The World Cup is bringing Tulsans together to witness one of the biggest sports in the world. It has been part of Tulsa’s culture for decades — and the city’s love for soccer is only growing.
“People are shocked sometimes at our soccer community and how strong it is, whether it’s people from California or even my international players,” said Tom McIntosh, head men’s soccer coach at The University of Tulsa. “They’re pretty impressed at how big and, you know, the quality of our soccer community here.”
Tulsa’s love for soccer was on display last year when the city’s professional team, FC Tulsa, came within striking distance of its first championship. General manager Caleb Sewell says the club’s current owners believed Tulsa was a soccer city when they bought the team in 2019.
“I think we validated that in a big way last year when we went to the finals,” Sewell said. “…and to see the fandom throughout the end of the season last year, toward the end of the regular season and definitely playoffs, I mean, the atmospheres are unmatched.”
Fans broke ONEOK Field’s attendance record time and again as the team ventured further into the playoffs last fall. While FC Tulsa just missed the championship title, crowds hoped it would lead to a repeat of the city’s first professional soccer team’s playoff run 42 years earlier.
“For a mid-sized city here in America, the quality of soccer, the amount of soccer, the interest in soccer is very, very high for a city our size,” McIntosh said. “I think a lot of that was a result of when the Roughnecks moved here.”
Professional soccer’s arrival Tulsa
Tulsa Roughnecks ignited an “absolute boom” in soccer, McIntosh says. The team moved from Hawaii to Tulsa in 1978 and won the 1983 Soccer Bowl, filling the streets of downtown Tulsa for a victory parade.
Sonny Dalesandro is a local restaurateur and co-owner of the amateur soccer team Tulsa Athletic. He said that period was about the time soccer “exploded” in the city.
“We had a major team. Some of the world’s best players were coming and playing at Skelly Stadium at The University of Tulsa,” he said.
After the Roughnecks, Dalesandro says a lot of players chose to stay and make a life in Tulsa.
“The professionals that moved here from all over the world really loved it here in Tulsa,” he said. “Tulsans do what they do and they love them back, and they chose to stay and started soccer clubs. I’m definitely a product and a benefactor of that having played for several of those old Tulsa Roughneck players.”
When Dalesandro and co-owner Dr. Thomas Kern started Tulsa Athletic 14 years ago, they wanted it to represent the community and provide a way for people to connect through the sport.
“We wanted that to bleed through into the culture,” he said. “I think we did a pretty good job of that.”
When the team moved to east Tulsa’s Hicks Park in 2016, Dalesandro says the crime rate in the area went down and more people felt comfortable staying in the park at night.
“I’m not saying that we directly impacted all of those things, but it’s been nice to be in a place where we helped,” Dalesandro said.
Growing players and fans
Tulsa’s soccer scene has transformed over the years, with professional teams coming and going, but indoor soccer has offered fans a place to enjoy the sport on and off the pitch.
Kendall Quillman began playing soccer at 4 years old. She grew up on the fields at SoccerWorld, now SoccerCity, near 61st and Garnett.
“I started playing in our adult league whenever I was 16, so kind of getting, you know, involved in our huge soccer community at a younger age,” she said.
Quillman went on to play high school soccer and has been a full-time staff member at SoccerCity for more than 15 years. She’s one of several former players who came back to coach.
“We’ve seen those kids grow up from us coaching them to them wanting to come back and coach at our facility or them going off to play college,” said Quillman.
SoccerCity’s adult soccer community is tight-knit as well, she says.
“Even if you might not know their names, you’ve played against them so many times that you know who they are and you’re like, ‘Oh, you play with these people and these people,’” said Quillman.
She says more people have shown an interest in the sport this year. TU’s McIntosh says that’s common during World Cup years.
He moved to Tulsa in 1980 and took over as head coach at TU in 1995. Now he also owns Mac’s Soccer Shack, a retail shop near 91st and Mingo.
The sport has always been popular at the university, he says, but it’s only grown over time. That’s in part due to the boom in the Hispanic population over the last 20 years.
McIntosh says he sees a more diverse group of fans and players these days — transitioning from primarily white middle class when he was playing to athletes from more diverse backgrounds today.
“(Soccer) brings together a lot of different cultures and I think that’s awesome,” he said. “I think there’s not too many sports that are so vast in terms of their cultural impact.”
Bars see watch party boom
That’s evident in the fans filling Tulsa-area soccer bars. Kyla Holderness owns Empire Bar at 15th and Peoria. She says a pair of soccer fans — Dennis Donnelly and Danny Diver — became regulars after she opened the bar in 1997. They took over the televisions during soccer games and it’s been a soccer bar ever since.
At a June 11 watch party for the opening World Cup match, Holderness says Empire Bar was “cram packed” with fans.
“It’s like sardines in here,” she said. “It’s total, total insanity.”
It’s more of a family affair at George’s Pub in Jenks. Owner Correy Crandall says all ages are welcome at the soccer bar. It usually attracts little kids’ teams.
“It’s always about the kids,” he said.
The sport in America is still young, McIntosh says, and soccer is still evolving.
“My generation is the first ones that played soccer and now have kids,” he said. “Now, we’re going on this third generation of ‘OK, now my kids are going to have kids who play soccer.’”
Dalesandro sees an “immense potential” for the sport in Tulsa.
“I think what it can unlock in the community is virtually limitless,” he said. “It might be a long road to getting there, but I think that if there are some small steps that can be taken in that direction and people pay attention to the benefits of those steps, then I think that Tulsa could ultimately be viewed as one of the finest areas in the country for soccer.”
While the World Cup recruits more fans to the sport, Sewell and FC Tulsa recently launched a hotline to answer people’s soccer questions. The club wants to be a hub to help those getting into the soccer world.
The next FIFA World Cup games include USA vs. Turkey at 9 p.m. Thursday.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
