The Toledo Pride were an American
indoor soccer
Indoor soccer or arena soccer (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor so ...
team based in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and accordin ...
. They played only one season (
1986–1987) in the
American Indoor Soccer Association
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
. They qualified for the playoffs but lost in the first round. The Pride's average home attendances was 1,862.
Year-by-year
Ownership
* Edward Cochran
* Robert Ransom
* John Glase
* Frank DeJulius
* Joshua Gotlieb
Staff
* Edward Cochran – President
*
Klaas de Boer
Klaas de Boer (born 6 January 1942, Kollum) is a retired U.S. soccer player and coach. He played professionally in the American Soccer League and was the 1977 NSCAA Coach of the Year and 1985 American Indoor Soccer Association Coach of the Ye ...
– Head coach / General manager
* Mike Garrett – Assistant coach
* Patrick Jennings – Flexibility coordinator
Roster
*
Cliff Brown
* Bob DiNunzio
*
Mike Garrett
Michael Lockett Garrett (born April 12, 1944) is a former American football player who won the Heisman Trophy in 1965 as a Halfback (American football), halfback for the USC Trojans football, USC Trojans. Garrett played professional football for ...
*
Dave Masur
David Masur (born January 10, 1962 in Maplewood, New Jersey) is a retired American soccer midfielder who played professionally in the Major Indoor Soccer League, American Professional Soccer League and USISL. He is the head coach of the St. Joh ...
*
Jimmy McGeough, Jr.
Jim McGeough is a retired Irish-American soccer defender. His career spanned over a dozen teams in seven leagues including the American Soccer League, American Professional Soccer League, Major Soccer League and National Professional Soccer Leag ...
* Ted Powers
* Neil Ridgway
*
Carlos Salguero
Carlos Salguero (10 June 1955 – 26 December 2006) was an Argentina, Argentine professional association football, football forward (association football), forward. He died aged 51 from cancer in 2006. He spent one season in the North American So ...
*
Lesh Shkreli
Lesh Shkreli (born ) is a retired Montenegrin-American soccer forward who played in Yugoslavia, Greece and the United States. He led the American Indoor Soccer Association in scoring in 1984-1985, earning MVP honors.
Shkreli is Albanian ethni ...
* Mark Jackson
* John Rudovic
* Juan Vega
* Miguel Garcia
* Dean Kelly
History
The Toledo Pride were a One-Year Wonder indoor soccer outfit, playing in the Midwest-based American Indoor Soccer Association (AISA). The Pride played a winter schedule during 1986-87, filling empty dates at the Toledo Sports Arena after the city’s long-time minor league ice hockey club went out of business earlier in 1986.
The Pride finished their only season with a 14-28 record, but that was good enough to qualify for the playoffs under the AISA’s generous format. The Chicago Shoccers eliminated the Pride in the first round.
The late Carlos Salguero was Toledo’s leading scorer with 45 goals and 23 assists. Salguero ranked 4th in the AISA in both goals and overall scoring.
The Pride endured an absolutely brutal season off the field. Original head coach/general manager Klaas de Boer either was fired or quit two months into the season. He later sued and obtained a judgement against the team’s owners. de Boer’s replacement in the GM chair, John Durham, got arrested after two months on the job for grand theft and writing bad checks on team accounts midway. Durham later received a one-year prison term in June 1987.2 League AISA officials considered bumping the Pride from the league’s playoff schedule due to the team’s insolvency, but the owners of the Toledo Sports Arena ultimately stepped up to guarantee the team’s expenses to finish out the season.3
The Toledo Pride folded quietly during the spring/early summer of 1987.
[https://funwhileitlasted.net/2020/08/07/1986-1987-toledo-pride-indoor-soccer/]
References
{{National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001)
Sports clubs and teams in Toledo, Ohio
Soccer clubs in Ohio