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Dallas Tornado 1967-68 World Tour
After the 1967 season, the USA and NPSL leagues merged into
the NASL. The Dallas Tornado sent coach Bob Kap to northern
Europe to put together a team of young "All American" looking
players. Before the NASL season started in 1968, this new
Dallas Tornado team was sent on an amazing six month tour of
Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Central
America.
This is the story of that trip. A team of 18 young, unknown players who had never been to Dallas went into some of the world's most difficult locations as the "Dallas Tornado" soccer team. This included games in Saigon in the middle of the Vietnam War. Imagine taking a trip to Baghdad to play a game today. It was an amazing trip that will never be repeated again.
Most of the content has been provided by Bill Crosbie who was an 19 year old with a dream to play professional soccer. This is not meant to be his story. Hopefully someday, a better writer than me will collect the other stories and publish a book. For now, it will be primarily his memories of the trip.
Thanks to Neil Morrison for researching the exact dates and scores.
"I do not know who`s idea tour was, if it was Lamar Hunt's or Bob Kap's. The idea was to have a very young "All American" style look about us. To this end, we all had to have very short hair and even had to travel the world with Stetsons, jackets, and ties.
Being the sixties, it was all about " The Beatles" and shoulder length hair. I was one of those people. "By the way," said Mr Kap, "If you want to join this football club get a short, back and sides before I see you again." I got home about 10 that night on the bus. I went across the road to a girl I knew was a hairdresser. I got a hair cut, packed a suitcase and wrote a resignation letter to the firm I worked for. Then I got to bed . I was up at six. I said goodbye to my parents . And I got the bus to Lime Street Station in Liverpool for the train. We did not have a phone, so I could not even contact my girlfriend to say goodbye!
Here is where fate comes in. I was a Bus conductor which meant at any one time I could be out on the road with no way of being contacted. We didn`t have cell phones then. If I had been on a late shift or late afternoon shift I would have missed the telegram and not gone on the world tour." Bill Crosbie
Aug. 24: Cordoba, Spain Cordoba CF Lost 2-4
Aug. 29: Madrid, Spain Alcala Won 5-4
Sept. 9: Seville, Spain
Coria del Rio Won 3-2
Sept. 15: Tangier, Morocco UDT
Won 3-2
Sept. 20: Morocco Real Oviedo Lost 0-4
Sept.30: Nice, France Bill Crosbie and Bobby Roach join the team.
Oct. 10: Istanbul,Turkey Fenerbache Drew 2-2 Crowd 25,000
Oct. 11-12: Athens, Greece Transit and sightseeing.. The team was were scheduled to take a flight from Athens to Nicosia, Cyprus. Because we had been sightseeing too long at the Acropolis, we missed our plane by half an hour. It was the best thing the we ever did. The plane we should have been on was blown up in mid air by a bomb. It was a flight from Athens to Nicosia Cyprus. 63 people died on that planed. They were after the Greek Cypriot leader General George Grivas. He was booked on that flight with us. He also missed the flight and caught the very same flight we were on. Bill Crosbie
Note: Here is a link to an article about the bombing. http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0283.shtml
 Bill Crosbie at the Acropolis |
 Dallas Tornado Team touring the Acropolis |
Oct. 13: Limmasol, Cyprus Apollon Limmasol Lost 2-4 Crowd 6,000
Oct. 14: Nicosia, Cyprus Apoel Nicosia Lost 0-2 95 degrees
Oct. 16: Beirut, Lebanon transit
Oct. 17: Tehran, Iran Iranian Air Force Lost 1-2 crowd 8,000 The Air Force team had 7 Internationals
Dallas Tornado in Tehran, Iran |
Oct. 18 : Tehran, Iran Teheran Select 11 Drew 1-1 This team had 5 Internationals
Oct. 20 : Shiraz, Iran Governors 11 Drew 1-1
Oct. 21: Tehran, Iran "We flew back from Shiraz to Tehran. We got a shock at the airport. A new player called Graham Stirland had joined the tour in the south of France. He was a winger. A fantastic player who beside being good going forward was always getting back to help his fullback out. All the players loved him as a player. Here is the injustice. The manager Bob Kap did not think he was mixing with the rest of the squad and kept to himself. We arrived in, I think it was Athens airport for our next flight and Graham was asked to follow Frank Randorf (an assistant to Bob Kap) to the gents toilets. We all then went to the boarding gate. Ten minutes later, Frank arrived alone. We asked where Graham was. We were told that Mr. Kap did not think he was mixing with the other players and he was sent home to England. We were not even allowed to say goodbye and that was the last we saw of him." Bill Crosbie
Oct. 22: Rasht, Iran Team? Lost 0-1 We had a 7
hour coach ride across the mountains to
Oct. 23: We stayed at Bablasar on the Caspian sea.
Oct. 24: Shahi, Iran Team? Score? Took a 7.5 hour coach ride to Shahi. Played the same afternoon. Shahi is 5,000 feet up in the mountains.
Oct. 26: Tehran, Iran "Took a 7 hour coach ride back to Tehran. We stayed the night readying for a flight to Karachi, Pakistan. Before we leave Tehran, Norwegian player Tom Weinholdt goes home to have knee surgery. The team is now down to 16 players." Bill Crosbie
Oct. 27: Karachi, Pakistan Pakistan Selected XI Won 2-0 Crowd of 35,000 Scoring: Younas own goal (HT-2'), Chris Bachofner (HT +10') Note: Reported as a Pakistan Selected XI, essentially a B-team
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Oct. 29: Lahore, Pakistan Pakistan Selected XI Lost 2-4 Crowd of 25,000 Pakistan played with 11 new players
Note: Reported as a Pakistan national team, but selected only from West Pakistan
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Oct. 31: Dacca, East Pakistan Pakistan U23 team Drew 1-1 Crowd 25,000 This is now Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Nov. 1: Chittagong Team? Drew 0-0
"We were up at 4 am for the flight to Chittagong. We played in the afternoon. And then another 2 hour flight back to Dacca." Bill Crosbie
Nov. 3: "We took a 4 hour ride on a rickety old bus to the border of India. We get to the border. We have to take our suitcases off that bus walk 400 yards to the border. There were local rioters screaming and hurling abuse because the country we were walking to was India. We go through passport control and walk 400 yards with suitcases to our next bus where the people were laying garlands at our feet!
To make matters worse, when we got through those thousands of screaming agitators in East Pakistan, the only people allowed to cross the border into India were British or Commonwealth Nationals. All the English got through as well as Bob Kap who was a naturalized Canadian. The Scandinavians, Dutch and Americans had to stay for two days in a rundown, no star hotel. They told us the only thing they had to eat in those two days was a small chicken." Bill Crosbie
Nov. 3: Calcutta,India
Nov. 5: Calcutta, India Indian National Team Drew 0-0 Crowd 30,000
Nov. 7: New Delhi, India Presidents 11 Lost 0-1 Crowd 35,000 95 degrees
Nov. 8: New Delhi, India Site seeing including visit to Mahatma Gandhi tomb
 Mahatma Gandhi Tomb Notice the team is wearing jackets and ties. The temperature was 95 degrees. |
 Mahatma Gandhi Tomb |
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Nov. 9: Bombay, India Presidents 11 Lost 0-1 Crowd 25,000 105 degrees!
Nov. ?: Bangalore, India Governors 11 Drew 1-1 Crowd 30,000
Nov. ?: Madras, India Indian National Team Won 4-1 Crowd 30,000
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 Tornado in Madras |
Nov. 20: Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
Nov. 22: Colombo, Ceylon Ceylon National Team Lost 1-2
Nov. 24: Colombo, Ceylon? Ceylon National Team Lost 0-1
Nov. 25: "On this day, we should have flown from Ceylon to Burma via Madras and Calcutta. When we got to Calcutta there were political riots going on and all flights were cancelled. We had to hide in our hotel for two days and left on the 28th at 4:00 AM to sneak out of India." Bill Crosbie
Nov. 28: Rangoon, Burma Burma U21
Team Lost 0-2
Crowd 45,000 "This was a fantastic team." Bill Crosbie
Nov. 30: Rangoon, Burma Burma National Team Lost 2-4 Crowd 47,000 Played in front of 92,000 people within 48 hours! The Tornado drew xxx in Dallas for a season of xx games.
Dec 2: Singapore
Dec 3: "On the way to the stadium, there were Chinese militants chanting slogans like "Go Home Yanks" and "Yankee Imperialists." In the stadium things were not much better even the team we played were taking chunks out of us. When one of our players, Per Larsen fouled one of theirs, they started throwing stones and other things onto the pitch. He then incensed them by bowing. We had to be escorted from the pitch and had to stay in the dressing room for 2 hours after the game while the mob outside left!" Bill Crosbie
Dec. 4: The game against a different Singapore was cancelled for safety (ours !) reasons. Bill Crosbie
Dec. 6: Djakarta, Indonesia
Dec 7: Djakarta, Indonesia Indonesian National Team Drew 1-1 Crowd 22,000
Dec 9:Djakarta, Indonesia Indonesian National Team Lost 1-2 Crowd 20,000
Dec 12: Saigon, Vietnam
Dec 14: Saigon, Vietnam
Vietnam U23 Team
Drew 2-2 Crowd 15,000
Dec 16: Saigon, Vietnam Vietnam National Team Drew 1-1 Crowd 20,000
"As an American, my life has been highly influenced by the Vietnam War. It was on the news morning and night. Every teenage boy feared being drafted and sent to Vietnam. There were riots in the streets protesting the war. American soldiers shot and killed American citizens for protesting the war. Everyone had a brother, cousin or neighbor who had been sent to Vietnam. There wasn't a day that you didn't discuss the war.
For this reason, the Vietnam portion of the Tornado tour amazes me the most. They didn't just got to a war zone to play soccer. They went at a critical time in the history of the war. The turning point in the war was the Tet offensive which started just 45 days after the Tornado played their last game in Saigon. During the Tet offensive the North Vietnamese attacked the Presidential Palace in the heart of Saigon. The City of Hue was leveled in the fighting. For Bill and the team, it appears to have been just another stop on the trip." Dave Morrison
Read more about the Tet Offensive: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1862.html
The one interesting story I have was I was standing with Eddie Hall on the corner of a street in Saigon one afternoon taking in the views when this jeep screams up to us with some M.P.s in. They obviously thought we were G.I. s and asked us: "What the effin hell are you two doing standing there." When we gave an answer they realized we were English and told us not to stand still anywhere for more than two seconds. On enquiring why, they said there was a female as a passenger on a scooter who goes round looking for "Americans." As the scooter drives by at 20 mph, she times it with a hand grenade at your feet so by the time you realize she is 50 yards away and you are in heaven! We never went shopping again!" Bill Crosbie
 Bill Crosbie in Saigon |
 Eddie Hall and Bill Crosbie in Saigon |
 US Soldier in Saigon |
 US Navy docked in Saigon |
 Nmerican GIs on Mekong River |
 Bill Crosbie on the Mekong River |
Dec. 17: Hong Kong In transit overnight
Dec. 18: Taipei, Taiwan
Dec. 19: Taipei, Taiwan Taiwan National Team Won 3-2 Crowd 43,000
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Dec. 21: Tokyo, Japan
Dec. 24: Tokyo, Japan Japan National Team Lost 1-2 Crowd 30,000 Game played at Olympic Stadium. The Japanese National team played in the Olympics in 1968.
Dec. 25: Day in Tokyo
Dec. 27: Osaka, Japan Japan National Team Lost 2-3 Crowd 25,000
Dec. 30: Manila, Philippines
Dec. 31: Manila, Philippines New Year's Eve
Jan 1: Manila, Philippines Manila Chinese Select 11 Won 7-0 Crowd 10,000
Jan 3: Manila, Philippines
Philippines National Team Drew
1-1
Jan. 7: Brisbane, AustraliaAfter 18 hours travelling!
Jan. 9: Location???, Australia Queensland State Lost 0--1 Crowd 5,000
Jan. 13: Newcastle, Australia Newcastle S. W Arrived at ground to play Newcastle, but game called off because the pitch was waterlogged.
Jan. 17: Adelaide, Australia South Australia Won 3 - 2 Crowd 4,000
Jan. 20:Sydney, Australia Played Newcastle S . W Don't have the score.
Jan. 23: Christchurch, New Zealand Drew
2-2
Jan. 23: New Zealand National Team Lost 2-3
Jan 31: Suva, Fiji Fiji National Team Won 10- 2 Crowd 3,000 Played 60 minute game because of 100 degree heat.
Feb 1:Nandi, Fiji Fiji National Team Won 3-1 Played 60 minute game because of 102 degree heat.
Feb. 8: Papeete, Tahiti Papeete Lost 3-0
Feb. 8: Tahiti National Team Lost 1-2
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Feb. 15: Left Tahiti
to go to Dallas via Acapulco, Mexico City and San Antonio, Texas. When we arrived in Dallas, we had 2 weeks or so to set
up our lives. We had to find our apartments, buy pots, pans,
dishes, food, and get phone lines. After that the team sent us on
another mini-tour to Central America. Bill Crosbie
Mar. 5: Costa Rica
Mar. 6: Saprissa Lost 1-3
Mar. 8: Saprissa Drew
3-3
Mar. 12: Honduras Olympia Lost 1-2
"By this time all of the players were completely exhausted both mentally and physically. Not the best way to prepare for the upcoming 1st season." Bill Crosbie
Bill's comment is borne out by the 1968 NASL results. The Tornado had only 2 wins and 4 ties to go with 26 losses. This turned out to be the lowest winning percentage in the history of the league. The Tornado were outscored by an almost 4-1 ratio.
1968 Tornado home attendance was miserable. They only drew at total of 46,832 for the entire 16 game home season. Compare this to the 92,000 they drew in Burma in just 2 days.
| Tour Players | Citizen |
Team picture taken in Dallas at the beginning of the 1968 NASL season
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| Chris Bachofner | Sweden | |
| Bill Crosbie | England | |
| Hans Petter Enger | Norway | |
| Eddie Hall | England | |
| Bryan Harvey | England | |
| Per Larsen | Norway | |
| Odd Lindberg | Norway | |
| Dave Moorcraft | England | |
| Jay Moore | USA | |
| Mike Renshaw | England | |
| Bobby Roach | England | |
| John Stewart | England | |
| Fons Stoffels | Holland | |
| Graham Stirland | England | |
| Chris Tonning | Sweden | |
| Tom Weinholdt | Norway | |
| Dutch Player 1 | Holland | |
| Dutch Player 2 | Holland | |
| Bob Kap Coach |