(2)  Summer of ’67-Ian Thomson-pages 71-75

(3)  Denton Record-Chronicle, June 4, 1967 –Tornado Fails to Sweep Across Houston Goal

(4)  Summer of ’67-page 76

(5)  Summer of ’67-pages 118-119