The New England Tea Men were an American professional soccer team based in

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...

. They played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. Their home venues for outdoor play were

Schaefer Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England Pa ...

(shared with the NFL's New England Patriots) in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and

Nickerson Field Nickerson Field is an outdoor athletic stadium in the Northeastern United States, on the campus of Boston University (BU) in Boston, Massachusetts. The stadium is owned by BU, and is the home field for some Boston University Terriers athletics pr ...

near

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

. They also played one season of indoor soccer in the NASL, using the

Providence Civic Center The Amica Mutual Pavilion (originally Providence Civic Center and formerly Dunkin' Donuts Center) is an indoor arena located in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It was built in 1972, as a home court for the emerging Providence College men's ba ...

for home games. The Tea Men were originally owned by

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

's Lipton subsidiary and given their unusual name as a nod to both the company's product line and the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...

. The Tea Men won their division in 1978 and made a further playoff run in 1980. However, the team struggled for financial solvency in Massachusetts. Right at the start of the 1980–81 indoor season they relocated to

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

and became the

Jacksonville Tea Men The Jacksonville Tea Men were a soccer team based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Overall, the Tea Men played a total of four seasons in Jacksonville, first in the major league-level North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1980–1982, ...

History

Led in its initial season by former Charlton Athletic F.C. striker Mike Flanagan, the Tea Men won their division to much public acclaim, with Flanagan winning the league MVP award. Subsequent seasons proved not as successful for two important reasons. First, Flanagan, contracted to Charlton, remained in England (an attempt to secure him via a transfer failed, reportedly over endorsement rights). Second, the team was temporarily evicted from

in Foxborough, Massachusetts when the owners of Foxboro Raceway – located next door – claimed that the Tea Men's matches were causing traffic problems on racing dates. After spending one unhappy season at

on the campus of

, the team reached an accord with Foxboro Raceway to play in Foxboro, but not on racing dates. As a result, the Tea Men had to play many Monday night matches, which caused attendance to dwindle. At one home game during the 1980 season, only 254 fan attended a game, an all time low for the NASL. After leaving New England, the team moved to

and became the

Year-by-year

Honors

Division Champions (1) *

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

Southern Division NASL Most Valuable Player * 1978 Mike Flanagan U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame * 2003

Arnie Mausser Arnold "Arnie" Mausser (born February 28, 1954) is an American former soccer goalkeeper who played with eight different NASL teams from 1975 to 1984. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Mausser may be considered one of the fin ...

All-Star First Team Selections * 1978

Gerry Daly Gerard Anthony Daly (born 30 April 1954) is an Irish former footballer who played in the Football League for Manchester United, Derby County, Coventry City, Leicester City F.C., Leicester City, Birmingham City F.C., Birmingham City, Shrewsbur ...

, Mike Flanagan, Kevin Keelan, Chris Turner All-Star Honorable Mentions * 1978

Dave D'Errico David D'Errico (born June 3, 1952, in Newark, New Jersey) is a retired United States Men's National Team Captain and American soccer player. He spent eight years in the North American Soccer League (NASL), five in Major Indoor Soccer League (MI ...

* 1979 Artur Correia &

Staff

* Derek Carroll – President * Bill Alex – Play-by-Play Announcer * Steve Glendye – Color Commentator on Northeast Sports Network

Coaches

Noel Cantwell Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell (28 February 1932 – 8 September 2005) was an Irish footballer player and sometime cricketer. Club career Cantwell was born in Cork, Ireland, and was educated at the Roman Catholic Presentation Brothers College ...

– Head Coach *

Dennis Viollet Dennis Sydney Viollet (20 September 1933 – 6 March 1999) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team. He was famous as one of the Busby Babes and survived the Munich air disa ...

– Assistant Manager

References