Phoenix Inferno
The Phoenix Inferno, based in Phoenix, Arizona, played indoor soccer from 1980 to 1983 in the top indoor soccer league in the US. The league announced the club on May 30, 1980. Home games were at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Rick Ragone led the original ownership group.
The Inferno lost their first game, on November 21, 1980, to San Francisco before an announced crowd of 11,098. Norm Sutherland started that season as coach and was replaced during it by player-coach Adrian Webster. Vic Davidson scored 50 goals and George Nanchoff scored 34. The team finished 17-23, made the playoffs and lost in the first round to the defending champions from New York. Crowds averaged a little over 7,000.
That was the only playoff trip under this name. After Ragone died in December 1981, Irv Berger took control, and the team went 17-27 in 1981-82. Antonio Simoes, a former Portugal international, coached a 24-24 season in 1982-83, the club's best record. The club went into bankruptcy that same season. In January 1983 a sale gave a controlling stake to Bruce Merrill, a cable television executive, for $175,000.
The last game as the Inferno was a 7-5 win over Los Angeles on April 16, 1983. That July the new ownership changed the name, and the team played one more season as the Phoenix Pride.
