The Tulsa Tornado's were a professional outdoor soccer team from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They played in the 2nd division United Soccer League during the partially completed 1985 season.
The team was created when the owner of the Oklahoma City Stampede, David Fraser, announced that he was moving the franchise to Tulsa and changing their name in December 1984. [1] The previous September, the North American Soccer League's Tulsa Roughnecks had announced that they were folding, and Fraser may have been hoping to take advantage of a fairly well-established fanbase that had enjoyed a championship run just one year prior. [2] Before the team could begin playing in Tulsa, though, the landscape of the league and city changed drastically. The USL cancelled an indoor season planned for the winter of 1984/85, and in February a last-ditch set of USL/NASL merger discussions that hoped to bring a financial boost to the USL and a boost in membership to the flagging NASL ended without an agreement. In short order the NASL announced that there would be no 1985 outdoor season, and six of the nine USL teams either ended operations or withdrew from the league. Only Dallas and Fort Lauderdale (renamed South Florida) along with an expansion team in El Paso/Juarez joined Tulsa to attempt the USL's 1985 outdoor season. [3] Further compounding the challenges of attracting fans and sponsors in a new town on short notice, the Roughnecks' former general manager, Noel Lemon, announced in January that he had been authorized to revive the Roughnecks for the 1985 NASL season. When the NASL was unable to get enough teams on board to carry on, the "new" Roughnecks announced a 20-game exhibition schedule that was to start in the same month as the USL season, leaving the city of Tulsa with two hastily assembled and underfunded clubs competing for the attention of the town's soccer fans. [4]
The USL re-arranged its schedule to open with a six-game "USL Cup" (with each team playing the other three in a home-and-home series) beginning in late May to be followed by a twelve-game regular season. During the six games of the Cup series, reports emerged of the Tornado's falling behind on rent payments at their home field, Skelly Stadium, as well as missing payroll for the coaches and players. [5] The unpaid players refused to take the field for a June 6 home game and June 8 road game. [6] [7] Following these forfeits, coach Brian Harvey resigned and some players began to take their leave. New investors led by Jimbo Elrod and Sammie Jo Cole engaged in discussions with the league to take over principal ownership, and the Tornado's did travel to Fort Lauderdale (albeit with a "substantially different" roster) to compete in the final game of the Cup round on June 15. However, the 1-0 loss would be their final match. [8] The regular season opener scheduled for June 22 was cancelled (sources differ as to whether this was due to unpaid rent at the stadium or another walkout by unpaid players), and a few days later creditors foreclosed on the USL and locked officials out of their offices. The season was suspended on June 25. Elrod backed off his investment plan, which likely would have moved the team to Oklahoma City, when the league suspended operations. [9]
| Place | 1985 League Cup | GP | W | T | L | GF | GA | % | Avg. Att. [10] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Florida Sun | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 8 | .667 | 2,195 |
| 2 | Dallas Americans | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 9 | .500 | 2,400 |
| 3 | Tulsa Tornados | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 7 | .500 | 500 |
| 4 | El Paso/Juarez Gamecocks | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 15 | .333 | 1,430 |
| USL Rank | Scorer | GP | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Zequinha | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| USL Rank | Player | GP | W–L | Min | SH | SV | SO | GA | GAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delroy Allen | 5 | 3–2 | 434 | 60 | 17 | 0 | 6 | 1.24 |
Delroy Allen; 5 Apps 0 Goals
Ricardo Alonso [11] 
Mike Connell [12] 
John Dolinsky Winston DuBose [12] 
Däniel Johansson; 6 Apps 3 Goals Peter Knezic Art Kramer Jim Millinder 
Neil Ridgeway Bill Sautter Steve Sharp [11] Don Tobin [13] Tim Tyma 
Thompson Usiyan Scott Westbrook [14] 
Zequinha; 4 Apps 1 Goal
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the United States. The league final was called the Soccer Bowl from 1975 to 1983 and the Soccer Bowl Series in its final year, 1984. The league was headed by Commissioner Phil Woosnam from 1969 to 1983. The NASL laid the foundations for soccer in the United States that helped lead to the country hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the set-up of Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1996.
Fort Lauderdale Sun was a U.S. soccer team which played two seasons in the United Soccer League. In 1984, the team was known as the Fort Lauderdale Sun. Before the 1985 season they changed their name to the South Florida Sun.
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