1971 NASL Professional Hoc-Soc Tournament

Indoor soccer tournaments had been played in one form or another in North America throughout much of the 20th Century, but 1971 marked the first time that a Division One professional league organized an indoor competition for its member clubs.[1] The total purse was $2,800. The winning side received $1,000, while the runners-up earned $750. The winners and losers of the third place match made $600 and $450 respectively.[2]

The matches themselves were all played on March 19 at the St. Louis Arena. Individual matches lasted 30 minutes and were divided by an intermission into two 15-minute periods. Golden goal overtime was in place to break any tie after regulation time if needed. The first two matches were scheduled for 8:00 PM and 8:45 PM starts, with the others to follow at unspecified times.

Four of the NASL's five established franchises participated: the Dallas Tornado, Rochester Lancers, St. Louis Stars and Washington Darts. The Atlanta Chiefs did not. The other three NASL squads, Montreal, New York and Toronto, were all expansion teams set to begin play in the 1971 outdoor season, which itself was to begin a few weeks later.

A crowd of 5,060 came out to witness the four back-to-back games. Eight minutes and five seconds into the opening match of the tournament, the home fans cheered as Jim Leeker put St. Louis ahead with the historic, first-ever NASL indoor goal. Their joy was short-lived as the Tornado rallied to defeat the Stars, 2–1, on the strength of two second-half goals by Jim Benedek. The second match saw the Lancers dispatch the Darts, 3–1. After a longer intermission, the losing teams, St. Louis and Washington, faced off in the Third Place match, with the Stars winning, 2–0. Dragan Popović scored both of St. Louis' goals. The evening culminated with the championship game between Dallas and Rochester. Tournament MVP Mike Renshaw was the man of the match with a pair of goals. After their 3–0 victory, the Dallas Tornado were crowned the NASL's professional hoc-soc champions.[4]

Despite pre-tournament predictions, the score lines were not overly high (in fact, there were only 12 goals in the four games, or three per contest; in the 1971 NASL "outdoor" season, there were 292 goals scored in 89 games, or 3.28 per match). Pundits attributed this to the players' instinctive reluctance to play in offside positions, despite the nonexistence of such a rule in hoc-soc.[4]

• Most Valuable Player: Mike Renshaw (Dallas) - Goals: 2 Assists: 1
• All-tournament Team: Mike Renshaw (Dallas), Jim Benedek (Dallas), Manfred Seissler (Rochester), Peter Short (Rochester), Dragan Popović (St. Louis), Miguel de Lima (St. Louis)

Pos = Final Position, G = Games, W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential

Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point)

GA = Goals Against, GAA = Goals Against Average

While 1971 marked the NASL's first foray into indoor soccer, it was by no means its last. In 1973 the Atlanta Apollos hosted two matches at The Omni against Montreal and Dallas respectively.[5][6] In February 1974 the famed Soviet Red Army squad embarked on a three-city tour (Toronto, Philadelphia, St. Louis) against NASL competition. It was the second of those three matches, played on February 11 that caught everybody's attention.[7] The Philadelphia Atoms lost a close match to the Soviets before 11,790 screaming fans at the Spectrum. That night is often cited as the watershed moment of indoor soccer in the United States.[1] With over 35,000 fans attending the three Russian matches, the NASL began to recognize the sport's potential. Larger indoor tournaments were staged in 1975 and 1976, as well as more independently staged matches. All of this ultimately led to full NASL indoor seasons beginning in 1979–80.

By no small coincidence, the future co-founder of the Major Indoor Soccer League, Ed Tepper, was also in attendance at the Spectrum that night in 1974. Liking what he saw, Tepper later shared a videotape of an 1977 indoor match[8] with former Washington Whips owner, Earl Foreman. Foreman also saw the game's potential, and the two men set about forming a new indoor-only soccer league.[1] The MISL began play in 1978, and lasted until 1992.

Other national indoor leagues that followed included the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the American Indoor Soccer Association, (MISL II and MISL III), as well as the current Major Arena Soccer League. In 2008 the Federación Internacional de Fútbol Rápido, or FIFRA, was formed as the sport's international governing body. FIFRA was effectively replaced in 2013 by the World Minifootball Federation.