The Washington Stars were an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team established in 1987 as F.C. Washington. The team entered the American Soccer League in 1988 under the name Washington Stars and merged with the

Maryland Bays The Maryland Bays were an inaugural franchise of the third incarnation of the American Soccer League (1988-1989), American Soccer League in 1988. They were based in Catonsville, Maryland, and played their games at the University of Maryland-Baltim ...

in 1990.

History

Founded in the spring of 1987 as F.C. Washington, the team grew out of the Fairfax Spartans which won the 1986 National Amateur Cup. The team, headed by president

Gordon Bradley Gordon Bradley (23 November 1933 – 29 April 2008) was an English-American soccer midfielder born and raised on Wearside who played several seasons with lower-division English clubs before moving to play in Canada at the age of 30. During the ...

and located in

Fairfax, Virginia Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146. Fairfax is pa ...

, hired John Kerr, Sr. as head coach on June 24, 1987. Coach Bradley was the coach of George Mason University (GMU) at that time. Two of their players, Kent Shiffert and Chris Maier were recruited from GMU. The team played its first game on July 26, 1987 against the Canadian Pan American soccer team. In March 1988, the team became a charter member of the third American Soccer League under the name Washington Stars. The team joined the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...

in 1990 when the ASL merged with the

Western Soccer League The Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer ...

. After the 1990 season, the team merged into the

. The team played at stadiums at Fairfax High School and

W.T. Woodson High School Carter G. Woodson High School, commonly known as C. G. Woodson High School or simply Woodson, (formerly Wilbert Tucker Woodson High School) is a public high school located in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside the east end of the city of Fair ...

in Fairfax, Virginia. Bruce Murray, a member of the U.S. National Team who earned 88 caps had a hand in both US goals at the 1990 World Cup (a goal against Austria and an assist against Czechoslovakia), played for the Stars in all three seasons.

Year-by-year

Coach

* John Kerr, Sr. (1987–1990) * George Lidster ''(assistant)'' (1987–1990)

Mascot

The Washington Stars mascot was a human dressed in a black skin tight suit with silver moon boots, silver cape, and a large foam head in the shape of a star. Historically, the Washington Stars hired local students from

to serve as the mascot. Michael Salih was the original and longest serving StarMan.

References

External links

American Soccer League: 1988–1989

{{American Professional Soccer League seasons Defunct soccer clubs in Washington, D.C. American Soccer League (1988–89) teams American Professional Soccer League teams 1987 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1990 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Association football clubs established in 1987 Association football clubs disestablished in 1990