Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977-1983)
The original Fort Lauderdale Strikers were an entertaining soccer club that made their home for seven seasons in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale aggressively sought Major League sports during the mid-1970’s. The city nearly poached the NBA’s Buffalo Braves in 1976 and courted several World Hockey Association clubs to play at the crummy Hollywood Sportatorium. But ultimately soccer was the game that alighted in Broward County in 1977. And it was the 7,800-seat city-owned Lockhart Stadium, rather than the oft-jilted Sportatorium, that would host the city’s first Major pro sports franchise. At their peak, the Strikers employed international superstars and World Cup veterans such as George Best, Gordon Banks Gerd Muller and Teofilo Cubillas. In 1980, the Strikers played for the NASL Soccer Bowl, losing in the final to the New York Cosmos before 50,000 fans in Washington, D.C. The Strikers name would be revived in Fort Lauderdale on several occasions, but the 1977-1983 NASL club was the original and best edition.
