Where Cleveland Played: Sports Shrines from League Park to the Coliseum by Morris Eckhouse & Greg Crouse

Author:Morris Eckhouse & Greg Crouse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Where Cleveland Played: Sports Shrines from League Park to the Coliseum
ISBN: 9781614232131
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2011-11-09T00:00:00+00:00

Goaltender Gilles Meloche guards the net against the Philadelphia Flyers’ Bob Kelly at the Coliseum during the first season of the NHL Cleveland Barons. Courtesy the Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University Special Collections.

The Cleveland Nets were most successful in 1976, with player/coach Marty Riessen leading the team at the Coliseum. Authors’ collection.

World Team Tennis was founded in 1973 and began play in 1974 with sixteen teams. After playing in 1974 at Public Hall, the Cleveland Nets moved to the new Coliseum in 1975, where they would remain until 1977. Tennis superstars Martina Navratilova (1976) and Björn Borg (1977) played for Cleveland, but the team and league struggled, drawing just 73,108 fans in 1976. By 1977, some “home” games were scheduled at neutral sites. The Nets moved to New Orleans in 1978.

The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) began play in Cleveland in 1978 as the Cleveland Force. After a tough first year, the Wolstein family bought the team from Eric Henderson. They acquired good players and put together a competitive team. Keith Furphy, Chris Vaccaro, Craig Allen and Kai Haaskivi made the team a force to be reckoned with. The team made seven playoff appearances but never won the championship.

On February 24, 1985, the Force and Coliseum hosted the MISL All-Star game. Allen, Furphy and Haaskivi all played for the victorious Western Division. Baltimore’s Stan Stamenkovic scored a hat trick and led the West to an 11–7 win in front of a sell-out crowd of 17,863.

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