In addition to football, the stadium hosted the North American Soccer League for four seasons, including the NASL Championship Match between the Dallas Tornado and Philadelphia and several World Class " friendly " Soccer Matches ; concerts ; pro wrestling events ; and religious gatherings such as Promise Keepers and Billy Graham crusades ( a Graham crusade was the first event held at Texas Stadium ).

| 1978 || Philadelphia Fury || NASL || 20 || 0 ||||||||||||||||

In assembling a team of their own, the new owners acquired the bulk of the starting line-up from the 1967 NPSL Philadelphia Spartans franchise, which would not participate in the NASL in 1968.

He also played in the United States ( with NASL teams Philadelphia Fury and Tampa Bay Rowdies ), South Africa, Sweden and in English non-League football.

Only the Houston Summit, essentially the NASL Houston Hurricanes had a better record, but it was the Arrows which took the title, defeating the Philadelphia Fever.

The Philadelphia Atoms were an American soccer team based out of Philadelphia that played in the North American Soccer League ( NASL ).

Although Clive Toye reports in his recent book that the franchise was sold to an ownership group from Montreal, he apparently confuses the fate of the next Philadelphia NASL team for that of the Atoms ; the Atoms were, in fact, going to be relocated to San Antonio by their Mexican owners, who planned to replace the San Antonio Thunder franchise ( which itself had just relocated to Honolulu to play as Team Hawaii ).

This plan never came to fruition, and the Philadelphia franchise was placed into receivership by the NASL.

The Fury returned NASL soccer to Philadelphia for the first time since the Philadelphia Atoms folded in 1976.

Over the years, Sheppard also served as announcer for multiple other teams and venues, among them Adelphi College ( predecessor of Adelphi University ); the AFL New York Titans ( later the Jets ) and the International Soccer League, both at the Polo Grounds ; the WFL New York Stars at Downing Stadium on Randall's Island ; the All-America Football Conference's New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium ; the NASL New York Cosmos at Yankee Stadium, Downing Stadium, and Giants Stadium ; Army Black Knights football games at Michie Stadium and Giants Stadium ; and multiple Army-Navy games at the Polo Grounds, Giants Stadium, and Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

The Atoms could not sustain the success of their first season as the club missed the playoffs in each of their remaining three NASL campaigns.

Fort Lauderdale also had a history of teams from the NASL, ASL, and USL First Division.

Prior to the 2009 NASL split several other cities had been mentioned as being locations where future USL-1 franchises might be launched, including St. Louis, Missouri ( led by the current PDL franchise St. Louis Lions ), Orlando, Florida ( with Mexican side Pachuca being rumored as connected to it ), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, Hamilton, Ontario, San Antonio, Texas and Ottawa, Ontario.

In addition to playing for the Timbers ' outdoor team, Charles had played 9 games for the Timbers during the 1980-1981 NASL indoor season.

The club won its last title in 1982, and by the last season of the NASL, 1984, had missed the play-offs for the first time since 1975.

While soccer had previously been largely ignored by the American press, the Cosmos and other NASL teams now became regular fixtures on the back pages.

Coincidentally, the colors were the same as those of the previous New York NASL team, the New York Generals, which had folded after the 1968 season.

In 1979 Grobbelaar was signed up by the Vancouver Whitecaps of the NASL after he had attended their scouting camp in South Africa.

Wanting to try his luck abroad he had a brief spell in the NASL with the Seattle Sounders.

He retired a few years later after spells at Barnsley on loan, Manchester City, Preston North End, American side Tulsa Roughnecks in the NASL and Maltese side Naxxar LionsHe also had a spell as player manager at Barrow A. F. C.

He had an unsteady first season with Vancouver, and even though his form improved in the second season in the NASL, another car accident injured him again.

The team began the 1976 season slowly, however by the end of its first season the team had won its division and had played host to the largest NASL crowd to date.

Kowalik had hit the heights with the Chicago Mustangs eight years earlier scoring 30 goals in 28 appearances in the Mustangs one and only season in the NASL.

Roy, a German by birth who had arrived with his family in Chicago at the age of six, was a veteran of the early years of the NASL and its forerunner the NPSL.

Toye had been one of the men behind the success of the NASL ’ s leading light the New York Cosmos, while Musgrove, a former left-winger with West Ham United was a coach with a growing reputation.

1980: Phil Parkes, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers ‘ keeper, became the Sting ’ s number 1, moving to Chicago from the Vancouver Whitecaps where he had played for the past three seasons and established himself as the NASL ’ s top glovesman.

Chicago Sting Mascot ' Stanley Sting ' pictured in 2009. 1981: The addition of Pato Margetic to the Sting front line – Margetic had joined from the Detroit Express – showed coach Will Roy ’ s attacking intent for the coming campaign, indeed the club would finish as the NASL leading scorers with 81 goals.

Eighteen years without a major sporting honor ended for the city of Chicago as the Sting won the NASL Championship to give the Windy City its first professional sports title since the Chicago Bears had won the NFL Championship Game in 1963.

First, the league had agreed to FIFA's demands that offside rule should apply from the half-way line and not the NASL ’ s 35-yard line as had been the case since the leagues inception.

With a regular season stretching from November to mid-April and comprising 48 games per team ( compared to just 18 games in the NASL Indoor League the previous season ) the Chicagoans had effectively signed up to play two full seasons a year, of two very different types of soccer.

Head Coach Willy Roy, who had led the Sting to two NASL titles, was replaced by his assistant Eric Geyer in late December, and Karl-Heinz Granitza, the clubs all-time leading goalscorer, who at the beginning of the season had seen his annual salary cut by $ 100, 000 to $ 65, 000, was suspended indefinitely on March 21 after an argument with owner Lee Stern.

In 1981, it merged with the North American Softball League ( NASL ), which had played only one season ( 1980 ), to then create the United Professional Softball League ( UPSL ).

The team disbanded after the 1979 season, but the Detroit Auto Kings would play the 1980 season in the North American Softball League ( NASL ), before ceasing play and ending professional softball played in East Detroit.

The Minnesota Strikers played the 1984 NASL season at the dome.

The NASL soccer team Minnesota Kicks also played there from 1976 to 1981.

The NASL folded after the 1984 season and the Earthquakes played in the Western Soccer League ( WSL ) from 1985 – 88, under the ownership of Peter Bridgwater.

The team played one season in the NASL before transferring to the Major Indoor Soccer League.

In 1971 and 1972, he played two seasons on loan from West Ham with the Montreal Olympique of the now defunct North American Soccer League ( NASL ).

The Minnesota Kicks of the NASL played one game at Memorial Stadium, which was also their last.

Founded in 1986, the team played its final year in the second tier of the United States soccer pyramid in the NASL Conference of the USSF Division 2 Professional League coached by Teitur Thordarson.

Founded in 1992, the team played in the North American Soccer League ( NASL ), the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid until the 2011 season.

** Fort Lauderdale Strikers ( NASL ) played in the NASL from 1977 to 1983

*** The Minnesota Strikers played in the NASL and MISL from 1984 to 1988 and were a continuation of the original Fort Lauderdale Strikers

During the next seven years, he played four NASL outdoor seasons, one NASL indoor season and five Major Indoor Soccer League seasons with the Sockers, winning five championships.

They also played two NASL indoor seasons in 1979 – 1980 and 1980 – 1981.

Ziadie's father, Dennis Ziadie, played in the NASL with the Boston Beacons, as well as the Jamaica national team.

When the NPSL merged with the United Soccer Association to form the North American Soccer League, the Spurs likewise merged with the Chicago Mustangs, and Gansler played with the Mustangs of the NASL in 1968.

Cila's father, Renato Cila, played in the old NASL as well as the Major Indoor Soccer League ( MISL ).

Bettega played two summers in the NASL with the Toronto Blizzard, helping the team finish runner-ups both seasons.

As the NASL hit financial problems, 1984 – the league's final year – saw it abandon the neutral-site format for a best-of-three series played at each team's home field.