Peter Short (27 October 1944 – 22 February 1984) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender and a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. Active in the United States and Canada, Short made over 150 appearances in a career lasting 11 seasons.

Career

Born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Short played professionally in the United States and Canada for the

Philadelphia Spartans The Philadelphia Spartans were a soccer team that was a charter member of the non-FIFA sanctioned National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania they played their home games at Temple Stadium in North ...

, the

Cleveland Stokers The Cleveland Stokers were a soccer team based in Cleveland, Ohio that played in the United Soccer Association during 1967 and the North American Soccer League in 1968. Their home field was Cleveland Stadium. History United Soccer Association I ...

, the

Dallas Tornado The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest–15 seasons. T ...

, the Rochester Lancers, the Denver Dynamos, the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

and the

Minnesota Kicks The Minnesota Kicks was a professional soccer team that played at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, from 1976 to 1981. The team was a member of the now defunct North American Soccer League (1968–84), No ...

. In 1966, he played in the

Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League The Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada. The league operated for six seasons from 1961 to 1966 across four cities in two Canadian provinces and one American state. In the 1960s, the Eastern Canada Professional ...

with Toronto Italia Falcons. After the conclusion of the ECPSL season he played in the American Soccer League with

Newark Ukrainian Sitch Newark Ukrainian Sitch also known as "Newark Ukrainians" (Ukrainian Sports Educational Association "Chornomorska Sitch" Newark, ) is an American soccer club based in Newark, New Jersey that was a member of the American Soccer League. Currently, ...

. Short scored the first goal in the first game of the National Professional Soccer League, held on 16 April 1967. Short was shot in the chest and killed during an attempted robbery at his cloth cutting business near the Coliseum in Los Angeles in 1984.

Awards and honors

Short was an NASL first team All-Star in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

. He was also named to the All-Tournament team of the NASL's first indoor tournament in

. In 1977, he was named to the Rochester Lancers Team of the Decade. On 27 December 2014, the Rochester Lancers of the

Major Arena Soccer League The Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) is a professional indoor soccer league in North America. The MASL features teams playing coast-to-coast in the United States and Mexico. The league is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. The le ...

will induct Short into the Rochester Lancers Wall of Fame as one of Rochester's "soccer pioneers". Short played for the original Rochester Lancers 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 ...

References

1944 births 1984 deaths English men's footballers English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Newark Ukrainian Sitch players Toronto Italia players Philadelphia Spartans players Cleveland Stokers players Dallas Tornado players Rochester Lancers (1967–1980) players Denver Dynamos players Vancouver Whitecaps (1974–1984) players Minnesota Kicks players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players Men's association football defenders Men's association football forwards Deaths by firearm in California Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League players American Soccer League (1933–1983) players Footballers from Liverpool 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-footy-forward-1940s-stub