Nuke Soccer

By J Hutcherson USSoccerPlayers

Toronto traces its North American Soccer League history all the way back to 1967, with teams in the National Professional Soccer League and the rival United Soccer Association. In 1968, the two leagues merged to form the NASL, and Toronto’s franchise kept their NPSL nickname of Falcons.

Playing at Varsity Stadium on the campus of the University of Toronto, the club managed a winning season and an average attendance of 5,366 before joining the bulk of the NASL in folding after the ’68 season.

Three years later a new franchise began play in Toronto. This time they took the name Metros and continued to supply marginal seasons to the core group of supporters at Varsity Stadium. The new franchise was far from successful, and it too faced collapse after the 1974 season. Fortunately, a local amateur club side bailed out the troubled ownership, and the grateful team added the amateur club’s name to their own. For the next three years, the franchise would be known as Toronto Metros-Croatia, incorporating aspects of the Croatian flag and a pink Canadian maple leaf into their official logo.

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