DALLAS — As tributes and memories came from across the globe after the passing of soccer legend Pelé, fans locally in Dallas-Fort Worth recalled the chance to see his greatness in person when he came to town as a member of the New York Cosmos to play against the Dallas Tornado.
But those memories beget another question.
Who were the Dallas Tornado?
“We were entrepreneurs before the word was invented,” said former Tornado goalkeeper Kenny Cooper Sr., an English native who played for the team for 10 seasons.
A member of the North American Soccer League from 1967 to 1981, the Dallas Tornado gave North Texas their first real taste of professional soccer. But for the players on the team, it was hardly the glitz and glamour we associate with pro athletes today.
“Most of the guys came on visas from England. We made $100 a game, we all had part-time jobs and that was the start of our life here in Dallas,” Cooper said, who worked as a maintenance supervisor at an apartment complex when he was not playing goalie.
And in 1975, the part-time professionals got to share the field with the world’s greatest player when Pelé joined the league at the tail-end of his career.
Cooper has pictures and a signed jersey from the Brazilian great. However, his favorite piece of memorabilia from his playing days is an orange blazer with a blue tie.
“This was the Tornado team blazer. We all head to wear it on appearances. (Team owner) Lamar Hunt was a stickler for professionalism,” Cooper told WFAA.
The team wore the blazers to shopping malls, schools and other appearances as their contribution to the team was not just playing on the field, but also being ambassadors to the still largely unknown sport in the US.
“We almost willed the game into people,” Cooper said.
A 1973 WFAA story archived in the SMU Jones Film Library shows two Dallas Tornado players passionately yelling instructions to youth teams they coached during a soccer camp at Greenhill School.
It was their work to promote the game that Cooper is most proud of as he believes they laid the first bricks for soccer’s still growing popularity in the area.
The MLS is a prominent professional soccer league, and the FC Dallas facilities in Frisco are considered among the best in the country. The team’s academy also produces many homegrown soccer stars, some of which represent the country on the national team.
“I call Dallas ‘Soccer City, USA,’” said Cooper whose son, Kenny Cooper Jr., played for FC Dallas and, just last year, became an ambassador for the team. “That is the legacy I think we leave here.”
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