MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut [Part 3/4]
MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut [Part 3/4]
The MISL Finds a PR man, a Chief Referee, and What They Hope is an American Star Player
For the first two installments of “MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut,” click here: Part 1 and Part 2.
“We knew we had to go out and get the best American player, who was Shep Messing. Earl and I signed him. He didn’t know what team he was going to play for, but we signed him. … Shep was a great diplomat for indoor soccer. He loved the game, and he was great at the game,” MISL co-founder Ed Tepper said.
In mid-November 1978, Messing would sign a contract with the MISL’s New York Arrows, based at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Messing made his name as the hotshot young goalkeeper for the New York Cosmos, where he played with Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia.
The handsome Messing captured the hearts of many a young fan. His appearance in Viva magazine excited other body parts as well. Unfortunately, Messing’s nude centerfold photo resulted in him being cut from the team. It was deemed a violation of the “morals contract.” He would eventually return to the Cosmos after a stint with the Boston Minutemen.
His signing, the dollar amount described by the San Francisco Examiner as “undisclosed but probably lucrative,” was a coup for the MISL. Messing’s NASL team at the time, the short-lived Oakland Stompers, didn’t object.
“I talked with [Stompers owner] Milan [Mandaric] and I told him I was signing. And he doesn’t mind as long as I’m ready for the outdoor season. The MISL season ends in March, and my contract with New York releases me on March 1. If we make the playoffs, I’ll fly in for the games. I’ll play in both leagues if I can, but if I have to choose, I’ll cross that in time,” Messing told the San Francisco Examiner.
Meanwhile, weeks before the Dec. 22, 1978 league-opening game, Peter King of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported a ramp-up of the rhetoric regarding both the NASL and Americans’ role in the new league.
“Soccer is not an American sport. The NASL has been giving lip service to playing Americans. That’s baloney. You can’t, by artificial insemination, make soccer an American sport,” Earl Foreman told King.
With each passing month, the relationship between the MISL and the NASL appeared to be less and less of a friendly rivalry and more of a fight to the metaphorical death. And the focus on Americans by MISL and team officials was relentless.
“We are not interested in foreign players. All things being equal, I would sign an American player over a foreign player,” said Pittsburgh Spirit owner Jim Mihalke.
If Mihalke really meant that, he must have eventually regretted it. American-born players composed 13 of the 22 players that played for the Spirit that first season. They went 6-18 and finished second to last in the league. The next year, the Spirit saw the light: the majority of their players were now foreign-born. Those players would score 303 of the team’s 349 points that season. The Spirit finished 18-14, won a playoff series, and lost to the eventual league champion in the semifinals.
Tepper and Foreman realized they needed someone to lead their public relations efforts and help build up new franchises. Tepper decided to turn to a familiar voice from an earlier phone conversation.
“It was Friday the 13th… It was my birthday. I go in and catch a quick nap and the phone rings and it’s Ed [Tepper] again. He’s all excited: ‘We’ve got our sixth franchise, and we’ll want you to join us.’ I said, ’Join you at what? I have to cover the [New Jersey] Nets tonight,’” Doug Verb said.
Two days later, Verb went to his sports editor and turned in his resignation. The editor told Verb not to bother giving two weeks’ notice: he could leave right then and there. So, Verb started at the MISL the next day…not that he had a lot of hope for the young league.
“Forward-looking thinker that I was, I talked it over with my then-wife, and thought it was going to fold within a year. I thought this was going to go down the drain like all the other alphabet [leagues]. But I figured I was a pretty good reporter, a little better editor; I can always get another job,” Verb said.
In the league office, it was just Verb, Ed Tepper, Earl Foreman, and Dr. Joe Machnik, a respected soccer expert. This foursome would attempt to turn the MISL into America’s fifth major league sport.
“Thank goodness there was a soccer guy in the room. So, we just made things up. We had one thing that we said: it has to fit in a two-hour window for television. We built everything around that,” Verb said.
Going from being a reporter to helping run a sports league seemed like a big leap for a young reporter. Why did Verb do it?
“It was something new and different. And I was an idiot,” Verb quipped.
Though Verb shaped the structure of indoor soccer’s format, he left the rulemaking to Machnik, the league’s referee-in-chief. Machnik would train the MISL’s referees while also refereeing 150 to 200 games himself, including the league’s first. He created timed penalties, established timeouts, and threw in a penalty box.
“The NASL had a rulebook for their exhibition tournaments that they ran. I took that rulebook and modified it greatly. They had a rule that if something happens in the game that’s not mentioned, the outdoor rule applies,” Machnik said. “As we refereed in that first year there was so much that happened that wasn’t in the rulebook. We were constantly rewriting it and sending out bulletins by fax. We were kind of making it up as we went along, Indiana Jones-style,” Machnik said.
Machnik found himself in a situation few officials/referees/umpires had ever encountered. Baseball umpires, football referees, and, heck, every other soccer referee in the world only had to worry about enforcing existing rules. Invention-on-the-fly would get those guys fired.
“What happens if one player from each team goes into the box and one team scores a goal? Does the player come out? All these things were hockey stuff that I had to put into the rules that were non-existent previous to that,” Machnik said.
It now seems remarkable, but at the beginning of the league’s existence, the MISL had only one referee on the floor during each game. There was an official off the floor at the midfield line and two goal judges, but the referee on the floor had to cover the entire pitch by himself.
“If you could referee indoors in the MISL then you could referee anywhere because you were making a decision every three seconds,” Machnik said.
(TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK)
Coming Next Week: Part 4/4 of MISL 1977-78: From Concept to Debut…
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.