Stern, Foulkes and Hill
1974–75: The Chicago Sting were the dream child of Lee Stern, a leading Chicago commodities broker, who in 1974 took an expensive gamble that his hometown would accept soccer as a major league sport. Stern turned to England for a coach in the shape of ‘Busby Babe’ Bill Foulkes, the former Manchester United defender.
Foulkes built a team of predominantly British players (there were 10 in the 1975 squad and 11 in 1976 and 1977) including Gordon Hill who would later win 6 England caps and play over a hundred games for Manchester United including the 1976 FA Cup Final. In Chicago he hit six goals in the Sting’s inaugural season and firmly established himself as a fan’s favourite.
In the summer of 1975 a sparse crowd of 4,500 watched the Sting’s very first home game and as it began so it continued with an average that year of around the 4,000 mark – although close to 14,000 did turn out to see the Sting take on the 1974 Polish World Cup team in a friendly.
The Sting missed out on the playoffs by a single point losing the final game of the season in a penalty shoot-out (Hill missing his attempt).
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Famous quotes containing the word hill:
“For most of the guys killings got to be accepted. Murder was the only way everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules.”
—Nicholas Pileggi, U.S. screenwriter, and Martin Scorsese. Henry Hill (Ray Liotta)