While the USA and the NPSL, soon to be the NASL, battled for the North American sporting public’s allegiance in the summer of 1967, a group of very young, mostly inexperienced players, was beginning to assemble at a training camp on the other side of the Atlantic; preparing to represent the Dallas Tornado Soccer Club on their ground breaking World Tour. The project, which must surely qualify as the longest professional soccer tour ever taken, as well as the pro game’s longest pre-season, lasted from August 1967 to February 1968, when the team landed in Dallas for the first time.
The only comparable which springs to mind, in the entire world of sports, is that of the Harlem Globetrotters and their trail blazing ventures. Replete with moments of tension, high drama, danger, strong though questionable leadership and suggestions of financial irregularities, the tour proved the perfect coming-of-age vehicle for many team members. As a stand-alone venture it certainly contained sufficient material for a book or two (one written by Fons Stoffels, a team member, was published in late 2016) a documentary or even a full-length movie.
Yet, while conceptually exciting, the tour served to illustrate the partial madness, lack of soccer knowledge, blind trust, naivety and overall gullibility of the North American Soccer scene in the mid to late 1960’s, as well as its frailty and vulnerability. All of these elements, in various degrees, were to persist throughout the NASL’s too brief existence.
Bob Kap, the Tornado’s first and most controversial coach, who most believe to have been the instigator of the World Tour-Player Development Concept the club adopted, was charged by Tornado co-owners Lamar Hunt and Bill McNutt Jr. with recruiting the team and supervising every step of the tour. As Kap recruited and held training camp Paul Waters, a Hunt Oil executive, Hunt’s personal administrative assistant and future Tornado Executive Director, covered large swaths of the globe setting up games for the yet to be formed team.
Waters also arranged the training camp in Spain, where invited players would join those already contracted from Kap’s earlier recruiting trips-whose names, Tornado General Manager (GM) Ed Fries assured the press, would not be revealed until they were approved by the league office. From the mix Kap would form the first Tornado team. All would be ‘young’ players who he would train, develop, take on the World Tour to ‘season,’ and then deliver to Dallas to represent the club in the 1968 season.
The plan: That they would form the backbone of the team for seasons to come. The concept was simple and could have proved productive for the club, but in order to succeed it required an overall higher level of talent, on the coaching as well as the playing side, and a better organizational structure.
As the Tornado youngsters were being seasoned their opponents to be, the other 16 NASL teams, were preparing for the coming season by adding established players to their squads. The oldest Tornado player at the time – many of whom were still in their teens – was 22.
Kap’s recruitment methodology proved most unorthodox. In England, June 1967, he placed an advert in the Liverpool Echo – as he did in other Northern European papers – requesting top class young players who wanted to play professionally in the United States to contact a given box number. Those who responded were invited to an interview; where Dave Moorcroft, already signed by the club, later to play for Tranmere Rovers, acted as Kap’s adviser.
A few left with one of Kap’s business cards and instructions to send their personal and playing details to the Tornado office in Dallas, Texas, USA. Second interviews were conducted in July and the first few days of August, where the World Tour-Player Development Concept was fully explained and offers of employment made. Mike Renshaw, one of the chosen, asked Kap how he could offer him a contract when he hadn’t seen him play. Kap told Renshaw that he had received a good report from Blackpool about him.
Later, Renshaw could identify few on the team who Kap had actually seen kicking, heading or catching a soccer ball under game conditions before offering them a professional contract. Kap, who preferred clean-cut players, who would serve as strong role models for the game, also showed a preference for tall players, signing youngsters with heights of 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 and 6-5. The 6-3 signing, Frank Randorf, a bellhop at a hotel in Copenhagen where Kap stayed, was said to have been asked if he played football. A quick yes and Randorf was on the team, although he was quickly found out and downgraded. Or perhaps upgraded, from player to trainer cum jack-of-all-trades, and thereafter frequently referred to as Dr. Frank.
Roy Edwards, Dallas Morning News (DMN) and Alan Eskew, Dallas Times Herald (DTH) reported in their July 21st columns that former Yugoslavian, now Canadian citizen Bob Kap, 44, who had been working under contract since June 1st, had been appointed as the coach of the Dallas Tornado Soccer Club. Between them the reporters noted that he held a law degree from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, spoke five languages, and had written 5 books on the game. Kap related that he had played outside right (winger in today’s terminology) in Yugoslavia for 10 years, at Gradgauski and Vardar, before moving into the coaching side of the game. And added that he had coached in Yugoslavia and in Hungary, and had been selected by the Hungarian Football Federation (HFF) to attend the University of Budapest Coaching School (the Specific Soccer Coaching Program at the Physical High Education School in Budapest – the Magyar Testnevelesi Foiskolan) where he graduated as a specialist coach, the highest rank.
The course ran for three years, from 1954 to 1956 – only 20 of 2,500 were chosen – where “You study everything there is to know about the game. And you study every day.” After graduation, Kap said he coached at Botev for two years, before escaping with his family from Hungary and the advancing Russians during the Hungarian Revolution, and eventually settled in Toronto, Canada. From Toronto, where he coached and worked as the writer-editor of the weekly publication Soccer Illustrated-he also published the North America and World Soccer News over its short lifespan – Kap contacted Hunt and McNutt.
A multi-talented man, it is nevertheless difficult to accept that Kap could have achieved all that he laid claim to in his chosen profession, and indeed in his life up to October 1956, when he was 33. And interesting to speculate that if he had, how he had done so. My curiosity piqued, I sought corroboration of Kap’s claims.
My research of the teams Kap stated he played for in Yugoslavia found no reference to a Gradgauski – perhaps the name had been misspelt – though I found three teams named Gradanski: Gradanski Osijek, HSK Gradanski Zagreb and Gradanski Zemun. Who, if I’ve interpreted the available information correctly the spelling ‘Gradanski’ collectively changed to ‘Gradjanski’ – played in the Croatian league during World War II. Those three, along with the other teams who played in the league during the war, were disbanded in 1945 by the Yugoslavian communist authorities, who also destroyed a number of the teams’ archives.
The Croatian League, courtesy of the Axis powers, ran from 1940/41 to 1943/44, the winners not considered champions of Croatia, only of Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Hajduk Split took the title in 1940/41-Concordia Zagreb in 1941/42-and Gradjanski Zagreb (another source spelt it Gradanski Zagreb) in 1942/43. The 1943/44 season was not finished… But I did find a Vardar, FK Vardar Skopje, who were formed in 1947, and plays today in the Macedonian first league.
Note: Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia were part of Yugoslavia during the events covered in this chapter.
But before expanding my search for Kap’s playing records in the convoluted Pre-World War II, World War II and post World War II Yugoslavian soccer scene, and mindful that he could have played in the Croatian League during this time, I decided to concentrate on the parts of his claims that were most important to the Tornado: His post World War Two coaching career in Europe and Canada up to his appointment as the Tornado head coach. I was unable to find any proof that Kap coached in Yugoslavia, or to identify a team by the name of Botev in Hungary, though I found a number with the name Botev in Bulgaria: Botev Vratsa, Botev Plovdiv and Botev Kozloduy some of the many. Bulgaria was a country Kap had failed to mention in his verbal resume to the Dallas press.
I contacted the HFF press officer by e-mail in 2012, enquiring about Kap’s coaching records, giving two other names that he was also known by, Robert Kapoustin and Bozidar Kapusto. Two more have since surfaced: Bozsidar Kapusztin, which appeared on his Hungarian coaching diploma (provided by his daughter, Sonja) that states his birthplace as Macedonia, and Bojidar Nikolaiovich Kapusto. The latter, courtesy of an online posting by another family member, also stated that Kap was a World War II Partizan and a Russian Jew who survived the Holocaust. The HFF press officer in his e-mail response stated bluntly that ‘He never worked as a coach in the Hungarian first and second divisions.’
My inquiries concerning Kap’s coaching career in Canada also proved unproductive. The Canadian Soccer Association were unable to throw any light on his coaching career in their country, while local sources, long time soccer followers, fans and students of the Canadian game, have no recollection and can find no evidence of Kap’s coaching involvement in Toronto and Montreal, cities where it is claimed he coached. And if he had coached in Canada it would not, the sources told me, have been in the semi-professional National Soccer League that operated in Southern Ontario and Quebec from 1926 to the late 1980’s. It would have been at the amateur level.
During my research I read Michael MacCambridge’s well-researched, informative and highly readable book on LAMAR HUNT: A LIFE IN SPORTS, published in late 2012. In it he wrote: ‘Kap boasted that he possessed the requisite coaching badges from England and had played for Manchester United, and he profited from these claims since none of them, in Dallas in 1967, were easily verifiable.’ But they were, and calls, letters or telegrams to the English Football Association and to Manchester United would have exposed these ridiculous claims. But none (it appears) were made.
At this point I stopped further enquiries, clear in the understanding that apart from his Hungarian coaching diploma Kap had not achieved all that he claimed in his pre-1967 coaching career. This lack of proof must also cast doubt on his claims to have earned a law degree from the University of Belgrade, and that he graduated as a ‘specialist coach’ from the Testnevelesi Foiskolan. Or that he was a Partizan and a Russian Jew who survived the Holocaust, as well as the easy to debunk fiction that he had an English coaching license and played for Manchester United. Also that he and his family escaped from Hungary when the Hungarian Revolution (October 23 to November 10, 1956) began. Especially if, as stated, he was coaching in Botev, Bulgaria, for two years after graduating from his coaching course. For clarification and for the record: Kap’s Hungarian coaching diploma (where “You study every day”) states that he graduated the course on June 11th, 1956, only four months before the revolution.
Fons Stoffels’ book: The Amazing World Tour of The Dallas Tornado 1967-68, financed by the team, offered a little further information on Kap’s playing career (maybe) adding Vasas Boedapest, Hungary, as well as Levski Sofia and CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria, to the number of teams he was said to have played for, but without detail. (No mention was made of Gradgauski or FK Vardar). The publication does, however, include a photograph of the 1951 Djambol, a Bulgarian team where Stoffels lists Kap as the coach. The photograph taken three years before he began the HHF coaching course in Budapest, along with the copy of his coaching diploma, are the only solid pieces of evidence I have of Kap’s pre-Tornado career, though I have asked those who were near to him for any further proof they might have.
The Dallas media had in general treated Dundee United, the Tornado representative in the recently completed USA season, kindly, notwithstanding a last place divisional finish. Their coverage of the Tornado continued in similar vein, with Kap’s entertaining, but increasingly unrealistic statements, left unchallenged. But there was no one to challenge him; the almost total lack of soccer knowledge in the media, and most importantly the club, nurturing a climate that would have alarmed more soccer-savvy individuals. As it was, the only soccer-savvy individual at hand was the one in complete control of the club’s player recruitment program and the World Tour – Player Development Concept, who operated with the full support of the Tornado owners.
Hunt had described the club’s first head coach as “one of the brightest, warmest, most engaging people that I’ve ever met.” And later, in an article he wrote for the DMN, October 1st, reporting on his visit to the Tornado training camp in Spain, Hunt stated that “Bob is a marvel. He is not only coach, but scout, travel agent, secretary, book-keeper, maître d’, publicity man, and father to the boys. I don’t know how he does it.”
Admired, accepted and supported by the club’s ownership Kap certainly was, though it must be asked if Hunt and McNutt requested referrals, or conducted a background search of his playing and coaching credentials, especially any recent coaching credentials, before making their first professional soccer coaching appointment? It would appear that they had not, at least not in any depth, though they must have had their requirements, and a list of questions to ask prospective coaches.
In his July 21 DMN column, Edwards reported that Hunt and McNutt had visited Europe in May, and, as told by Hunt, “interviewed 10 or 15 coaches,” and “screened some 12 others.” If accurate, one can only wonder at their criteria, who they interviewed, and that they were unable to find a more seasoned, better qualified coach than Kap. One who had been plying his trade at a high or near to high level on a regular basis, with a proven record and verifiable up to date coaching credentials.
This would have been advisable, for other than his word there is no proof that Kap had coached anywhere, at any level, amateur or professional (which almost certainly he would have brought to the media’s attention) between his alleged departure from Hungary in 1956 and his appointment as the Tornado Head Coach in 1967. A period of approximately 11 years, it was an astonishingly long time for a professional coach to be absent from his sport. This, as well as the inconsistencies in Kap’s earlier claims, should have raised alarm bells in the Tornado camp, or at the least a degree of concern. But it did not.
It should further be asked if Hunt and McNutt had sought competent advice, or any advice when committing to the World Tour-Player Development Concept. Again it would appear that they had not. And although it had been suggested that Hunt, who had no background in the game, was the instigator of the concept, it is almost certain that Kap introduced the idea to the Tornado owners, which they embraced unreservedly. When asked who he thought dreamed up the idea, Jan Book, the Tornado’s sixth signing, answered, “Definitely Bob Kap.”
Asked by DTH reporter Alan Eskew on July 20 – at the press conference to announce his appointment – whether the youthful Tornado players would be able to win the league, Kap said, “let’s talk about that next year,” a sensible response, which is where he should have stopped. But he could not, adding, “We are not going to be last. We will lose some games, but we will win more – maybe.”
These statements were made before the Tornado had any contracted players. None! On July 23, in Edwards’ DMN column, the club’s head coach again overreached himself. Edwards, who reported that 105 players had been tested by Kap at the Tornado’s tryout day, Saturday the 22nd at the Cotton Bowl, with more than 100 found ‘wanting,’ quoted the head man on campus: “The big story is this one,” he said, gesturing to an 18-year-old graduate of St. Mark’s School [of Texas]. “This is a boy which I want… I like him because I like him… he is an example of the boys I like to have on my team.” Later he added, “That boy is a future national player for the United States. I will make him so.”
And on September 7, in a Tornado press release, newly appointed public relations officer Gene Wilson, still working out of the Tornado front office, informed the sporting population of Dallas-Fort Worth that the two-a-day training camp work-outs in Spain ‘have already resulted in signs of the fast-moving, precision teamwork, attacking style reminiscent of the famous Slavic teams of the late 40’s and early 50’s.’ (Did Kap mean Hungarians, who are not Slavic?) There could only have been one source for the preposterous quote.
Part Two: Training Camp – Close Calls – Still Recruiting
Part Three: The 40 In 125+4-Reality
Part Four: Kap’s Recruitment Methodology – Life Changing
Part Five: The Combined Training Camp, World Tour and Mini-Tour Game Results