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Tampa Bay Rowdies

1975 indoor season
Owner	George W. Strawbridge, Jr.
General manager	Beau Rodgers
Manager	Eddie Firmani
Stadium	Bayfront Center
NASL	Regional: Champion League: Runners-up
Top goalscorer	Doug Wark (10 goals)
Highest home attendance	4,437 (Feb. 14 vs. Diplomats)
Lowest home attendance	4,032 (Feb. 16 vs. Comets)
Average home league attendance	4,235
Home colors Away colors
← first season1976 →

The 1975 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the first indoor season of the club's existence. It also marked the first time the expansion Rowdies participated in any North American Soccer League sanctioned competition.

Original kit

The Rowdies' jersey used during the 1975 indoor season was different than later indoor and outdoor years in that the neckline was merely a cuff rather than the full collar style that became so familiar in all of Tampa Bay's later NASL campaigns. Photographic evidence also indicates that the cuff-style jersey saw limited use during the 1975 outdoor season, but by season's end it disappeared altogether.

Club

Roster

No.	Position	Player	Nation
1	GK	Mike Hewitt	Scotland
1	GK	Bob Stetler*	United States
2	DF	Farrukh Quraishi	England
3	DF	Alex Pringle	Scotland
4	MF	John Boyle (capt.)	Scotland
5	MF	Ringo Cantillo	Costa Rica
6	DF	Mike Connell	South Africa
7	MF	Bernard Hartze	South Africa
8	MF	Randy Garber	United States
9	DF	Lima	Brazil
9	MF	Nick Papadakis	Canada
10	FW	Eddie Engerth	United States
11	FW	Doug Wark	United States
12	FW	Bob Isaacson	United States
12	FW	Javier Alvarez	Mexico
13	MF	Zygmunt Lezak	Poland
13	DF	John Bluem	United States
15	FW	Eddie Firmani	Italy

*amateur player

Management and technical staff

• George Strawbridge, Jr., owner
• Beau Rogers, general manager
• Eddie Firmani, head coach
• Chas Serednesky, business manager
• Francisco Marcos, director of public relations
• Alfredo Beronda, equipment manager

Honors

• NASL Indoor Tournament: Runners up
• NASL Indoor, Region 3: Regional champions

Individual honors

• All-Tournament Team: Doug Wark
• Regional MVP: Ringo Cantillo (Regional totals: 2 games, 4 goals)

Review

In part because of the success of the spring 1974 indoor tour by the Red Army team the NASL decided to hold an indoor tournament of its own. Of the 20 franchises in the league, sixteen participated. Teams were separated into four regional groups of four. The Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, was chosen as one of the Regional venues, with the Rowdies as hosts for Region 3. The San Jose Earthquakes were given the honor of hosting the championship semifinals and finals at the Cow Palace.

Region 3 tournament

The winner of the Region 3 would gain an automatic place in the Championship tournament four weeks later in California. In their first tournament game the Rowdies had no trouble with the Washington Diplomats, winning by a score of 7–2. Two nights later Tampa Bay had a tougher task in coming from behind to defeat the Baltimore Comets, 8–6. Those two victories left the Rowdies tied with the Miami Toros in the standings, however the tie-breaker was goal differential. Tampa Bay's plus-7 goal margin narrowly edged out the Toros’ plus-6, and the Rowdies advanced. Ringo Cantillo was named MVP of the Region, edging out Miami's Nico Bodonczy by one vote.

Regional standings

Championship tournament

Tampa Bay was paired up with the New York Cosmos in the semifinals, while the other semifinal had San Jose clashing with the Dallas Tornado. Led by Doug Wark’s record six-goal performance, the Rowdies jumped out to an early 3–0 lead, and never looked back, as they dispatched the Cosmos, 13–5, to advance to the final on Sunday.

On March 16, 1975, the Tampa Bay faced a heavily favored San Jose Earthquakes team in the Rowdies first of what would be many championship finals, against. With the score 6–1 at the end of the first period, and 8,618 fans behind them, San Jose showed exactly why they were tabbed to win the tournament. From there the home team cruised to an 8–5 victory. In addition to the Rowdies’ runner-up performance, Doug Wark was named to the All-Tournament squad and was the second leading scorer in the tournament.

Bracket

Championship standings

Match reports

February 14, 1975 Regional #1	Tampa Bay Rowdies	7–2	Washington Diplomats	St. Petersburg, Florida
8:30 PM EST	Engerth 10:38' Engerth 14:55' Wark 23:30' Wark 29:33' Cantillo 36:17' Cantillo 39:15' Connell 43:15' (Garber)	Report on p. 5-C	DeLeon 23:45' Diane 35:25'	Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 4,437

February 16, 1975 Regional #2	Tampa Bay Rowdies	8–6	Baltimore Comets	St. Petersburg, Florida
8:30 PM EST	Quraishi 12:17', 26:38', 39:12' Papadakis 14:51', 24:49' Cantillo 40:43', 40:46' Wark 41:59'	Report	Scurti 1:24' Kazmierski 6:12', 31:29' Wit 12:54', 14:28', 25:28'	Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 4,032

March 14, 1975 Semifinal	Tampa Bay Rowdies	13–5	New York Cosmos	Daly City, California
7:00 PM PDT	Cantillo 2:31' (Boyle) Wark 4:13' (Pringle) Wark 6:34' (Quraishi) Wark 13:50' Wark 14:34' (Hartze) Lezak 17:22' Hartze 22:03' Hartze 22:42' (Cantillo) Wark 33:03' (Lima) Hartze 35:34' Lezak 35:55' (Cantillo) Lezak 39:35' (Hartze) Wark 59:35' (Connell)	Report A Report B	Lamas 10:46' (Mărdărescu) Mărdărescu 12:07' Lamas 27:08' (Parades) Lamas 44:06' (Roth) Correa 49:36'	Stadium: Cow Palace Attendance: 9,113 Referee: John Davies

March 16, 1975 Final	San Jose Earthquakes	8–5	Tampa Bay Rowdies	Daly City, California
9:00 PM PDT	Roboostoff 7:10' Child 9:25' (Gavric) Roboostoff 14:36' (Child) Child 16:22' (Welch) Roboostoff 18:38' (Moore) Welch 19:38' (Child) Zaczynski 50:50' (Child) Child 52:56'	Report A (p. 2C) Report B	Engerth 9:36' (Lima) Hartze 25:14' (Quraishi) Lezak 33:35' Wark 50:55' (Hartze) Quraishi 54:56' (Boyle)	Stadium: Cow Palace Attendance: 8,618 Referee: Henry Landuer

Statistics

Scoring

GP = Games Played, G = Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point), Pts = Points

Goalkeeping

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses

Player movement

Since Tampa Bay was a newly formed club, the entire roster was new.

In

No.	Pos.	Player	Transferred from	Fee/notes	Date	Source
3	DF	Alex Pringle	Clyde F.C.	No details available	December 1974
1	GK	Mike Hewitt	Dundee F.C.	Contract purchased from Dundee	December 1974
7	MF	Bernard Hartze	Cape Town Spurs	No details available	December 17, 1974
2	DF	Farrukh Quraishi	Oneonta State	1st overall pick of NASL college draft	January 18, 1975
10	FW	Eddie Engerth	Philadelphia amateur team	Former Hartwick College player	January 20, 1975
6	DF	Mike Connell	Rangers Johannesburg	No details available	January 20, 1975
11	DF	Doug Wark	Rochester Lancers	Purchased from Rochester	January 27, 1975
4	DF	John Boyle	Orient	Obtained release after 5-month pursuit	February 6, 1975
9	MF	Nick Papadakis	none	Free agent	February 9, 1975
8	MF	Randy Garber	Penn State	2nd round of college draft	February 9, 1975
12	FW	Bob Isaacson	Hartwick College	3rd round of college draft	February 9, 1975
13	DF	John Bluem	Hartwick College	4th round of college draft	February 9, 1975
12	FW	Javier Alvarez	St. Petersburg Kickers	Free transfer	March 11, 1975
15	FW	Eddie Firmani	none	Added as an emergency player	March 11, 1975
1	GK	Bob Stetler	East Stroudsburg State	No contract, to keep amateur status	January 1975

Out

none

Loan in

No.	Pos.	Player	Loaned from	Details	Start	Source
5	MF	Ringo Cantillo	Cincinnati Comets	Indoor season loan	February 9, 1975
9	MF	Lima	Club Deportivo Oro	Indoor loan with option for transfer	March 11, 1975
13	MF	Zygmunt Lezak	Polonia NY	Indoor loan with option for transfer	March 11, 1975

See also

• 1975 team indoor stats

References

1. Rowdies image
2. Inoor Home Team image
3. "Nick Papadakis vs Comets 1975 (Image)".
4. "Stetler.JPG (Image)".
5. "Derek Smethurst, Doug Wark vs Cosmos 1975 (Image)".
6. "History of Indoor Soccer in the USA".
7. Zier, Patrick (November 6, 1974). "Preview Of Soccer Set For Bayfront". Lakeland Ledger. p. 2A. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
8. Martz, Ron (February 15, 1975). "Rousing Rowdie debut: 7–2 victory all". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1-C. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
9. Martz, Ron (February 17, 1975). "Rowdies do it all". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
10. Spander, Art (March 15, 1975). "Rowdies triumph". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
11. Gurney, Jack (March 17, 1975). "Rowdies Shaken By Earthquake". Evening Independent. p. 1-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
12. ^ "Pringle named Tampa coach". St. Petersburg Times. September 24, 1975. p. 2-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
13. ^ Martz, Ron (December 18, 1974). "Striking addition for the Rowdies". St. Petersburg Times. p. 2-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
14. "NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEAGUE: Bernard Hartze". Archived from the original on October 14, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
15. Martz, Ron (January 17, 1975). "Quraishi year-round Rowdy?". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
16. ^ "Rowdies sign pair, have six in fold". St. Petersburg Times. January 21, 1975. p. 3-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
17. Austin, Jim (January 28, 1975). "Rowdies Star-Struck". Evening Independent. p. 1-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
18. Blankenship, Ken (February 7, 1975). "Rowdies sign a captain: Boyle". St. Petersburg Times. p. 8-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
19. ^ Blankenship, Ken (February 10, 1975). "Rowdies sign four, want more". St. Petersburg Times. p. 20-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
20. ^ Blankenship, Ken (March 12, 1975). "Rowdies brace for title try". St. Petersburg Times. p. 6-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
21. Bubil, Harold (March 15, 1976). "Goalie Stetler Makes The Most Of First Pro Chance". Sarasota Journal. p. 3-C. Retrieved October 3, 2016.

• Tampa Bay Rowdies seasons
• Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) seasons
• 1975 North American Soccer League season
• American soccer clubs 1975 season
• 1975 in sports in Florida
• NASL Indoor seasons