Memphis Rogues
The Memphis Rogues, based in Memphis, Tennessee, played in North America's top pro soccer league from 1978 to 1980. Harry Mangurian and Beau Rogers founded the franchise after looking at other cities, including New Orleans, Houston, Nashville and Atlanta. The name pointed to a rogue elephant, which the owners wanted as a mascot, and it also played off the name of the Tampa club Rogers had helped run. Outdoor games were at the Liberty Bowl.
The first coach, Malcolm Allison, was let go before he coached a match, after failing to sign enough players. Eddie McCreadie took over. The first game was a 2-1 loss at Tampa on April 1, 1978, and the team finished 10-20. In 1979 it went 6-24, the league's worst record. Charlie Cooke, a former club teammate of McCreadie's, coached in 1980, when the team went 14-18. The Rogues never made the outdoor playoffs, and crowds averaged between about 7,100 and 9,900.
Indoors went better. In the 1979-80 winter season the team went 9-3, drew about 8,200 a game at the Mid-South Coliseum and reached the final, where it lost to Tampa after winning the first game 5-4. Avron Fogelman, who owned the city's minor league baseball team, bought the club in 1980. The last game was a 6-1 win over Houston on August 23, 1980. After the season Fogelman sold to Vancouver real estate man Nelson Skalbania, who moved the franchise to Calgary, Alberta, where it played 1981 as the Calgary Boomers.
The name came back once. In 1989 new owners of a Memphis club in the American Indoor Soccer Association took it, along with the old logo. That team went 6-34 and was evicted from the Coliseum during the season. It was gone by spring 1990.
