MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut [Part 4/4]
MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut [Part 4/4]
A Rousing Debut As Pete Rose Kicks It Off in Long Island
For the first three installments of “MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut,” click here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Dec. 22, 1978 loomed large on everyone’s calendar.
In Cincinnati, Pete Rose helped the Kids capture the media’s attention. Even though Rose had recently switched to the Philadelphia Phillies, part of his heart (and wallet) stayed in Cincinnati.
“If it’s good for Cincinnati, I want it. … It’s exciting, isn’t it? I watch the German soccer games on Saturday nights, and our game’s going to be more exciting, more scoring,” Rose said.
Rose embodied the Neil Armstrong/Lewis and Clark spirit that Doug Verb extolled in Ed Tepper and Earl Foreman. The Kids wouldn’t last long in the new league, but it wouldn’t be because Rose refused to take a risk.
“We’re pioneers. We’re trying to start something, and I’m excited about it,” Rose told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Peter King.
The newspaper coverage must have pleased the MISL’s front office. And because he was THE Pete Rose, people paid attention. It didn’t hurt that Rose brought his folksy wit to every press conference.
“Rose…noted that some soccer purists might say the indoor version is ‘just a pinball game,’ but that ‘Hey, the pinball business is about No. 2 in this country. You can’t get into them pinball parlors,’” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported him saying.
The MISL was determined to get the most out of their celebrity owner in Cincinnati. That meant putting the Kids in the league’s very first game against the New York Arrows. It made sense to open in the country’s largest media market, even if it was on Long Island. And the Arrows had the league’s new star, Shep Messing. Or at least, it appeared that Messing would be that guy. Though they didn’t know it yet, the Arrows had just signed the man who would become the greatest indoor player of all-time: the Lord of All Indoor, if you will. The Dec. 12 article in Newsday was tiny.
“Slavisa (Steve) Zungul, who plays for Hajduk Split, was scheduled to arrive from Yugoslavia today to complete an agreement to play with the Arrows,” Derrick Jackson wrote.
The Arrows had the youngest general manager in major league sports. At only 28 years old, Michael Menchel had been thrust into a leadership role after three years working for George Allen and his Washington Redskins.
“A man named Bernie Rodin called me up and said they are starting this indoor soccer league, and we are going to get the New York franchise. ‘Can I hire you as a consultant to come to the first league meeting?’” Menchel recalled.
Within a few months his consultancy transformed into a much better role after Rodin and his partner John Luciani offered Menchel the title of “general manager.” Menchel had little experience, but then again, nobody had any experience managing an indoor soccer team. That quickly became clear.
“We are literally putting, where the NY Islanders play, AstroTurf product right on top of the ice for the first time. I remember walking on it and it was so cold,” Menchel said.
The Pittsburgh Spirit discovered the same problem. In Pittsburgh, it would result in bubbling and sliding on the ice. Soon, teams learned to lay down insulating boards, which is still done today across the country.
Menchel knew the league needed that first game to shine. And then fate presented him with an opportunity.
“…The Cincinnati team wanted one of our players. … They said, ‘What do you want for him?’ I said, ‘I want Pete Rose to kick out the first ball.’ The GM said, ‘Is that all you want?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ So, he said ‘Sure,’” Menchel said.
It would be a nice coup for the league.
The day had arrived. It had been almost five years since Ed Tepper got gobsmacked by the Philadelphia Atoms versus Moscow Red Army game at the Philadelphia Spectrum. The conception indeed led to a birth. Who knew what exactly, but something was about to emerge out of the womb. And Michael Menchel was nervous as hell.
“His palms were sweaty and he spoke in half-sentences,” Newsday’s Don Markus reported.
He had reason to be nervous. The Arrows, despite what Menchel described as a decent amount of print advertising, had to “paper the house,” a term used to describe giving out tons of free tickets to make it look like a great crowd. Nonetheless, the media actually showed up, despite Verb’s warning to Tepper and Foreman that they hated soccer. Even The New York Times came all the way out to Uniondale.
And fans showed up to buy tickets at game time, despite the wheelbarrows full of free tickets.
“It was an hour before opening night and the lines by the ticket windows went 15 deep and three across,” Newsday reported.
At the airport, Pete Rose arrived on a private plane. Menchel described him appearing at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum “in a leather jacket, collared shirt, [and] casual slacks.” When Rose kicked out the first ball, a rocket-red and black ball, he didn’t likely know that the reason it was such a bright color was to stand out on TVs around the country. Sure, since the game wasn’t televised, these were theoretical TV sets, but Tepper and Foreman hoped they would soon be much more real.
“The new league arrived with a strong first breath. Players walked with puffed-up chests. The announced crowd of 10,386 was so charged up that it booed Pete Rose…” Newsday’s Derrick Jackson wrote.
Rose, ever competitive, got into the game just like, or maybe even more than, the rest of the crowd.
“He jumped up and down when his club scored, and when he thought a penalty should have been called he started to yell at the referee. He gives anything he’s a part of everything he’s got,” Earl Foreman told Newsday’s Joe Gergen.
Like most big shows, it was an eleventh-hour production of getting everything ready to go just in the nick of time, according to Menchel. But the game gave the MISL a good start. On the field, the Arrows and their foreign-born squad dominated; though an American, the Arrows Jim Pollihan, had the honor of scoring the first goal in league history. Zungul showed the league what was to come.
“Zungul…scored four times with kicks so quick that he was an instant advertisement for the game,” wrote Jackson.
The outmatched American-born Kids broke down by the third quarter, said Jackson. They would lose 7-2. Messing predicted that teams would try to neutralize the skill of the Arrows with physical play. The St. Louis Steamers would later epitomize that strategy.
It couldn’t have gone better for the new league: a big crowd in the biggest market in the country, a celebrity appearance, screaming fans, and nobody broke their ankle on the hidden ice.
“On a scale of 1-10, I’d rate it a 10,” Ed Tepper told Newsday.
More importantly, the public seemed to enjoy it.
“I’ve seen it on a youth level and I think it’s really exciting, a lot of goals. I think many people came tonight because of that,” said Henry Loeffler, a police officer from Huntington.
The youth agreed.
“It’s different, it’s wild…This game is geared to the sports fan,” said Pasquale LaManna, a freshman soccer player at Adelphi.
Newsday’s Don Markus found a female non-sports fan that would come to epitomize much of the growth in the popularity of indoor soccer over the coming years:
“Pat Eschweiei…does not understand football. She hardly watches basketball. Last night, she loved indoor soccer. ‘It’s exciting. I think it’s a good game, a lot like hockey. I don’t know anything about soccer but I’m enjoying this.’”
But The News presaged what would become a long-running undercurrent in the league:
“The game was the New York opening of the latest offspring from the marriage of show biz and sport, but the MISL may well send soccer purists running for cover,” a staff member wrote.
The indoor field’s length was less than the WIDTH of an outdoor pitch. The game was confining, literally; the players boxed in by boards. The clock ran down, not up. Substitutions were free and frequent. It was something brand-new…and horrifying to some soccer purists.
“This will not be soccer as the rest of the world knows it,” The News opined.
Would it matter?
“The very first week, Earl and I are flying from game to game. We had six different dates for our openers. We did all right in Cincinnati. We did all right in Pittsburgh. The third one was Philadelphia, and we are hearing they are selling tons of tickets. We literally fly over the Spectrum—the airport’s pretty close—and this might not be true at all, but I swear that I looked down and saw a line around the Spectrum. And it turned out that we sold it out. In my hometown, Philly, that happening, it was like, ‘Oh my God this is just amazing,’” Doug Verb said.
Selected Bibliography
Chere, Rich. “The Major Indoor Soccer Pipe Dream.” The News (Paterson, New Jersey). November 18, 1977. Page 35
Gergen, Joe. “Rose Takes a Header Into Pro Indoor Soccer.” Newsday (Suffolk Edition). December 24, 1978. Page 138.
Gola, Hank. “Major Indoor Soccer League In the Works.” The Herald-News. November 11, 1977. Page 22.
Hanlon, Tim, host. “EPISODE #61: Sports Promoter Doug Verb.” Good Seats Still Available (podcast). May 12, 2018. https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/listen/2018/5/12/episode-61-sports-promoter-doug-verb
Hanlon, Tim, host. “EPISODE #103: MISL Indoor Soccer's Origin Story – With Co-Founder Ed Tepper.” Good Seats Still Available (podcast). March 9, 2019. https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/listen/2019/3/9/episode-103-the-major-indoor-soccer-leagues-origin-story-with-co-founder-ed-tepper
Hanlon, Tim, host. “EPISODE #24: Soccer “Renaissance Man” Dr. Joe Machnik.” Good Seats Still Available (podcast). August 20, 2017. https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/listen/2017/8/20/episode-24-soccer-renaissance-man-dr-joe-machnik
Hanlon, Tim, host. “EPISODE #15: MISL Memories With Michael Menchel.” Good Seats Still Available (podcast). June 17, 2017. https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/listen/2017/6/17/episode-15-misl-memories-with-michael-menchel
Hoffman, Karen. “Indoor Soccer…” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. August 3, 1978. Page 55.
Jackson, Derrick. “A Fast Friend of Indoor Soccer.” Newsday (Nassau Edition). December 12, 1978. Page 105.
Jackson, Derrick. “Arrows Reach Their First Target.” Newsday (Suffolk Edition). December 23, 1978. Page 25.
Jasner, Phil. “NASL Infringing?” Philadelphia Daily News. May 6, 1978. Page 35.
King, Peter. “Indoor Soccerites Sell Americanism.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. December 3, 1978. Page 34.
King, Peter. “Cincinnati Kid Owner Rose One Excited Kid About Sport.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. December 3, 1978. Page 34.
Kolinsky, Bohdan. “Indoor League Eyes U.S. Talent.” Hartford Courant. November 17, 1977. Page 80.
Markus, Don. “Despite a Slow Start, Fans Seem to Like It.” Newsday (Suffolk Edition). December 23, 1978. Page 26.
Musick, Phil. “Launching MISL On 5 Grand, Prayer.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 9, 1977. Page 12 and 14.
Nelson, Robert T. “Kemper Suggested As a Place to Put Down a Rug for Soccer.” The Kansas City Star. January 25, 1978. Page 3.
Panaccio, Tim. “Arena Rolls New Carpet for Spirit.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 2, 1978. Page 10.
Paolercio, Michael. “Cincinnati Lands Soccer Franchise.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. October 4, 1978. Page 18.
Ratto, Ray. “Messing to Play in East.” The San Francisco Examiner. November 16, 1978. Page 68.
Staff. “Soccer at the Coliseum?” The Akron Beacon Journal. November 11, 1977. Page 14.
Staff. “Sports in Brief.” The Naples Daily News. March 16, 1978. Page 26.
Staff. “Indoor Soccer Team to be Called Spirit.” The Pittsburgh Press. Jul 27, 1978. Page 38.
Staff. “For the Record.” Tampa Bay Times. November 15, 1978. Page 10.
Staff. “Cincinnati Kids Sign First Player Van Eron.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. December 1, 1978. Page 18.
Staff. “Investor Rose Likes Soccer, But His Knees Belong to Ruly.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. December 20, 1978. Page 26.
Staff. “Arrows Victors In Opener.” The News (Paterson, New Jersey). December 23, 1978. Page 50.
Tepper, Ed. Interview by Tim O’Bryhim. December 7, 2023.
Tepper, Ed. Text message to Tim O’Bryhim. December 26, 2023.