1977 Team Hawaii Media Guide from the North American Soccer League

Team Hawaii

North American Soccer League (1977)

Tombstone

Born: October 29, 1976 – The San Antonio Thunder relocate to Honolulu11977 North American Soccer League Guide
Moved: November 15, 1977 (Tulsa Roughnecks)2Chase, Al. “Pro Soccer in Islands Gone with Wind”. The Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI). November 16, 1977

First Game: April 8, 1977 (W 1-0 vs. Seattle Sounders)
Last Game
: August 4, 1977 (L 5-0 @ Seattle Sounders)

Soccer Bowl Championships: None

Stadium

Aloha Stadium (50,000)31977 North American Soccer League Guide
Opened: 1975
Closed: 2020

Branding

Team Colors: Gold, Blue & Green41977 North American Soccer League Guide

Ownership

 

OUR FAVORITE STUFF

Team Hawaii NASL
Logo T-Shirt

According to former Honolulu Star-Bulletin sportswriter Al Chase, Honolulu’s first pro soccer team was known as “Team Hawaii” simply because the club, freshly relocated from San Antonio in early 1977, ran out of time to hold a planned Name The Team contest. 
Also available in women’s scoop neck, V-neck and racerback tank styles from Old School Shirts!

 

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Background

Team Hawaii was a brief entry in the North American Soccer League (1968-1984).  The nomadic franchise lasted just one season at Honolulu’s Aloha Stadium in the summer of 1977 before moving on the greener pastures.

The club began life in 1975 as an expansion franchise in Texas, the San Antonio Thunder (1975-1976).  After two seasons of poor support in West Texas, 32-year old owner Ward Lay Jr. moved his franchise to Hawaii in October 1976.  Lay was the son of Herman Warden Lay, Sr., founder of the Frito-Lay potato chip empire.

Lay, based out of Dallas, was an absentee owner and his club led a star-crossed existence in Hawaii.  It rained during five of the first seven home matches.  Team Hawaii fared poorly under Head Coach Hubert Vogelsinger, finishing out of postseason consideration with an 11-15 record.   Fans stayed away in droves.  Average attendance was just 4,543 per match, which was second worst in the 18-team NASL in 1977.  The ticket sales high point was an April 1977 match against Pele and the New York Cosmos, the NASL’s biggest gate attraction.  Still, the crowd of 12,877 swam in the 50,000-seat expanse of Aloha Stadium.

Move To Tulsa

Shortly after the 1977 concluded, Ward Lay came close to moving Team Hawaii to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  That fell through and Lay moved the club to Tulsa, Oklahoma instead in November 1977.  As the Tulsa Roughnecks, the club played seven seasons in the NASL before folding along with the rest of the league in early 1985.

 

Trivia

Team Hawaii won their debut game 1-0 against the Seattle Sounders on April 8, 1977 before an announced crowd of 5,312 at Aloha Stadium. The teams played to a scoreless draw through regulation and 15 minutes of sudden death overtime. The match was then decided in the NASL’s unique “shootout” format, with five players from each team taking turns attempting to score one-on-one against the opposing goalkeeper in a 35-yard breakaway. Brian Tinnion and Jose Diamantino scored for Team Hawaii while the Sounders missed all of their attempts.

 

Team Hawaii Shop

Editor's Pick

Rock n' Roll Soccer

The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League

by Ian Plenderleith

The North American Soccer League – at its peak in the late 1970s – presented soccer as performance, played by men with a bent for flair, hair and glamour. More than just Pelé and the New York Cosmos, it lured the biggest names of the world game like Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Eusebio, Gerd Müller and George Best to play the sport as it was meant to be played-without inhibition, to please the fans.

The first complete look at the ambitious, star-studded NASL, Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer reveals how this precursor to modern soccer laid the foundations for the sport’s tremendous popularity in America today. 

 

When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

 

 

 

In Memoriam

Team Hawaii owner Ward Lay Jr. passed away from liver cancer at age 66 in October 2011. Dallas Morning News obituary.

 

Links

North American Soccer League Media Guides

North American Soccer League Programs

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Comments

2 Responses

  1. FYI-

    the 1976 soccer game at Aloha Stadium did NOT feature TEAM HAWAII. It was a tripleheader that concluded with the Pele-led Cosmos taking on a club called Team Honda from japan. The first game featured Hawaii all-stars vs. the NASL’s San Diego Jaws. The 2nd game featured teams from Taiwan and (I think) the Philippines. The crowd was actually 22,000, according to the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.

    Thanks.

    1. Yes Pele played twice in Hawaii, the 1976 exhibition and in 1977 with the Cosmos during his final season. Apparently Mr Lay thought he’d be the only game in town, so would draw decent crowds, after the 1976 event drew 22k. He was wrong. Hawaii didn’t have many soccer fans and it failed badly

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