The Southern Hemisphere's Supermercado Project (blog) has painstakingly made sense of the best and worst sports logos of all time this week. Though the Tulsa Roughnecks made the worst-logo list, if you look at it again, it's easy to see where the SupPro is coming from. The FBO adopts this post.One thing the NASL -- the North American Soccer League -- got right in the late 1970s that the MSL seems to miss on is how propaganda can help sell tickets. When the Roughnecks surprisingly showed up in Tulsa -- guys with long hair and accents -- the kids paid attention. I was at Stevenson Elementary when one player in uniform and a coach showed up at school to plug the game. Soon our first grade in a small school had TWO teams' worth of players (the Dallas Cowboy Tornadoes, and the Detroit Lions Hurricanes). I played for the latter, which was doomed from the start. You only have to look at the name -- Hurricanes -- to see this was made of the leftovers. Tornadoes tear up the region, the last hurricane to hit Oklahoma was when prehistoric seas ebbed south from Canada into present-day Kansas. How about Pirates?, as we were a Stevenson team? I played fullback where the worst kids were sent. I remember once in Bixby swatting a ball with my hand in front of the goal; they scored on the penalty kick.
The Roughnecks played at the University of Tulsa's Skelly Stadium from 1978 to 1984, winning the Soccer Bowl against Toronto in Vancouver in their second-to-last season. I like the beauty of championship to bankruptcy over a single year. Most of our games there was spent sliding down the hill on refrigerator boxes that someone had been wise enough to bring. Then we did laps around the outside of the stadium. I don't recall seeing a goal ever made.
Two goals:
The FBO is considering adopting the Roughnecks.
FBO Admin
Mobile/Semi-Permanent HQ -- Brooklyn, NY
1 comment:
"I remember once in Bixby swatting a ball with my hand in front of the goal; they scored on the penalty kick."
Yeah, I remember that, too. Damn ye!
Post a Comment