Team Hawaii

Team Hawaii was a soccer team based out of Honolulu that played in the NASL for one season, 1977. Their home field was Aloha Stadium.

Team Hawaii
Full nameTeam Hawaii
Founded1977
Dissolved1977
GroundAloha Stadium
Capacity50,000
ManagerHubert Vogelsinger
Charlie Mitchell
LeagueNorth American Soccer League

After two unsuccessful years as the San Antonio Thunder, the franchise moved to Hawai'i in time for the 1977 season. The club was originally coached by Hubert Vogelsinger, but after he became ill midway through the season, Charlie Mitchell took over and served as player-coach for the remainder of the campaign. On the field, Hawaii had an 11-15 record and failed to qualify for the playoffs; at the box office, the team never came close to filling their 50,000-seat stadium. (A decent crowd of 12,877 attended their match against the New York Cosmos in April, but none of their other twelve home games drew even half of that; they managed only 4,543 per game for the season.)

Being thousands of miles away from their opponents, travel became a significant issue for Team Hawaii. The club would often go on four- or five-game road trips to the mainland, while visiting teams would usually coordinate playing in Hawaii with games against west coast teams.

With the poor attendances and high travel costs, the club lost an estimated $500,000 to one million dollars in 1977. After speculation the franchise would move to Milwaukee, Atlanta or Houston, Team Hawaii officially shifted to Tulsa on November 14, 1977 to become the Tulsa Roughnecks.

To date, they remain Hawaii's only major professional soccer team and one of two major professional sports teams to play in the state (the other being The Hawaiians that played in the WFL in 1974-75).

1977 roster

Last updated 20 April 2009.[1] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
0 GK  USA Jimmy Joerg
1 GK  ENG Peter Fox
2 DF  USA Chris Carenza
3 DF  BRA Ismael Moreira
3 DF  USA Dave Stahl
4 DF  USA Mark Stahl
5 DF  SCO Charlie Mitchell
6 DF  GER Peter Nover
7 DF  ENG Tommy Taylor
8 DF  ENG Keith Coleman
11 DF  GER Axel Neumann
13 DF  USA Ed Pitney
21 DF  CAN Tim Hunter
No. Pos. Nation Player
9 MF  SCO Jim Henry
10 MF  POR Diamantino Costa
10 MF  ENG Ben Smith
19 MF  ENG Pat Holland
11 MF  ENG Chris Dangerfield
— MF  ENG Keith Robson
14 FW  CAN Victor Kodelja
15 FW  USA Dan Counce
16 FW  ENG Brian Tinnon
17 FW  SKN Bert Bowery
18 FW  CYP Yilmaz Orhan
20 FW  IRL Hilary Carlyle

Year-by-year
Year League W L Pts Reg. Season Playoffs Attendance
1977 NASL 11 15 106 4th, Pacific Conference, Southern Division Did not qualify 4,543

Notes
  1. "Team Hawaii". NASL Jerseys.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.