The story of Wolves conquering the States makes it onto the big screen
Phil Parkes had never ever been out of England before. Gerry Taylor described it as the best tour he had ever been on. Terry Wharton took a trip up to Vegas. Wolves pretty much signed Frank Munro off the back of it.
Wolves’ American tour of the summer of ’67 – yes Bryan Adams you were two years out – left a memory and a legacy for many of those involved which remains as sharp and powerful today as it was 56 long years ago.
Nine weeks packed with 14 fixtures, regular long distance travel from their Californian base, plenty of extra-curricular activity meeting stars from the worlds of films and music - as you do – and, at the conclusion, being crowned the first ever United Soccer Association champions.
This wasn’t Wolves’ first trip Stateside, they had headed to America and Canada to play ten fixtures two years earlier, and it hasn’t been their last. Infact, they headed back again in the summer of ‘69 – that’s more like it, Bryan – to represent Kansas City, where they once again finished as winners.
But it was the tournament played in Los Angeles that is particularly remembered as it signalled the first sustained effort from a group of entrepreneurs to bring football, sorry, soccer – to the consciousness of the country’s sporting connoisseurs.
There was a race underway to launch some form of league in America, and, with competition growing elsewhere, the NASL (North American Soccer League) had to bring their plans forward to launch in the summer of ’67.
Without any players of their own, organisers decided to import 12 complete teams from Europe and South America, who would represent the respective American franchises ahead of potentially building their own squads for the following season.
And so, Wolves joined a list comprising Stoke and Sunderland from England, Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hibernian from Scotland, Glentoran and Shamrock Rovers from Northern and Southern Ireland, Den Haag from the Netherlands, Cagliari from Italy, Bango from Brazil and Cerro from Uruguay in becoming real-life footballing exports, spreading the word about the Beautiful Game.
“When we decided to start soccer here in America, I was warned constantly that this is a dull game,” boomed Jack Kent Cooke, after an incredible final which saw the LA Wolves defeat Washington Whips, otherwise known as Aberdeen, by six goals to five after an initial period of extra time and then sudden death ‘overtime’.
“Isn’t it one of the most exciting games you have ever seen in your life?!”
Cooke was among the founders of the United Soccer Association and was one of the league’s driving forces, as well as owning the LA Wolves.
His were big words to demonstrate big ambitions. The sort of confidence often associated with the residents of the Land of the Free. And, why not?
Having just watched and marvelled at such an incredible spectacle, it is little wonder that some of the main protagonists got themselves a little bit carried away.
And yet, the story of LA Wolves and that potentially ground-breaking summer, is one which has remained, largely untold, for over five-and-a-half decades.
A few column inches, You Tube clips and Wikipedia accounts aside, there has been very little forensic analysis or deeper reflection on the launch of the United Soccer Association, and what it ultimately meant to the eventual birth of soccer as a sport to rival baseball, basketball and their own (American) football, in the good ol’ US of A.
Until now, that is.
The latest offering from Wolves Studios, Wolves’ internal production house, has seen a collaboration with leading football media company Footballco and their award-winning football publisher and documentary maker, Mundial.
‘When LA Wolves Conquered the USA’ is the excellent and hugely informative result, a half-hour journey through the tournament via those who played, those who organised, those who watched and those who have since reported.
The impressive, finished work is thanks largely to Executive Producers Yannie Makarounas (Video Manager) and Russell Jones (General Manager Marketing & Commercial Growth) on the Wolves side, and, their fellow Wulfrunians, the film’s directors James Bird and Owen Blackhurst from Mundial.
A very well-attended premiere staged at the University of Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre last Friday included the quartet taking to the stage to chat more about the making of the documentary and the inspiration behind it.
Jones outlined how it initially originated from a ‘WV1’ series of podcasts recorded last year by Seattle-based Wolves fan Laurence Scott, one of which was an interview with Parkes, while Makarounas revealed that it was a very different experience to previous Wolves Studios documentaries such as the widely acclaimed Code Red featuring Raul Jimenez.
“With previous documentaries, such as around Raul coming back from his injury, we pretty much knew the story when we set out, but this was completely different,” Makarounas explained.
“This was a story which not many fans know too much about, if it all, so we started out knowing parts but learning more and more as we went along.”
And where better to go to learn more than from those players, with Parkes, Taylor and Wharton not only interviewed at the premiere but featuring prominently in the documentary, as did their former team-mate Les Wilson, who was filmed at his home in Vancouver.
Speaking as they prepared for their first viewing, both Parkes and Taylor reflected on what was a special time in their burgeoning Molineux careers, given both were only 19 years of age at the time.
“I’d never been out of England before, I’d not even been to Wales,” revealed former goalkeeper Parkes.
“I’d never even had a passport so needed to get one of those sorted very quickly.
