Shortly after the Tulsa Roughnecks victory of the 1983 Soccer Bowl, President Ronald Reagan sent congratulatory remarks to the team as they carried the trophy in a celebration parade through downtown Tulsa. The Roughnecks still stands (as of 2024) as the only major professional team from Oklahoma to win a championship.
Highlights
The Roughnecks first match was a 6–5 indoor loss on February 11, 1978, at the Bayfront Center versus the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Three nights later in their home debut, the same two teams faced off in front of the first 3,250 Roughnecks fans at the Tulsa Assembly Center.[4][5] A few weeks later they would capture the Skelly Indoor Invitational which they hosted.[6] Over the years Tulsa regularly appeared in the NASL playoffs. They won the NASL title in Soccer Bowl '83, defeating the Toronto Blizzard at BC Place Stadium (Vancouver) by a score of 2–0 before a paid attendance of 60,051.[7] The team's all-time win–loss record was 104–106. The Roughnecks' home games consistently drew better-than-league-average attendance with the annual record occurring during the 1980 season when the team averaged 19,787 spectators over 16 games for a total attendance that year of 316,593 (placing the Roughnecks at No. 5 between the Seattle Sounders and the Washington Diplomats). The largest home game attendance for Tulsa occurred on April 26, 1980, when 30,822 fans watched the Roughnecks' 2–1 victory over the New York Cosmos at Skelly Stadium. The highest attendance for any Roughneck game occurred on August 26, 1979, when Tulsa met the Cosmos in New York for a NASL playoff game before a crowd of 76,031.[7]
Post-NASL
Although the NASL's final season was 1984, and the league folded in early 1985, the Roughnecks continued to operate as an independent club. They had put together an ambitious schedule of more than 20 matches stretching from May into August, against teams from the USL, MISL, WACS, Europe, and South America, as well as other former NASL sides that had not folded.[8] Excluding several cancelations along the way, the team compiled a record of 8–2–1, before suspending operations on July 17, 1985.[9]
Many former players have found employment as paid trainers of youth soccer teams for clubs such as the Tulsa United, Tulsa Soccer Club (TSC), Tornado Soccer Club, and Hurricane Football Club (HFC).
^Tierney, Mike (February 15, 1978). "Rowdies trounce Tulsa". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1C. Archived from the original on May 16, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2018.