Dallas Tornado

Dallas Tornado were a soccer team based in Dallas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL). They played from 1967 to 1981. Their home fields were Cotton Bowl (1967–1968), P.C. Cobb Stadium (1969), Franklin Field (1970–1971), Texas Stadium (1972–1975, 1980–1981) and Ownby Stadium on the SMU campus (1976–1979). The club played Indoor soccer at Reunion Arena (1980–81).

The franchise was one of the original clubs that played in the United Soccer Association, one of the two precursors to the NASL, in 1967. In fact, the USA was made up of international clubs playing in U.S. cities as American teams. The team that played as the Dallas Tornado were Dundee United of the Scottish Football League. The following season when the USA merged with the NPSL, owners Lamar Hunt and Bill McNutt had to build a new team from scratch. They hired Bob Kap, a Serbian born soccer coach who had escaped with his family during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Kap had studied with Ferenc Puskás at the Soccor Academy in Hungary. Kap was recruited from Toronto, Canada, where he had relocated after the 1956 Revolution.

During the first 6 months as coach, Kap traveled throughout Europe to form the new Dallas Tornado. Hiring young players from England to Turkey, the fledgling Dallas Tornado learned to play as a team on the world tour. Their world tour took them from England to India, from Indonesia to Vietnam during the height of the war. The tour gave the new Dallas Tornado Team an international face at a time when American soccer was relatively unknown. The gallant effort resulted in a 2–26–4 record.

Following the 1968 NASL season, the league was in trouble with ten franchises having folded. The 1969 season was split into two halves. The first half was called the International Cup, a double round robin tournament in which the remaining NASL clubs were represented by teams imported from the United Kingdom. The Tornado was represented again by Dundee United. The Tornado came in tied for third in the Cup with a 2–4–2 record. For the second half of the 1969 season, the teams returned to their normal rosters and played a 16 game schedule with no playoffs.

Fortunes improved for the club as they won the NASL championship in 1971, defeating the Atlanta Chiefs 2–0 in the final game of a three game series, Mike renshaw scoring the winning goal. Several division titles followed in the years after that league title. Two players, Kyle Rote, Jr. (son of former New York Giants wide receiver Kyle Rote) and Steve Pecher, won the league Rookie of the Year award in 1973 and 1976, respectively. As was the case with most NASL clubs, a drop in attendance contributed to the demise of the club in 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the USA in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest—15 seasons.

Lamar Hunt did not give up on soccer in America, however, and was one of the founding owners in Major League Soccer.

Ex-Manchester United goalkeeper, Alex Stepney played for Dallas.