Category Archives: NASL Sounders

Features regarding the NASL Sounders era (1974-83)

Jimmy Gabriel: The Gift of Lift

My adoration of Jimmy Gabriel is founded largely on a single half-hour shift and, really, just the first 10 minutes. My profound admiration of our first true Mr. Sounder lasts to this day.

Jimmy Gabriel may no longer walk this earth, but without question his legacy lives on. Every time Brian Schmetzer fills out a lineup sheet or delivers his team talk. Every time Bernie James addresses his kids. Every time Dean Wurzberger or Lesle Gallimore conduct a clinic. And so on and so on.

Jimmy Gabriel celebrates as the Sounders roar back to beat Portland in 1977. (Frank MacDonald Collection)

Our state soccer community thrives on so many fronts: Professional, college, amateur, youth and, of course, our legion of fans. For 20-25 years, Jimmy Gabriel was instrumental in the development of all those. Head coach, coaching director, assistant coach, volunteer: No matter the role, he found a means to contribute, sometimes forcefully, often times quietly. Not much for pomp, he led with his heart, and that’s when he won me over.

It was 1977, Jimmy’s first year after being elevated to head coach, and the Sounders were stumbling mightily out of the gate. Never mind that they lost the first three matches, they didn’t even score, and down 2-nil at home to Portland, Gabriel and the lads were staring at 0-4. Then everything changed.

Never to be Replicated

As a kid watching on TV some 90 miles away, Jimmy’s next act was unforgettable. It will never be replicated, either. Against our fiercest rival, he pulled off his track jacket, un-retired, inserted himself into the match and imposed his will upon the outcome.

Within a minute or two, Jimmy went flying into a midfield tackle on the hard, unforgiving Kingdome turf. He got mostly ball, and he also got himself a rugburn and an obviously painful muscle pull. Might’ve been hamstring, maybe groin. Whatever it was, he was hurting. But he was running, he was contributing, and he wasn’t coming off. The tackle sent a message to all the other 25,000 players and fans in the Dome – and the kid watching faraway – that this fight was far from over.

Seven minutes into his shift, Jimmy headed a cross back across the crease for Davey Butler to score. A Paul Crossley penalty tied it, and with five minutes left Butler did it again, scoring the winner. The Sounders would go on to reach their first league final, and although Jimmy’s teams could be up and down, my belief in him never wavered.

That’s my Jimmy Gabriel story. I’ve listened to many more, although rarely from his lips.

The Obvious Leader

Bob Robertson, the original Voice of the Sounders, recalled how Jimmy might explain through his thick, Scottish brogue the use of physicality: “It’s a man’s game, is it not?”

FC Seattle owner Bud Greer credited Jimmy not only with the impetus for launching the team but later adding the nickname. “He said, ‘Look, we’re seeing some pretty good players (and) it’s time we fielded a team of good American players. Interestingly enough, the Storm nickname was his. He had this fixation on naming teams after weather.” So, Jimmy’s only quarrel with our NWSL team might be that it’s not spelled Rain.

Coaching FC Seattle in 1986 (Frank MacDonald Collecction)

Dave Gillett and John Best were among those who noted his instant credibility and command of respect once Jimmy brought a player to the Sounders. “He’s obviously a leader,” said Best. Added Gillett: “Players like me really looked up to him…you just learned the game from him.”

Jimmy McAlister played for Jimmy with the Sounders and San Jose, where his biggest feat may have been getting the notoriously troublesome yet immensely talented George Best to play 30 games after missing a combined 17 the previous two years.

Jimmy Gabriel resigned from that job. He did the same with the Sounders and FC Seattle. Never fired, he had the strength and conviction of character to know when either he needed a change of scenery, or the club did. One of his greatest gifts was working with young, emerging talent. He could tailor his message to motivate American kids, as opposed to a less gentle approach to British kids. He could lift the level of those players because he truly believed in them, often times more than they believed in themselves.

‘Are you kidding, in a reserve game?’

His commitment to the team was never in question. McAlister told the story of Jimmy, at age 40, playing in a reserve game with the younger players. “He broke his nose and had to have it strapped to his face for the rest of the game,” recalled McAlister. “People in the stands are going, ‘Are you kidding me, he’s doing this in a reserve game?’”

McAlister played in that ’77 Portland game and could immediately see Jimmy was injured. “On the field he was as animalistic as anyone, but he was also very intelligent. Most guys who get stuck in, like the goon on a hockey team, there’s not a lot going on with them. Jimmy was different from them.” Which takes us back to that night in 1977.

I’ve talked to Jimmy about that game several times. His memory of it remained sharp. “I knew that if I could get out there and show them we needed more effort, more energy; if we did that, we would get the crowd behind us, even though we might not win the game.

Jimmy Gabriel working with Tony Chursky in training (Frank MacDonald Collection)

“I told myself I had to stay on,” he continued. “Then I got in a few tackles and a few things happened. The kids and the new players got a bit lifted, and they started to play better.”

The Greatest Guy

“He’s probably the greatest guy I was ever around, for feeling confident and good about yourself,” said McAlister. “Jimmy was the best coach in terms of motivating players and you wanting to play for your coach. He’s just a great human being. He cares about everything.”

In some ways, Jimmy Gabriel was a man of the times, in terms of his courageous play. But he may have been ahead of his time as a coach. His caring, sympathetic and rejuvenating ways play much like Pete Carroll’s.

It’s a man’s game, yet Jimmy appeals to your heart, and when players exhibit heart, everything gets lifted. The challenge to all of us who knew Jimmy or knew stories of Jimmy, is to find new and different ways to lift others up, to make them their best.

What’s your Jimmy Gabriel story?

Note: Jimmy Gabriel died July 10, 2021 at the age of 80. Gabriel came to Seattle in 1974 already a legend at Everton, where he won league and FA Cup winners’ medals. He served as captain, assistant coach and head coach of the NASL Sounders. In 1983 he became Washington Youth Soccer’s first coaching director. From 1984-86 Gabriel was coaching director and head coach of FC Seattle. After returning to Seattle in 1997 he was an assistant to both the University of Washington men’s and women’s programs. During the first few seasons of Sounders FC, Gabriel was a member of the radio broadcast team.

Rowlands Stood Tall, Always Will

If there is to be a monument celebrating John Rowlands, it must stand tall and strong. It must exude tenacity, cunning and somehow exhibit a pinch of mischief.

For John Rowlands must be known for far more than just the goal that sounded our soccer community’s collective awakening. He was a buoyant, forceful personality; someone who would lead you headlong into the fray yet elicit some hardy laughs along the way. He was adventurous, striking out from his homeland for this faraway port to play for a side that had no prior existence. Here he would join, and in many ways lead, likeminded lads who blazed a path for what has become a thriving, footballing realm. He was a beacon.

John Rowlands, who led the line and, in many ways set the carefree tone of those first Sounders teams of the Seventies, has died, a victim of Coronavirus earlier this month in his native northwest England. He was 73.

John Rowlands, ca. 1974 (Frank MacDonald Collection)

Yet to the vast majority of contemporary footy followers around Seattle, the name Rowlands may fail to resonate. You might find a fuzzy image of him on YouTube or the black and white photographs such as those on this page. However, that’s all two-dimensional, and if one really wants to identify themselves a Sounder for life, let’s learn a bit about the late, great Sounder, John Rowlands.

Once John Best got a look at the narrow, crowned and unforgivingly hard Astroturf of Memorial Stadium, Seattle’s first coach envisioned the cast best equipped to win games in those cozy confines while at the same time winning fans. The plan: Those first Sounders would go direct, straight down the middle.

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Got Game, Will Travel

Sometimes following your dream means leaving town, again and again. For a couple of Seattle native sons, they started at home and finished here. But in between they moved around a lot.

Chance Fry and Peter Hattrup both came out of local high schools in 1982, when the sun was still high in the sky for American soccer. It would go dark all too quickly.

That summer there were 28 teams, both outdoor and indoor, that were paying livable wages across the continent. Within two years, that number was cut in half, and when Fry and Hattrup reached their prime, pro soccer in this corner of the earth, after years of bleeding red ink, all but went black.

Hattrup refers to his peer group as The Lost Generation. They may have made some bucks, even gotten a taste of MLS or made a World Cup squad. Yet there’s long been a lingering question of what might’ve been.

If there was a silver lining, says Hattrup, the game was overflowing with players and coaches with an unquenchable thirst to find a game. Any game. “The great thing was you only had guys that loved to play,” he claims. “No one did it just for themselves, just for the money. They loved being part of the game.”

The Sounders drafted Chance Fry as a Sammamish High School senior and U.S. Youth National Team player.

An Auspicious Start

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Too Much Fun to Complain

One evening, not so long ago, Peter Fewing was dining out with friends when a tablemate mentioned that Fewing once played professional soccer. It made him giggle, just a little.

When Jeff Stock first signed with the original Seattle Sounders out of Tacoma’s Stadium High School, he wanted to maintain his amateur status and eligibility for the 1980 Olympic Games. Still, his earnings, when adjusted through an inflation calculator, were exponentially more than Fewing’s. In fact, in 2020 dollars it exceeds that of some top players for Reign FC today.

It’s madness, in many respects. But for those who have played at the top levels of American pro soccer the past 45 years, this hardly comes as a surprise. Any yet, none of the journeymen interviewed for this story have many complaints. In fact, all maintain they were enriched by the experience, intellectually if not financially.

“I was playing at the highest level of soccer in the country at the time,” notes Fewing, now 26 seasons into a career as Seattle University’s head coach. “It was fun, we had fans, we signed autographs, and we got two free beers and a burger at the postgame party. The sentiment was that we were having too much fun to complain.”

Craig Beeson, left, and Peter Fewing , center, celebrate an FC Seattle goal. (Joanie Komura photo/Frank MacDonald Collection)
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Land of Opportunity

It all began as a working vacation for David Gillett. In 1974, the 23-year-old Scotsman first stepped foot in Seattle, where pro soccer had never existed. He was coming to play central defense, but Gillett was soon all-in as a missionary for this emerging sport, conducting clinics and making plentiful promotional appearances.

Back in Britain, where he played for Crewe Alexandra, the job was pretty much two hours of daily training, with a match or two each week.

It had been much the same for Adrian Webster when playing for his hometown club of Colchester, in England. He moved to Vancouver to play semi-pro and then heard about the NASL coming both there and Seattle soon after.

“I was very fortunate that it was the Sounders and John Best and Jimmy Gabriel that I played under,” Webster offers. “Not all of the clubs in the NASL were run as professionally.” Soon Webster was starting on the backline with Gillett, and the city adored their new team and their tradition of applauding the fans each night from the center circle.

The original Seattle Sounders, pictured in 1974. Adrian Webster is front row, third from left; David Gillett is back row fourth from right. (Frank MacDonald Collection)
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Big Crowd. Big Cause.

Without question the best, most dramatic match I ever witnessed live was played before less than 1,500 fans and ended near midnight. The largest crowd to which I was a party was for a scoreless affair under a scorching midday sun. And five of the eight biggest attendances for matches played in Seattle didn’t matter at all.

That’s what makes this coming Sunday such a beautiful convergence of the masses with the most meaningful afternoon of footy our state has ever seen. When the first whistle pierces the mid-autumn air for Sounders v Toronto, CenturyLink Field will be teeming with people who came to be part of history, part of a unique experience in Seattle sporting culture: One game to determine the champion of an 8-month marathon known as MLS.

No doubt, that’s what sparked the run on tickets, fans seeking to seize the moment. When the Reds took down Atlanta and soon after the ticket link went live to season ticket holders, no one needed a clever hashtag or promotional gimmick to go online. Seattle became a soccer capitol long, long ago; like their playing heroes, the fans are smart and opportunistic, and soon the lower bowl inventory was exhausted, and folks took aim on getting tickets for friends in the upper deck. Within 48 hours, the CLink was full-up.

Bigger match, bigger crowd. It stands to reason.

The Kingdome’s first sporting event, a Sounders friendly vs. New York Cosmos, was also the first U.S. soccer attendance of 50,000 or more.
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Sometimes You Gotta Get Away

Professional sports travel in North America can be arduous what with all the time zones and long distances between destinations.

But sometimes the road is where a team discovers itself, its character. Within the confines of airliners, buses, hotel rooms and shared meals can come a newfound camaraderie.  Constant interaction can act as an incubator, speeding the development of relationships, on and off the field. Of course, this all assumes the chemistry elements are correct in the first place.

The Reign just returned home after playing four consecutive road matches. They have seven more points than when they last played at Memorial.

The Sounders, meanwhile, are outbound to a pair of imposing away matches at Toronto and Portland. The Reds have apparently sorted things out and are coming off a 3-0 win over Philly. The Timbers have won three straight, scoring six goals in their last two home wins.

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Slow Starts Are Nothing New

It’s got to be the rain? During a long, dreary winter it results in rust that can’t be easily shaken off. That has to explain Seattle’s predisposition for poor starts, right? Because here we are. Again.

For the third successive spring, the Sounders are stumbling out of the gate. It’s not so much alarming as annoying. To the fans and certainly the players and coaches. There’s an underlying faith that the fortunes will turn, but it’s just so frickin’ frustrating.

One need not be a longtime fan to feel this is déjà vu all over again. Three league matches, three defeats. All this after starting 1-1-3 last year and 1-3-1 in 2016. Compounding matters is the 270 scoreless MLS minutes. You have to go back 41 years to find a longer goal draught to open a league season.

Laura Harvey and the Reign’s inaugural start rates as the rockiest, so far. (Courtesy Reign FC)

Since the beaches haven’t yet opened there is ample time to warm-up the wayback machine and check-out some of the more yawn-inducing starts in local history, then scratch around for some telling stats and comments.

Humble Beginnings Continue reading Slow Starts Are Nothing New

Seattle Seeing Red

What’s been Rave and white and red all over? Ah, that would describe the inauspicious start to the Sounders’ MLS season so far.

Two games, two red cards; no goals, no points. Even for historically slow-starting Seattle, this is a bit unsavory for the faithful. But when referees are showing cards, might as well go all-in. In other words, let’s dive in to an anecdotal history of notable Sounders walks of shame.

First Impressions

In the beginning, there was Dave D’Errico. Seven games into the original Sounders’ existence and, personally, just his second appearance, top draft pick D’Errico decked Toronto’s Gene Strenicer. It did not go undetected. While D’Errico sat in the locker room, Davey Butler scored late to give 10-man Seattle the road victory.

Tommy Jenkins no sooner arrived in Seattle than he saw red flash before his eyes.

Newly-imported from England, Tommy Jenkins was billed as an elegant playmaker to support Geoff Hurst. Yet when the pair debuted in 1976 at St. Louis, Jenkins introduced himself to the NASL by getting stuck-in, way in. He saw red then, but never again in his four seasons. Three other openers were marked excessive force, most recently Tony Alfaro’s double yellow versus LAFC.

Early? You want an early shower? Leo Gonzalez had barely broken a sweat in Columbus before his seventh-minute sending off in 2013. You probably don’t remember that; instead that game is best known for Eddie Johnson’s winner, celebrated by his ‘show-me-the-money’ mime.

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A Royal Visit

Even by standards 50 years ago it was a modest match day program. Yet it matched the surroundings and, some might say, the fare that was on display that afternoon.

Still, it was a start. Turning the page, maybe spectators took pause from watching the stocky, commanding figure standing astride of the benches, to let the significance of the day soak in.

In a simple font, probably prepared on someone’s personal typewriter, flow the words: “We are sure that this game will be a milestone in the history of soccer in our state.” It goes on: “It is with pleasure and a feeling of satisfaction we are able to act as hosts to the first all-professional soccer game held in our state.”

West Seattle Stadium’s main stand is virtually the same as 50 years ago, when Vancouver met Bonsucesso.

It’s actually easy to picture the setting today. West Seattle Stadium sits virtually untouched, not only in the 50 years since but the 80 since being erected. The main stand, wooden and covered, could serve as a stunt double for a mid-20th Century British ground. The weather on that February 11, 1968 was practically spring-like: Bright sunshine and mild temperatures after a cold, soggy start to the new year. The grass is a bit long and ungroomed while the ground itself is soft from repeated rains.

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