The Houston Stars were an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based out of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. The Stars were a charter member of the United Soccer Association (USA) in 1967 and when the USA and rival National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) merged in 1968 to form the North American Soccer League (NASL), the team moved to the new league. The Stars played its home matches at the

Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas. It was financed and assisted in development by Roy Hofheinz, mayor of Houston ...

. The team folded at the conclusion of the 1968 NASL season.

History

In 1966 several groups of entrepreneurs were exploring the idea of forming a professional soccer league in United States. One of these groups, United Soccer Association (USA) led by

Jack Kent Cooke Jack Kent Cooke (October 25, 1912 – April 6, 1997) was a Canadian-American businessman in broadcasting and professional sports. Starting in sales, Cooke was very successful, eventually becoming a partner in a network of radio stations and news ...

, selected 12 cities for team locations and

Roy Hofheinz Roy Mark Hofheinz (April 10, 1912 – November 22, 1982), popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was a Texas state representative from 1934 to 1936, county judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city ...

, former Houston Mayer and owner of the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

, was awarded a franchise. The USA originally planned to start play in the spring of 1968; however the rival National Professional Soccer League, which secured a TV contract from CBS, announced it was ready to launch in 1967. Not wanting to let the rival league gain an advantage, the USA decided to launch early. Not having secured any player contracts, the league imported teams from Europe, Brazil, and Uruguay to represent the franchise cities. Brazilian team

Bangu Atlético Clube Bangu Atlético Clube, commonly known as Bangu, is a Brazilian professional association football club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the western neighbourhood of Bangu. The team plays in Série D, the fourth tier of the Brazilian football le ...

was brought in to play as the Stars. The Stars opened the season at home against the

Los Angeles Wolves The Los Angeles Wolves were an American professional soccer team that played for two seasons. In 1967 they played in the United Soccer Association, finishing as champions, and in 1968 they were founding members of the North American Soccer Leag ...

in a 1 - 1 draw in front of crowd of 34,965. In their inaugural season in 1967, the Houston Stars finished fourth place with a record of 4 wins, 4 ties and 4 loss while drawing an average home league attendance of 19,802 in six games, the highest of all soccer clubs in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that year. With the merger of the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

and the National Professional Soccer League it was announced that Houston would be one of the 20-teams in play in the North American Soccer League (NASL). The Stars finished the 1968 NASL season in second place of the Gulf Division Division with a record of 14 wins 12 ties and 6 loses and an average attendance of 3,246. The team folded at the conclusion of the 1968 NASL season.

Year-by-year

Notes

References

{{North American Soccer League (1968–84) North American Soccer League (1968–1984) teams Defunct soccer clubs in Texas United Soccer Association franchises S 1967 establishments in Texas 1968 disestablishments in Texas Soccer clubs in Texas Association football clubs established in 1967 Association football clubs disestablished in 1968