Tulsa_Tornados
Tulsa Tornados
American professional soccer team
The Tulsa Tornado's were a professional soccer team from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They played for one season (1985) in the United Soccer League. The 1985 season only lasted six games as the league folded halfway through.
The team was born when the owner of the Oklahoma City Stampede, David Fraser, announced that he was moving the one year-old franchise to Tulsa in December 1984.[1] Before the team could begin playing in Tulsa, though, the landscape of the league 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 folded 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.[2] The league re-arranged its schedule to open with a six-game Cup Championship (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 Championship, 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. The unpaid players refused to take the field for a June 6 home game and June 8 road game.[3][4] 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 to compete in the final game of the Cup Championship round on June 15. However, the 1-0 loss would be their final match.[5] 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.[6]
