The Chicago Horizons was a member of the original Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for only the 1980–81 season. It was the first of two franchises that represented

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in the circuit's history. It was the first professional sports team that played its home matches at the

Rosemont Horizon Allstate Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Rosemont, Illinois, United States, northwest of Chicago, located at the corner of Mannheim Road and Lunt Avenue, just north of Mannheim Road's interchange with the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) ab ...

, which also inspired the club's

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

. The team colors were orange, yellow, black and red. The head coach was

Luis Dabo Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

. The Horizons, with a 20–20 record, finished tied for third place with the

Buffalo Stallions The Buffalo Stallions were a soccer team based out of Buffalo, New York, that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League from 1979 to 1984. Their home arena was Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. It was the last professional club for which the Portu ...

in the Central Division and qualified for the playoffs. After a 4–3 victory in Game One of a First Round best-of-three series with the

Wichita Wings The Wichita Wings were a professional indoor soccer franchise based in Wichita, Kansas. The Wings were admitted to the Major Indoor Soccer League as an expansion team on August 21, 1979.

, the Horizons lost the last two contests 6–4 and 8–6 and were eliminated from the postseason.

Enzo Di Pede Enzo Di Pede (born January 3, 1957) is a retired Italian-born Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper who played in the North American Soccer League (1968), North American Soccer League and the original Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–19 ...

won the 'Goalkeeper of the Year' award.MISL Yearly Award Winners – OurSportsCentral.com.
/ref> All Horizons games home and away were broadcast on radio with Les Grobstein handling Play by Play and Sam Donnelly the Color. Even though the Horizons suspended operations following the campaign, the league still wanted to revive the franchise. That ended when

Lee Stern Lee B. Stern (born December 27, 1926) is the longest tenured trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. He has been one of the most successful traders in the commodities market throughout his membership, and is well known for his involvement in the Ch ...

, owner of the

North American Soccer League 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 ...

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from ...

which played both indoors and outdoors at the time, paid the MISL to discontinue those plans and effectively eliminated the competition in the Chicago market. Stern was bitter about the Horizons, blaming them for costing his Sting much money.Litterer, Dave. 1980–81 Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) season, OurSportsCentral.com.
/ref>

References

{{Reflist

External links

Chicago Horizons (official team logo) – OurSportsCentral.com.1980–81 Chicago Horizons team photograph – nasljerseys.com.
Chicago Horizons, Defunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States H Soccer clubs in Illinois Defunct soccer clubs in Illinois Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) teams