Houston Summit

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Houston Summit
0
Full name Houston Summit Soccer
place Houston , Texas
Founded 1978
Dissolved 1980
Club colors 1978/79: white, red and orange
1979/80: orange and maroon
Stadion The Summit
Top league Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL)
successes 1st place in the regular season:
(1978/79, 1979/80)

Houston Summit was an American indoor soccer franchise from Houston , the largest city in the US state of Texas , which participated in the major indoor soccer league (MISL) from 1978 to 1980 . In 1980 the franchise was relocated to Baltimore , where it was continued as Baltimore Blast until the MISL was dissolved in 1992.

history

The story of Houston Summit began when Earl Foreman , the former owner of the two seasons Washington Whips (1967–1968), who also worked as a basketball official, in the fall of 1978, the six-team Major Indoor Soccer League , MISL for short , founded. Since there was only two months until the start of the first season and not all franchises could form a team during this time, two franchises knew how to help each other and began to lease players from the NASL . While the New York Arrows , which existed from 1978 to 1984, used players from the NASL franchise Rochester Lancers , which existed from 1967 to 1980 , but also signed some other players, including indoor soccer legend Slaviša Žungul ( Steve Zungul ), Houston Summit only took up players from Houston Hurricane to. A leasing contract was negotiated, which entitles the newly founded indoor soccer franchise to hire 15 players from Houston Hurricane, as well as the coaching team around head coach Timo Liekoski and assistant coach Jay Hoffman . The name of the franchise was finally taken over from the event center The Summit , also known as Houston Summit , which later became the home ground of the franchise.

The team at the time was still owned by Arena Operating Co. , a private management company that operated the $ 18 million building owned by the City of Houston. The company, under the leadership of Kenneth Schnitzer , another US sports official with an affinity for basketball and ice hockey, showed interest in the indoor soccer franchise above all because Schnitzer's previously supervised Houston Eros ice hockey team with games in the World Hockey Association (WHA) in Summer 1978 was dissolved, and you were now looking for a replacement for the winter game dates in the arena, which succeeded with the takeover of Houston Summit. The president of the arena, Burrell Cohen , appeared as president and GM of the franchise during this period .

1978/79 season

As the first season already showed, the concept of hiring a team worked, as expected, completely. While Houston Summit closed the season with a record of 18 wins and six losses in first place of the regular season, the New York Arrows with their also numerous NASL players and a record of 16 wins and eight defeats ranked second. Meanwhile, the Arrows were able to assert themselves in the subsequent play-offs, a 9: 4 win over the Cincinnati Kids was followed by a 2: 0 win in the final over Philadelphia Fever , Summit was still eliminated in the semifinals with 3: 6 against the latter team from Philadelphia .

With the Finnish international Kai Haaskivi , the franchise also had one of the league's goalscorers on the team, who was behind Fred Grgurev of Philadelphia Fever (74 points) and Steve Zungul of the New York Arrows (68 points) until the end of the regular season 64 scorer points, consisting of 39 goals and 25 assists from 22 games. With Paul Hammond , who alternated with Roland Skinner in goal for the Texans, the team also had the leading goalkeeper in the league. In the awards at the end of the season, Paul Hammond was named MISL Goalkeeper of the Year and field players Kai Haaskivi and Ian Anderson , who even briefly appeared as a goalkeeper in the play-offs, became part of the MISL All-Star (First) Team of elected the year . While Paul Hammond and Stewart Jump were also brought into the MISL Second Team of the Year , trainer Timo Liekoski was also voted MISL Coach of the Year by those responsible . With a total of 43,472 viewers from twelve games and an average of 3,623 visitors, the team was able to mobilize the third most viewers behind Philadelphia Fever and the New York Arrows.

1979/80 season

Even before the following season 1979/80 there was already the first restructuring of the league, which appeared on a total of ten teams in two initially independent divisions, with the New York Arrows, Pittsburgh Spirit , the Buffalo Stallions , Philadelphia Fever and the Hartford Hellions the Atlantic Division and Houston Summit, the Wichita Wings , Detroit Lightning , the St. Louis Steamers, and Cleveland Force made up the Central Division . After the NASL made efforts in the spring of 1979 to found their own indoor soccer league for winter operations, in which the NASL franchise Houston Hurricane also wanted to participate and therefore wanted to nullify the agreement on lending players, the league went with the NASL in November 1979 Indoor 1979/80 at the start. Ten of the 24 NASL franchises initially competed in this; Houston Hurricane was not there, however, suspended for that season and continued to loan its players to MISL franchise Houston Summit, which also started the new season in November 1979. Meanwhile, Arena Operating Co. withdrew from the soccer business and sold the franchise to Bernie Rodin , a co-owner of NASL's Rochester Lancers franchise, for a rumored sum of between $ 500,000 and $ 1,000,000.

The coaching staff was also replaced with the new season. Timo Liekoski said goodbye and a year later he succeeded Hans Kraay at the Edmonton Drillers , while Jay Hoffman stayed with Houston Hurricane for one season and then supported Liekoski in Canada from 1980. As the Finn's successor, Bernie Rodin chose 33-year-old Kenny Cooper senior , father of the future US international and legionnaire Kenny Cooper , who was just a football player himself and thus took on his first job as a coach. On the field, it was similar for the team as in the previous season 1978/79. Houston Summit came in the regular season to a record of 20 wins and twelve losses and thus led the Central Division superior. The end, albeit a tighter one, overtook the franchise again in the play-offs; after a 2-0 win over the Wichita Wings in the division finals , the team was eliminated 5-6 against arch rivals New York Arrows, the regular-time winner of the Atlantic Division , in the championship-winning championship game .

With 87 scorer points, consisting of 51 goals and 36 assists from 27 games, Kai Haaskivi again ranked third behind Steve Zungul (136 points) and Fred Grgurev (104 points) in the league-wide scorer list. Sepp Gantenhammer , who replaced Paul Hammond, who had migrated to league rival Hartford Hellions, in the gate of the MISL franchise at the beginning of the season, was named MISL Goalkeeper of the Year at the end of the season, just like his predecessor . While Kai Haaskivi and Ian Anderson were once again voted MISL All-Star (First) Team of the Year , no Houston Summit player was MISL Second Team of the Year this season ; However, given with Jim Pollihan and Mick Poole two players of the franchise an honorable mention ( honorable mention ). With a total attendance of 33,496 and an average of only 2,094 spectators, Houston Summit had by far the fewest viewers; unmatched: the 224,959 spectators at the St. Louis Steamers. Although the sporting successes were clearly visible, there was no financial success, mainly due to the lack of visitors. Bernie Rodin estimated at the end of the season $ 750,000 in operating losses, which he also took in late March 1980 as an opportunity to relocate the franchise for the upcoming 1980/81 season to the Baltimore Civic Center .

On March 27, 1980, NASL's Houston Hurricane brought charges against Houston Summit Soccer to prevent the indoor soccer franchise from relocating, but Bernie Rodin paid the NASL team $ 94,560 of previously unpaid player rental fees and other costs knew how to prevent. Thus, the move to Baltimore was also legally binding, with the Houston Summit being dissolved in its current form and appearing in the new home as the Baltimore Blast from May 1, 1980 . Later on, Baltimore Blast would prove to be one of the most successful indoor soccer franchises of the 1980s. Bernie Rodin finally sold the team to Nathan Scherr in February 1984 for a rumored $ 2.9 million . Kenny Cooper Sr., who was in charge of Houston Summit last year, moved the franchise to Baltimore and worked there until the franchise was completely dissolved with the dissolution of the MISL in 1992.

successes

MISL Goalkeeper of the Year

MISL All-Star (First) Team of the Year

MISL Second Team of the Year

Honorable Mention

MISL Coach of the Year

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Indoor Soccer Draws Attention in The Hour of April 12, 1979 (English), accessed on February 16, 2016
  2. ↑ Summit Soccer May Leave for Baltimore in The Victoria Advocate of March 28, 1980 (English), accessed on February 16, 2016