PHILADELPHIA FURY

The 'Philadelphia Fury' was a soccer team based in Philadelphia that played in the North American Soccer League from 1978 to 1980. Among the club's investors were rock musicians Rick Wakeman, Peter Frampton and Paul Simon. The team played at Veterans Stadium.
The Fury returned NASL soccer to Philadelphia for the first time since the Philadelphia Atoms folded in 1976. Although never posting a winning season, they did make the playoffs in two of their three seasons. But attendance declined with each season and after a poor year on the pitch and at the gate in 1980, the club was sold and moved to become the Montreal Manic.
Notable Philadelphia Fury players included Johnny Giles, Alan Ball and Peter Osgood, all of whom starred in England before joining the club; although Osgood was a major disappointment (1 goal in 23 matches), Giles was a solid perfomer, and Ball was a star (and served as player-coach in 1978 after the dismissal of manager Richard Dinnis).
Other star performers for the Fury included all-league defender John Dempsey, Pat Fidelia, David Robb, Frank Worthington and Bob Rigby.

Contents

Year-by-year

Honors

Head coaches

Yearly average attendance

External link

Year-by-year

Year	Record	Regular Season Finish	Playoffs
1978	12-18	4th, Eastern Division, American Conference	First Round
1979	10-20	3rd, Eastern Division, American Conference	American Conference Semifinals
1980	10-22	4th, Eastern Division, American Conference	''Did Not Qualify''

Honors

'NASL championships'

★ none
'Division titles'

★ none
'All-star second team selections'

★ 1978 Alan Ball, Jr.

Head coaches

★ Richard Dinnis 1978

★ Alan Ball, Jr. 1978

★ Marko Valok 1979

★ Eddie Firmani 1980

Yearly average attendance

★ 1978 - 8,280

★ 1979 - 5,626

★ 1980 - 4,465

External link

★ Brief history of the Fury by American soccer historian Steve Holroyd