Inaugural club members from 1975 season remember a magical campaign: “It was a summer to remember."
“It was a Blazers city.”
That was how Portland Timbers Ring of Honor member Mick Hoban, then a fresh-faced English defender who came up through Aston Villa and had played a few seasons in the burgeoning North American Soccer League with Atlanta, remembered the the environment that greeted the new Rose City club in 1975.
With the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers having arrived five years prior, it was basketball that had captured the city’s imagination as its first big pro franchise.
“We were a niche sport,” said Hoban about soccer and the Timbers trying to make their mark in Portland.
It’s hard to think about now with Providence Park shaking on a matchday, but 50 years ago, the team and club were just trying to find themselves and figure out who they were going to be.
The roster had to take shape quickly with players arriving only days before the first game on May 2, 1975. Hoban and his new teammates had little time to figure out how to all fit together.
Peter Withe, then a forward from Wolverhampton Wanderers, remembers that not only did the players barely know each other, but the fans were learning too. The first game was played in a driving rain with a crowd of 7,000 people showing up to see the Timbers take on what would be their most hated rival: the Seattle Sounders.
Withe remembers boos, but not for the reason one might expect. Back then, the common soccer custom was for the home team to wear white kits with the away team wearing their primary color. However, a pregame mixup set that game off kilter.
“My memory as playing Seattle – a local derby – and walking in through the tunnel…and both of us have got white on,” said Withe. “We had to change to the green strip and we go on the pitch and we play for 15 minutes and the manager comes out [to the crowd] and says, ‘Will you stop booing the team in green, that’s the Portland Timbers!’”
The Timbers would go on a magical run in 1975, with 16 wins and 6 losses that inaugural season – the NASL decided draws then with overtime and penalty kicks – with the Timbers leading the league in points, winning the Western Division, producing memorable playoff wins over Seattle and St. Louis and ultimately playing their way to the 1975 Soccer Bowl Championship.
Now 50 years on and the Timbers having navigated the NASL, through the United Soccer League and now into Major League Soccer, the question to ask is: Would Soccer City, USA be the place it is now were it not for that extraordinary first season and that unique collection of players?
“It was a miracle that we had a good team because we came together so late,” said Hoban. “We had played for all different teams but our manager, Vic Crowe, had worked out who he wanted for what role. We played roles.
“We had some outstanding players. Me and Barry [Lynch] were at the back, helping there. Peter was the goalscorer, for sure. Best-ever on the ball in Portland Timbers history – bar none. Barry Powell is probably the best passer of the ball in Timbers history. He’s up there with the [Diego] Valeri’s of this club in total quality of his play.
“We had a great team. We didn’t know it at the start. We grew together as a group.”
That growth happened both on and off the pitch, as players and their wives lived in the same apartment complex. New to the city and to the country, that sense of shared togetherness led to lifetime friendships.
Willie Anderson, another of those original 1975’ers, described the experience of playing together as well as bonding through team and family barbecues, pool parties and fun in the new city succinctly.
“Probably the best 10 weeks of my life,” he said.
Anderson, like Hoban and many other Timbers players stayed in Portland and the U.S. after their playing careers finished to raise families and help spread soccer through coaching and other endeavors.
Chris Dangerfield remembers his time in Portland fondly. He would continue his career with many other NASL teams, most notably with the San Jose Earthquakes.
“It was a summer to remember,” he said. “It was a wonderful three months. We came together.
“It exposed me to America, which is where I now live. My children were born in California. It gave me the opportunity to learn the game from some of the best-ever professionals.”
For others, their time in Portland also brought them greater on-field development to succeed in Europe, notably with Withe. The forward scored the Timbers’ first ever goal in 1975 while leading Portland in scoring and being named to the 1975 NASL All-Star Second Team.
After Portland, Withe would have successful stints with Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United before ultimately starring with Aston Villa where he scored the match-winning goal in the 1982 European Cup final over Bayern Munich.
“We came out here because we wanted to improve our career,” said Withe. “We felt that this was a stepping stone for us. But it turned out to be a bigger stepping stone than we could possibly imagine.”
For Barry Powell, another Wolverhampton product who would later star with Coventry City, that stepping stone was also a personal one.
“When I was told by my manager [in England] that I was going to play for the Portland Timbers in America, [he said] it might learn you to grow up,” said Powell, now in his 70s.
“This club, and this stadium, helped me grow up…it brought the best out of me.”
Celebrated in a special Spirit of 75 Night in June as part of the club’s 50th anniversary year, presented by Toyota, this group of teammates was brought together again to reminisce with each other as well as be recognized by the club and its fans for the accomplishments they all had a part to play in with those first steps on the Portland pitch and successful season in 1975.
“We started out that campaign with 7,000, 8,000 supporters and we ended up with 36,000 supporters in this stadium,” said Withe about that year’s run from match one to playoff glory. “That’s when, I feel, the weight of the camaraderie of all the players created Soccer City, USA.”
