Dallas Tornado
Year Record Regular Season Finish Playoffs
1971 2-0 Hoc-Soc Tournament 1st place
1975 2-2 ( 16 team tournament only ) 3rd place
1976 2-2 ( 12 team tournament only ) 4th place
1979 2-0 Budweiser Invitational 1st place
1980-81 7-11 3rd , Southern Division Did Not Qualify
Indoor seasons
In March 1971 the league staged its first ever indoor event , a four-team Hoc-Soc tournament at the St. Louis Arena . Dallas won both of its matches , 2–1 and 3–0 , and the title . [ 8 ] In the winter of 1975 , the NASL organized a two-tiered , 16 team indoor tournament with four regional winners meeting in a `` final-four '' style championship . Dallas hosted their region at the Fair Park Coliseum and won the group . Though they lost in the semi-final , the Tornado rebounded to win the 3rd place game 2–0 over New York at the Cow Palace . In 1976 they again advanced out of their group , this time as a wild card , but lost both the semi-final and the third-place match at the Bayfront Center . In January 1979 the Tornado joined the Tulsa Roughnecks , Ft. Lauderdale Strikers and host Tampa Bay Rowdies for the two-day Budweiser Invitational . [ 9 ] They won both games , and the mini-tournament itself on goal differential . Tornado forward Jimmy Ryan was the leading scorer of the invitational with 7 goals . [ 10 ] Dallas participated in only one full NASL indoor season , 1980–81 , before folding . [ 11 ]
The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the US in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest-15 seasons. Their home fields were Cotton Bowl (1967-1968), P.C. Cobb Stadium (1969), Franklin Field (1970-1971), Texas Stadium (1972-1975, 1980-1981) and Ownby Stadium on the SMU campus (1976-1979). The club played Indoor soccer at Reunion Arena for one season (1980-81), and hosted the two-day 1975 Regionals at Fair Park Coliseum.