Legacy of Stoke City’s Cleveland visit lives on

Stoke City arrived in Cleveland and was ready to give what it had to the cause.

“We’re here to introduce the sport of soccer to America,” star midfielder Maurice Setters said at the time.

The NPSL’s TV contract with CBS was a blow to the USA. But Cleveland made local radio and TV plans for its new soccer side.

Road matches, including the inaugural match May 26 at Washington, would be shown on WEWS, and home matches that didn’t conflict with Indians broadcasts would be on WJW. The WEWS telecasts had sports director Paul Wilcox on play-by-play — and Manager Tony Waddington as analyst. In that era, managers sat in the stands and talked tactics with their players at halftime, so he was deemed free for the role. Wilcox later called the experience calling soccer “harrowing.”

The TV broadcasts had four commercials per half, but play would not stop. Instead, when the ball went out of bounds, ads would begin, and the center official would purposely delay a restart to minimize the amount of missed action.

Radio broadcasts were on WXEN-FM, and the voice of the Stokers was Dr. Joe Wendel, still leading a distinguished career as a public-radio personality.

Wendel joined WXEN in 1961 to host a German program and was the coach at Cuyahoga Falls while high school soccer was in its infancy in Cleveland.

“In those days, the fact is I played soccer and coached soccer, and the station needed a sportscaster, so they approached me and I was delighted to do that,” Wendel said.

Journey begins

The Stokers won their opener, 2-1, on a sultry night in Washington, with Setters and Roy Vernon goals.

As the home opener loomed May 31 against Chicago, Society Bank took out a full-page ad welcoming Stoke to Cleveland.

“Society knows that soccer will make summer more fun for Clevelanders,” part of the ad read. “And we know that anything that improves Cleveland is good for all of us.”

Team officials hoped for a crowd of between 12,000 and 15,000, but got 9,435 instead as the Stokers settled for a 1-1 tie.

Tickets were sold for between $18 and $30 for the season and $3 to $5 for single matches, $2 for unreserved bleachers and $1 for 18 and under.

Wendel could tell it would be a problem and told GM Marsh Samuel.

“They charged the same admission as they did for professional football and baseball,” Wendel said. “And I thought, ‘You’re introducing a game. Make it more lucrative.’ Instead of charging $10, charge $5, you get two or three times more and you build up your clientele. But by the time they started, it was too late.”

Season marches on

Stoke didn’t show any wear and tear from its English season, starting 4-0-3 as the Stokers were first in the Eastern Division.

Mixed into that unbeaten run were a 1-0 win at Boston — technically, since it was on a high school football field in Lynn, Massachusetts — and a 4-1 win at Dallas in the Cotton Bowl as the temperature hit 103.

“What amazed me was that, after 90 minutes of playing, these athletes insisted on walking from the stadium downtown,” Wendel said. “We had the transportation provided, and at the time I thought, ‘If these guys can walk, after running for 90 minutes in this

heat, I can walk after talking for two hours.’ ”

Although attendance wasn’t reaching expectations, it was clear what effect clubs were having on the United States, including when the Stokers arrived by plane in Dallas.

“The team looked down, and there were 15 soccer fields,” Wendel said. “And they were filled with teenagers and youngsters playing soccer. The hearts of those soccer players, those professionals, they almost exploded out of joy. ‘This is what we came here for, to promote this kind of enthusiasm.’ ”

Enthusiasm also extended off the pitch. Players were known to enjoy an afternoon tanning on the hotel roof after morning training — as well as a night out at the Pick-Carter Hotel.

“They lived there, and they had wonderful times,” legendary Cleveland journalist Dan Coughlin said.

And the long road unfortunately began to catch up.

One point short

Injuries and personal circumstances took their toll.

Young goalkeeper Paul Shardlow, who impressed while world-class goalkeeper Gordon Banks was away, needed two stitches for a cut to the head after the opening match against Washington and later suffered a separated shoulder July 5 at Detroit.

Setters tried to play gamely through knee and ankle injuries but eventually

had to be rested after a cracked rib. George Eastham’s ankle was swollen to twice its normal size after a rainy 0-0 tie June 7 against Los Angeles.

Vernon’s wife was due with the couple’s third child, and striker Harry Burrows’ wife was due in September. Defender Bill Bentley left early for his wedding, and Banks left after a few matches for a family vacation.

Waddington left June 28 to attend to Stoke business at home for the upcoming English season, replaced by trainer Frank Mountford as acting manager in Cleveland.

The side got a week off in Fort Lauderdale, but it didn’t yield a late surge. The Stokers went 1-3-1 in their last five matches, relinquishing the Eastern Division title to Washington.

“At the end of August, I was in Pat Joyce’s bar downtown, a bar where all of the sporting crowd went to, located on St. Clair and East Sixth,” Coughlin said. “And the bartender Walter said to me one night, ‘What have you been doing all summer?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve been covering soccer.’ He said, ‘Oh, that explains it. I didn’t read a word.’ ”

But a young generation was paying attention.

Stoke players were appreciative as well. Vernon told Coughlin before he left, “Tell Cleveland how much we have enjoyed it here.”

Cleveland told them in return how much they enjoyed

having Stoke through the living legacy they left.

Lasting impact

Stouffer sold the Stokers to Howard Metzenbaum in time for the 1968 season — and Shardlow returned on loan in that side.

But the Stokers lasted just one season before folding amid a merging of the two rival leagues and contraction.

But as the Stokers transitioned to having their own side, Waddington oversaw tryouts June 15 at Mohican Field in Berea, and his players were out in the community as much as possible.

“They made themselves available to the local youth soccer clubs and tried to help,” Wendel said. “I mean, they really tried to help promote soccer in the country, and they did whatever was asked of them.

“The first year (as Cuyahoga Falls coach), we played five schools. That’s all we could find in the whole region. We played them both ways, there and back, so we had 10 games. The next year, we had 10 schools. It doubled in one year, and it kept on doubling.”

Glenn Korenko couldn’t get a high school side going before he graduated from Mentor in 1970, but he was part of an LESL side that helped get Mentor youth soccer off the ground.

One day, a young man out of the Navy asked if he could come and play with them. They told him they

needed a coach. A half-century later, Mario Gerhardt is the winningest high school coach ever in Ohio.

As Gerhardt started Chagrin Falls’ program in 1970, several East Side high school sides followed.

“It was all private schools that had programs in the area, and there’s nobody on the east side,” Korenko said. “The (Mentor) athletic director at the time was saying, ‘How do we get you guys to go to all of these far places or whatever?’ So it was another detriment to trying to get it.

“But after having soccer there, Mayfield, Mentor, Euclid — there were a number of schools that started to open up programs early in the ’70s because of this.”

And that sight of young people on fields that wowed Stoke players in a plane over Dallas began to materialize in cities all over Northeast Ohio, in the form of youth leagues that continue to be popular today. The British invasion of Stoke lives on.

“It triggered the startup of soccer camps, soccer programs, school teams,” Coughlin said. “It started this whole thing to where now, high school soccer and kids soccer is a big thing here in this part of Ohio and probably throughout the rest of the state.

“Oh yes, without that pro soccer team back then, who knows if there would be that much interest in soccer to this day? But it has changed our sporting landscape here.”