Tigers Come from Liverpool - Part 4 - The Finale

Kevin Kewley makes his mark on the NASL and then transitions to Wichita and indoor soccer.

Here are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this story…

Kevin Kewley’s first season as a wholly-owned Tornado player built on his previous success. Only Jeff Bourne, Steve Pecher, and George Ley played more minutes. Like Kewley, these three players would also go on to great success in the MISL. In the meantime, he was honing his craft in Dallas. Kewley was third on the team in assists and added two goals over the course of the season.

But the Tornado struggled on the field, especially compared to their 18-8 finish the previous season. The 14-16 record in 1978 did not satisfy coach Al Miller. In the offseason, the team added a bevy of Geman players. Gert Trinklein, Willie Lippens, Wolfgang Rausch, and Ede Wolf came aboard and changed the personality of the team. Kewley saw his minutes decrease. With fewer English players, an English captain didn’t fit, he said.

“Kevin had a hard time dealing with that German mentality,” Roy Turner said.

Turner had pivoted to a new career in coaching. After a pair of exhibitions in Wichita, Kansas, he was offered the head coaching job with the Wichita Wings, a new franchise in the year-old Major Indoor Soccer League. He had his eye on several former teammates with the Tornado, including Kewley.

“The [NASL] was on the demise and the future was indoors. I had the benefit of knowing [Kewley] personally. He was one of my best signings ever. He was a great addition,” Turner said.

Turner would eventually sign an astounding eight players from the 1979 Dallas Tornado roster, including Kewley, George Ley, Jimmy Ryan, Jeff Bourne, and Omar Gomez.

“Al Miller told me he had some offers for me, but Roy wanted to buy me to come to the Wings. I said I’d rather go there because Jimmy Ryan and Mooch [Glenn Myernick] and all the Tornado players were going there,” Kewley said.

Charlie Cooke, the great Scottish international, and future Wichita Wings coach, wanted Kewley to play in Memphis with the NASL’s Rogues. But he had little confidence in that league.

“At that time, teams were folding week by week. Owners were selling their players and bailing out. So I just decided to go play indoor. It was a big chance. And I was only 23 or 24. I can still go back and play in England if I want to,” Kewley said.

Kewley’s father had died years before and his mother passed while he was with the Tornado. Though Turner wasn’t exactly a father figure, he was like an older brother. So Kewley followed his “family” to Wichita. Transitioning from friend to coach could have strained such a relationship.

“It was hard for me with a lot of players. Six or seven of the guys I had literally played with as a player. They were kind enough to respect me as a coach and listen to me, but it was hard for me,” Turner said.

But Kewley and Turner continued their effective collaboration. Kewley captained Turner’s Wings to great success throughout the first half of the 1980s. Only one player, Jimmy Ryan, scored more points in their first season with the Wings. In the 1980-81 season, Kewley was second on the team in both scoring and total points. Two perennial MISL all-stars, Andy Chapman and Jorgen Kristensen, exceed him in those two categories, respectively. The league recognized Kewley in 1981-82 with an All-MISL Second Team nod.

Kewley’s success on the field came with a reputation for toughness and fiery competitiveness.

“But don’t ever mess with Kevin. All his niceness went out the window all of a sudden on the pitch sometimes,” Turner said.

Yet, when you meet Kewley in person, he very much comes across as a mild-mannered human being bereft of an overinflated ego. Over time, many professional athletes, especially ones who have achieved a significant degree of success, become unfamiliar with the concept of humility. Not Kewley.

“He was such a regular guy, which was why he was so well-liked,” Turner said.

But Kewley’s good nature would be tested in the 1983-84 season.

“I had a bad injury in 1984 or so, and I was never the same after that,” Kewley said.

Kewley realized he had to change the way he approached the game of soccer.

“There was a guy from Chicago that I’d never had a problem with. But after my injury, he turned me. And I couldn’t get near him. After the game, I was like, ‘Holy shit,” Kewley said, “I started to use my brain. I had to step off these guys. I can’t get tight. I was smart enough to do that and it bought me four or five more years.”

Turner and Kewley echoed each other when asked about his injury:

“There were a couple times when Roy had to leave me out of the lineup. I think it was tough for him. He still trusted me, but I wasn’t the same, physically,” Kewley said.

My interview with Turner produced a nearly identical answer:

“It was tough to leave him out of the lineup. It’s tough to tell anyone they are not playing. In his case, I was really sad because we had been so close for so long. … It was very difficult seeing him on the bench after our experiences together,” Turner said.

Even though Kewley’s physical ability declined, his importance to the team continued. When the Danish star Jorgen Kristensen had a nightmare first half in Memphis during the playoffs, Turner turned to Kewley for his take on the problem.

“I remember George Ley, the assistant, and Roy pulled me over, saying, ‘We have to do something here.’ We all came to the same conclusion. We had to take Jorgen out of the lineup. Well, Jorgen went berserk. Roy wrote the changes on the board at halftime, and Jorgen took off his stuff off and threw it down,” Kewley said.

Kewley’s advice proved prescient. Though they lost the game, they would win the series.

Though Turner was fully capable of coaching a team on his own, Kewley served as a trusted advisor. He could approach a player as a colleague in ways a head coach could not.

“You think about all the people with strong personalities on the team, and if something was going wrong, one of us could go to Roy and explain that this was not working. Kim [Roentved} used to tell me all the time, ‘Kev, we need to do this or that.’ I’d say, ‘Ok, let’s go to Roy,’” Kewley said.

One of the strongest of the strong personalities was Seamus McDonagh. The Irish international and English Premier League vet came to the Wings after the departure of the great Welsh goalie Mike Dowler. He clashed with numerous Wings players and staff members, but Kewley happened to be one of the few souls who could reason with him.

“He would stand there and refuse to practice. I remember sitting down with Seamus, saying, ‘This is not worth it.’ He was giving Roy shit. That was the type of thing where I stepped in to help,” Kewley said.

When I raised the issue of McDonagh, Turner couldn’t help but laugh.

“A ‘handful’ is not even close to describing him. But Kevin got along with him so I’d ask him to have a word with Seamus because I thought it would come better from Kevin’s mouth than mine. And Kevin would do it in his own way. And that relationship worked well,” Turner said.

Turner playing backup keeper Jan Oleson ahead of him was among the many things that enraged McDonagh. In his native Denmark, Oleson had once worked as a postal worker.

“I remember one time Roy picked Olesen over Seamus. Seamus would say, ‘There’s no fucking postman that will play over me.’ I’d tell Seamus, ‘He’s playing brilliant, how can we not play him?’” Kewley said, chuckling.

After the 1985-86 season, Turner moved up to team president, with Charlie Cooke taking over as head coach. Cooke’s tumultuous year-and-a-half tenure ended on January 30, 1988, when Turner replaced him with former Wings player Terry Nicholl. Kewley stepped in as assistant coach, while continuing to play on the field as well.

“Roy called me in and said, ‘Terry Nicholl is coming in as coach and he wants you to be his assistant.’ At the time, I was 34 or 35, so I agreed. Terry came in the next day. He was a breath of fresh air. He was happy and gave everyone a boost. Charlie wasn’t so happy. But Charlie was the best one-on-one coaches I’d ever seen,” Kewley said.

Kewley retired at the end of the 1989-90 season, devoting himself fully to the assistant coach position under Nicholl. His MISL career spanned 407 games, with Kewley scoring 119 goals and accumulating 133 assists.

But when Turner and the team’s ownership fired Nicholl early in 1991 after a poor start to the season, Kewley lost his job as well. The owners asked Turner to come back to the bench and lead the team. He chose to bring in Kim Roentved as his assistant.

Naturally, this was a dark period for Turner and Kewley’s friendship. How could it not be?

“I didn’t see Roy for awhile after that. They did a retirement thing for me at the Olive Tree. I remember telling my ex-wife, ‘I don’t even want to go to this thing.’ I kind of felt like I had to go, but I wasn’t keen on doing it. Roy and I barely spoke then,” Kewley said.

Turner praised the way Kewley handled the situation.

“He was one of the few people that didn’t sit around moping,” Turner said.

But by 1994, Kewley was back as assistant coach under Roentved. Soon, it was Turner that faced termination. In 1996, the man who personified the Wichita Wings since 1979 was fired by the Wings new owners. Roentved and Kewley were left to run the team without Roy Turner.

Turner departed to the American South in 1997 to attempt to grow indoor soccer there with a new league: The Eastern Indoor Soccer League. He would spend time in Georgia before becoming general manager of the Mississippi Beach Kings. Kewley went to visit his old friend.

“We were good after that,” Kewley said.

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“When I got divorced, the first thing Roy said was, ‘Come move in with me.’ He was great to be around, and he’d do anything for you. He used to joke that we were the Lonely Hearts Club,” Kewley remembered.

For Turner, it was a no-brainer.

“Having been divorced myself, and realizing we are family, and we have to rely on each other. It was natural for me to reach out to him in a time of hardship,” Turner said.

Today, Turner and Kewley lived 50 yards from each other. Kewley said that he and Turner continue to rely on each other. Each is willing to do anything for the other.

Kevin Kewley, former Wings star LeBaron Hollimon, and Roy Turner.

“That was Kevin’s first real friend in the US. They’ve settled into a very easy friendship. They both know that the other one is nearby. Either one of them would be willing to take a bullet for the other one. I think Roy taught a lot to Kevin about coaching and how to deal with people, and being semi-famous,” said Jennifer Kewley, Kevin’s wife.

These days, the two men seem more like family than friends.

“Kevin and Kim [Roentved] are family. We do use the word ‘love’ to each other,” Turner said.

Roy Turner, now 81 years old, has retired from running the Wichita Open, a professional golf tournament and must-attend party of the year in Wichita, Kansas (thanks to Roy). Kewley still coaches college soccer at Pratt Community College, but at 69, is approaching retirement himself. Neither man has any regrets about their indoor soccer journey.

“I’ve been lucky to have Kevin as a part of my life. … The thing we always say to each other: ‘Aren’t we lucky to live in America.’ We talk about Liverpool and people talk about England to us. People always say it’s beautiful over there, but nobody has any idea how blessed they are to live in America. The minute I came over, I said, ‘This is where I wanted to be,” Turner said.

Soccer in America is better for it.