The summer rolled on. I began worrying as to when would we hear from the League. I had vacations planned months before coming up on the calendar. Using another of my Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards awards, I was going to Portland, Oregon for the weekend of the Oregon Brewers Festival (and one Continental Indoor Soccer League match). The weekend after that was the United Soccer Boosters' Convention in Saint Louis, Missouri. I would motor there.
During the U.S.B.C., even the people at the AMBUSH office could not tell me what was going to happen (They seemed to have a bunch of ideas other times.). Clearly, outdoor matches were not going to occur, so we had to proceed to the next hurdle. Where would we play, and who would be our head coach?
Here, I'll admit to an error in judgment by me. I was unsure if Boro Sucevic had been told by the League that he wasn't going to be the head coach of the team this season. I didn't want him to hear this from me. So I did not call Boro to see if he had contacted some potential players, and if so, how had he phrased the invitations? But on the converse, I was still fielding calls from people who wanted to interview for the coaching position. One of those persons was Zelimir Antonijevic. But the most intriguing call I got was in mid-August.
I got a telephone call at home from Keith Tozer of the WAVE. He informed me that the League had begun scheduling pre-season exhibitions, and we were slated to play them at Soccer USA in Milwaukee on 7 October. The NPSL pre-season tournament for us would be there the following Saturday & Sunday. K. Tozer also asked if I was still interviewing people for the coaching position. I replied "Yes."
A few days later I received a call from John Dolinsky. John wanted
an interview. We set one up for 31 August at the POWER office on Lincoln
Ave.
I looked over my notes from Art Kramer. I refined some of the
questions and put in a few others dealing with eerily-seeming off-field
machinations of John's previous teams.
In Dayton in January 1991, when
John was coaching the DYNAMO, he was confronted with the situation of one
Brian Kohen. Brian was a soccer-playing son of one of the DYNAMO's
investors. As quid pro quo of his investment, he insisted that his
son dress and play in matches. Some of the other players on the DYNAMO,
most notably Scott Cook, decried this state of things. Scott was summarily
suspended, and eventually traded to us, where he scored our first goal in
our unbelievable comeback from 0-7 down (& 6-10 with 1:27 remaining)
in Game #3 of the NPSL Finals on 25 April 1991, in his first return
afterward to the Ervin J. Nutter Center. Yes, when we won the
Championship, the vanquished coach was John Dolinsky.
If our
new owner was going to be Jim Hoch, he might similarly feel that his son
should dress and play. [Let me tell you, Jim Egan was still a better
player than Adam Hoch.]
I wrote down the names of the players whom I thought we had a chance
to sign. But there were some names whom I had been cultivating, the most
notable of which was Marcelo Carrera. I also felt that even if Jim
Hoch did not buy the franchise, with my connection with Carlos
"Cacho" Cordoba (via Pato Margetic), we would get first shot at
those Milwaukee MK RAMPAGE players who were playing elsewhere in the NPSL.
Kris Kelderman came to mind. He wanted to play for a midwestern team rather
than the Buffalo BLIZZARD. Boro had mentioned during the season that he
would like Joey Kirk, who was on the Detroit ROCKERS' roster. Eventually,
I had about 40 players on the long list. Who did I have returning from
1994-95? Not many. The biggest omission was that of the Snow brothers.
Then, I felt, was the best time to move them to another team for those guys
I couldn't attract through free agency. I had a good professional
relationship with the BLIZZARD front office. One of its investors was
another gentleman whose surname was
By then, Gary Hindley had been hired by the
new owners of the Cincinnati SILVERBACKS (which had relocated from Dayton).
I was convinced he was going to sweep out the roster in Cincinnati. I
surmised that Tony Bono, Chris Pfau, Chris King, & Scott Lawler were
all available for the right price.
Our returnees included Tony Sanneh,
Larry Sunderland, Juan Carranza, and Chuck Codd. I got to talk with Tony
when the Minnesota THUNDER came into town to play the STINGERS in the
U.S.I.S.L. playoffs.
During this time, I was receiving intelligence {yes, I had some
previously} telling me when some teams were opening training camps.
The Cleveland CRUNCH were opening up on 21 September! I needed to get
word out to those teams who had players in which I was interested. I
needed to book time at an indoor facility to give these players a date
and a hour when to appear. If we had an exhibition in Milwaukee on 7
October, I would have to open camp no later than 2 October.
I
called up the facility in Highland Park (a north suburb) on US 41
where we had had some practices at the end of last season and inquired
about some time there. It seemed to have time available; although on
the 2nd itself, it had a two-hour kids' birthday party scheduled from
11:30 am to 1:30 pm for which it had already been paid.
I composed
letters and mailed them to a clutch of U.S.I.S.L. and A-League teams,
requesting that the named players kindly try out on that date. I had to
be very careful in the verbiage I used. I certainly
didn't want to get sued (or cause any litigation against anyone) for
breach of promise for implying that a named player would be on the
opening day roster.
August 31st rolled around. I drove over to the POWER office on Lincoln Ave. and knocked on Louis Palivos' door. There was no one in. This meant I couldn't get the key to #203, which is where our supplies and stuff were, and was where I had intended to conduct the interview. So while I was standing in the hallway, John Dolinsky came up the stairs and saw me leaning up against a wall. I greeted him and expressed concern that I hoped this wasn't a harbinger. {"The League doesn't even trust me with a key to the office."} It was overcome by moving the interview to a streetside parkway. It actually was a pleasant enough day to want to spend more time outside.
During the interview, I explicitly mentioned the Brian Kohen episode and asked him how would he respond if a similar matter arose here? I did mention I had a list of potential players, but I wouldn't entwine them around him until such time as he was hired. I bounced a few of Art Kramer's answers off him to see if he agreed. Ultimately, one name did emerge. I expressed that it was our hope to make this a franchise for which every player would want to play. I mentioned that Dennis Brose had been offered to us in January, but he would not agree to come here. So he was shipped off to Detroit instead. I allowed, "If we get the team, and you become the coach, can we get Dennis Brose here? Can we convince him that the stories he's heard about this franchise in the past few years won't occur again?" John felt he could. To me, this was the most important answer he gave.
Louis did show up by the time we ended the interview, so he got a glimpse of John before he left. Louis promised to give me a key to the office as soon as possible. I wanted it because I needed to start frequenting the office on a daily basis. Beginning the day after Labor Day, I would be in the office on Lincoln Ave. from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm daily. We still hadn't heard from the League what would be our status that season.
The balance of the computerized letters went out the next day to the finalists in the A-League. (Atlanta & Seattle) There was one more letter which I was going to send, but it wasn't going to be computerized. I wasn't sure if I wanted a copy of the letter to be extant anywhere. It was the letter I sent to Mr. Peter Richardson of the Chicago STINGERS.
Louis told me when I got the key that the League was still trying to convince someone to purchase the team individually. Louis was getting itchy. He had turned down rental requests for #203 (& #204) waiting for the League to sign a lease for it. The League Commissioner was calling him occasionally. I sensed Louis was willing to tell me more, but I prevented him from doing this because I did not want to be accused of screwing the deal again. Louis did mention that we should go on presuming that we would run the team, but that the League would have to approve whatever expenditures we proposed. I interpreted this that we had fallen to Option #3 as far as the number of people in our investment group who had pledged money.
Words failed me then. On one side, I can understand how potential
investors were upset by the way the Commissioner treated them at one
of our meetings. But on the other side, they were fortunate. They had
seen how the Commissioner handled matters before they
put up their money. Furthermore, they failed to see the "Big
Picture". Tens of thousands of Chicagoans are fans of indoor
soccer. They were awaiting a team with whom they could again identify.
I was sure that I, Louis, and Al Kaczmarek had committed (although Al
did not want to be the biggest investor).
Ultimately, these other
balking investors let Chicago down.
I set about doing office work. One of the reasons for the odd
hours was that I still had
When Best Buy® opened
an office supply section, I went and bought the maximum number of
blank paper packages, which I anticipated using in our facsimile machine,
computer printer, and duplicating machine. I had shopped for each of
the former, and knew what we should get and how much we should spend.
Folks, can you get the picture here? I was being frugal to the extreme.
We're nearly at the boiling point. If you want to learn how this culminates, you need to click here.