The Oakland Clippers, also named the California Clippers, were an American

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

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. They played in the non-

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

sanctioned National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967 and the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

(NASL) in the following season. Their home field was

Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Oakland Coliseum, currently naming rights, branded as RingCentral Coliseum, is a stadium in Oakland, California. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880 (California), In ...

Overview

The Clippers brought the first-ever national professional championship in any sport to the San Francisco Bay Area and the City of Oakland. Team owners originally planned to play in San Francisco until General Manager Derek Liecty convinced them that the new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was a better choice than San Francisco's old and windy Kezar stadium. Through connections in Yugoslavia, the Clippers were able to hire Dr. Aleksandar Obradovic, former Team Manager of Red Star of Belgrade. Obradovic brought with him Red Star coach and former Yugoslav international Ivan Toplak as well as a nucleus of six first division players who were willing to play in the non-sanctioned league. During the 1967/1968 season the Clippers had players from ten countries. In 1967 they won the NPSL Western Division and overall regular season titles. They went on to win the NPSL Final over the Baltimore Bays by a two-game, home-and-home aggregate score of 4-2. They also won the Commissioner's Cup over the St. Louis Stars by a score of 6-3. Following the 1967 season, the team joined the newly formed North American Soccer League (NASL), the result of the merger between the NPSL and the United Soccer Association (USA). In 1968, the Clippers had an identical record to the Western Division Champion San Diego Toros and a higher goal-differential, but the Toros had more league points. As the result of a disputed referee’s off-side call in their final regular season game against the San Diego Toros, a 3-3 tie, the Clippers finished in second place and were eliminated from the playoffs. The unique points system denied them the chance to defend their 1967 NPSL title in 1968’s merged league. The North American Soccer League was near collapse in September 1968. Having no possible League opponents west of Dallas, Texas and wanting to maintain the team while waiting for the NASL to become reconstituted, the Clippers began playing an independent schedule as the California Clippers against top foreign club teams. These efforts included bringing to the United States for the first time a team from the Soviet Union, league club champion Dynamo Kiev. The three-game match up was split with a win and a tie for each. Alarmed by the success of the Clippers and concerned that such an independent schedule might thwart plans for a reconstituted NASL, the United States Soccer-Football Association placed restrictions on the Clippers and prevented them from arranging any further international games. Just before the ban, the Clippers defeated Italian league champion Fiorentina in their final game by a score of 4-2 and posted an exhibition match record of 7-6-2. The Clippers ceased operations on June 4, 1969. The team's owners had lost $1.5 million while running the team and cited the dysfunctional relationship between various governing bodies as a reason for folding the team. Several Clippers players, as well as coach Ivan Toplak, went on to join the original San Jose Earthquakes team founded as a member of the North American Soccer League in 1974: Goalkeeper Mirko Stojanovic, leading scorer Ilija Mitić, Momčilo "Gabbo" Gavrić, and Milan Čop.

Year-by-year

Honors

National Professional Soccer League *Champions:

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

*Premiers:

*Commissioner's Cup:

*Western Division:

1967 First Team All-Stars *

Mirko Stojanovic Mirko (Cyrillic script: Мирко) is a masculine given name of South Slavic origin. By Slavic etymology, the name is composed of the root ''mir'' (meaning peace) and hypocoristic suffix ''-ko'' usual in South Slavic languages, which together m ...

Mel Scott Melvyn Douglas Scott (26 September 1939 – August 1997) was an English professional footballer who played as a centre half in the Football League for Brentford and Chelsea. He was capped by England at youth and U23 level. Club career Chelse ...

Ilija Mitic Ilija may refer to: * Ilija, Iran, a village in Ardabil Province, Iran * Ilija, Slovakia, a village and municipality in the Banská Štiavnica District, in the Banská Bystrica Region * Ilija (given name), South Slavic given name *ilija (puki) ka ...

Mario Baesso Mario Baesso Aparecido (born 5 September 1945) is a former Brazilian footballer. Career Mario Baesso began his professional career playing for América-SP, a football club based in São José do Rio Preto (São Paulo state). From 1967 to 1968 h ...

North American Soccer League 1968 First Team All-Stars *

Mirko Stojanović Mirko Stojanović (born 11 June 1939 in Zagreb) is a Croatian retired footballer. In his career, he made four international appearances for the Yugoslav national team. Playing career Club While playing for NK Dinamo Zagreb he won the 1959–60 ...

* Momcilio Gavric * David Davidovic *

1968 Second Team All-Stars *

Milan Čop Milan "Mile" Čop (born 5 October 1938, in Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is a Croatian retired football player. International career He made his debut for Yugoslavia in an October 1963 friendly match away against Romania Romania ( ; ro, Româ ...

Team Roster

1967 Roster

References

{{North American Soccer League (1966–85) Defunct soccer clubs in California Sports teams in Oakland, California National Professional Soccer League (1967) franchises North American Soccer League (1968–1984) teams 1967 establishments in California 1969 disestablishments in California Soccer clubs in California Association football clubs established in 1966 Association football clubs disestablished in 1969