Andy Scores! Vol 3 - Part 4/4: Back to Wichita

Balancing a young family and a difficult road schedule. Andy avoids a pay cut. A return to the Wings.

To read Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Volume 3, click here, here, and here.

To read Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Volume 2, click here, here, and here.

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The following is Andy Chapman, in his own words:

“The Baltimore Blast really took care of me. It was a very memorable time. Kenny Cooper was a great coach, as was Roy [Turner]. And I liked the fact that they had a bit of a rivalry. They had some great players: Stan Stamenkovic, Richard Chinipoo, Keith Van Eron. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Baltimore, and we were successful on the field. So, I signed a two year contract: 1986-87 and 1987-88.

Stamenkovic was incredible. Practices at Baltimore were very tough. Kenny ran a very tight ship. We did two-a-days for a good couple months. We’d come to training at 10am and go to 12:40 and were back at 3pm. That went on for a long time. Pattie was home with the baby and obviously I’ve got to do my job. But it’s pretty tough being in a city where you don’t know anyone and have no family. And we had a newborn and dealing with what comes with that.

Unlike most franchises at the time, when we were going away for a game we’d go two days before. And then we actually went to Minnesota and played a game on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day. And Thanksgiving we spent in St. Louis. We had a game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and he took us there for four or five days. Whenever we’d go to the West Coast we’d go two days prior. It’s pretty much like it is today, but Kenny must have been way ahead of his time.

So, it was a full, full, full-time job. Most professional clubs at the time, you do your 2.5 hours in the morning, you are off every afternoon. In the preseason you’ll have double sessions. But once the season started you’d be going in the morning and then are off in the afternoon. Then the day of the game you only come in for an hour, do a bit of stretching, sleep all afternoon, play the game, off the next day.

Suddenly with Kenny, if you are going to play a game on a Saturday, you leave on a Thursday and come back on a Sunday. So, it was a little bit different. I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong. But you also have the worries of your home life. Are you doing your part to take care of your child?

So we go into the 1987-88 season and again, in May, they implemented another salary cap. But this time, what was different, they were wanting me to sign another contract. One of the owners, Stuart Weitzman, he was a big fan of mine, and they never touched my money. They took 30% off across the board from all the players but never touched my money. They kept paying me because I said I would sign another contract with them. So I made sure I got May, June, and July’s money.

I was keeping my options open and then saw that Terry Nicholl got the job in Wichita. And we spoke. It was a good two years, but I knew that at the end of that second season, I was ready to move from there. And I thought, if we are all getting a little less in pay, I might as well play where I enjoy it. So I went back to Wichita.

I couldn’t announce it or say it too quick because I was still trying to get full pay on the season before. In that 1986-87 season, John Kerr walked into the locker room and gives me an envelope. It was the $37,000, which was the money that Cleveland hadn’t paid me. The union was able to get that money off the Weinsteins, as did quite a few of the players that were affected by them taking 30%.

Terry and I were teammates in the early ‘80s. So we had a lot of experiences together, good and bad. Most of the guys knew that he was the coach and the leader. We were professionals and we had to do a job for him. I enjoyed Terry a lot.”

Andy Chapman played with the Wichita Wings again until 1990, when he and his wife Pattie moved back to her hometown of Detroit. With the exception of three games in the year 2000 with the Detroit Neon, Andy Chapman retired in 1996 after spending his last six seasons with the Detroit Rockers of the NPSL and the aforementioned Neon of the CISL. Chapman’s connection with the fans impacted people for decades.

In retirement, Chapman created a youth soccer organization, the Birmingham United Football Club, in the suburbs of Detroit. His connection to kids had always been strong. Christy Roberts, an elementary school student in Wichita in the 1980s, recalled a random meeting with her childhood hero back then. It was a moment that she would never forget.

“One evening my mom and I were at the old Garfield’s restaurant and Andy was there and we got to talking about school stuff. He taught me how to remember the Great Lakes...H-O-M-E-S: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. I have never forgotten that,” Roberts said.

“H-O-M-E-S: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior! I don’t coach anymore, but when we used to scrimmage [with my youth teams], I said I was going to give the ball to the most intelligent team. I’d ask, ‘What’s the capital of _______ and pick a country.’ I had kids that learned every single capital. They started making me look in books for countries they didn’t know about!” Chapman said.