COURTESY CAROLINA LIGHTNIN'

Tony Suarez, who signed with the Carolina Lightnin' as an amateur in 1981, earned a spot on the ASL All-Star team and was named game MVP. Suarez, who led Charlotte with 15 goals that season, sparked the Lightnin' to the league title and won ASL's Rookie of the Year award.

The Carolina Lightnin’ created a soccer legacy that keeps people coming back.

When the Charlotte Independence host USL Championship rival Pittsburgh Saturday at Memorial Stadium, it’ll be 40 years earlier to the day the Lightnin' beat New York United 2-1 in the ASL championship. A league-record 20,163 fans gathered at Memorial Stadium to witness Hugh O'Neill score the winner in overtime. In honor of the anniversary, the Independence will wear throwback kits in honor of the Lightnin', which will be autographed and auctioned. Proceeds will benefit the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, whose 2021 inductees will be recognized during the match.

“Even back when we did the 30th reunion and now the 40th, I asked myself, ‘why are these players coming back here 40 years later?’” said John McGillicuddy, the Lightnin’s ticket manager and operations assistant.

McGillicuddy thinks about players like striker Joey Fink, who played one season with the Lightnin’ and went on to become an All-Star in the North American Soccer League and the first American to score 200 goals in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

“I can’t really explain why it happened, and it wasn’t all by design, but there was just something magical about that, that still captivates whoever was involved in it,” McGillicuddy said. “I live in Charlotte, so it’s easy for me to come back to the reunion, but there’s people coming from not just all over the country, but we’ve got Mal Roche coming and I think he is in Ireland, and if George Borg can get in from the United Kingdom. These are probably the first places they’ve gone since COVID. They could go anywhere in the world as their first travel destination, and they’re like, ‘yes, I’m coming back to Charlotte for this 40th anniversary.’ It still astounds me.”

McGillicuddy recalled meeting with Independence defender Christian Fuchs, who is on loan from Major League Soccer side Charlotte FC, said he had never been a part of a team with that type of magnetic pull. Fuchs played with Leicester City when it won the English Premier League six years ago as well as playing with Austria’s national team.
“This is a world class player, playing at the highest level and he was astounded by it,” McGillicuddy said. “The only answer I can really give is, especially 1981, but really all three seasons, it was just something magical that you can’t really replicate easily.”

Clown prince of English football
Using a charismatic personality to introduce a team to a market never hurts, and that is what the Lightnin’ found in Rodney Marsh. Their inaugural head coach was well established in his native England and America, having played for Fulham, Queens Park Rangers and Manchester City in England before making the transition to NASL.

Marsh, who flew to America on Elton John’s plane when John was chairman of LA Aztecs, wound up signing with Tampa Bay after a call from Rowdies co-owner George Strawbridge.

“They offered me twice as much money, and the rest is history,” Marsh said with a laugh. He calls Tampa home today, where he is an avid Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan.
“I love it today,” Marsh said.

Marsh transitioned to the role of coach with New York United in 1980 where matches were played in front of less than 1,000 people – one of the reasons the 1981 ASL championship game was played in Charlotte. ASL owners voted 9-1 to move the match from Shea Stadium in New York to Memorial Stadium, as regular season matches between United and the Lightnin’ drew 375 fans in New York and 9,109 in Charlotte.

Marsh did not like the atmosphere in New York, and when Lightnin’ owner Bob Benson called with an offer, it was a simple sell.

“It was fantastic from the day I arrived in Charlotte,” Marsh said. “The people were so lovely to me. I did a couple of radio interviews and a couple of newspaper interviews. The people were just fantastic.”

Marsh had several months leading up to the club’s inaugural season. The then-35-year-old signed a three-year contract, stepping into what he described as a “romance.”
“To win the whole thing in the first year as an expansion franchise, nobody expected that,” he said.

As for the 40th anniversary, Marsh said he “wouldn’t miss it.”

Marsh kept an eye on Charlotte with the addition of NBA, NFL and most recently MLS franchises. The area previously had the Carolina Cougars in the American Basketball Association and the Charlotte Hornets in the World Football Leagues. Neither lasted long enough to see their leagues fold.

“It kept taking me back to how there was this little team called the Carolina Lightnin’ that kind of started it all,” Marsh said.

Local talent
The Lightnin’ held tryouts as they assembled the inaugural roster. Steve Scott made the team, transitioning from administrative staff assistant to player. His brother David covered the team for the Charlotte Observer, where Roberto Suarez was the general manager. Suarez, a Cuban exile, eventually settled in Charlotte with his family where his son Tony graduated Myers Park High and went on to play at Appalachian State and Belmont Abbey. Tony Suarez tried out for the inaugural Lightnin’ roster.

“We had players coming in from other teams like the [New York] Cosmos,” Marsh said. “It was serendipity that we hit on a few local players who were good enough to play on the team, but Tony didn’t make the team.”

Suarez told Marsh he would do anything to stay involved, even driving the team bus.

“I said, ‘I love you son, but you are not going to make the squad,’” Marsh said. “He said, ‘well, can I not stay on as an amateur player?’ I said, ‘well, I’ve got others to look at.’ He said, ‘well, I can do anything. I will even drive the team bus. Just give me a chance, coach.’”

Marsh agreed to sign Tony Suarez as an amateur, which meant he would not be paid as a player but would earn compensation as a driver.

“All his face was teeth,” Marsh said.

Injuries resulted in Marsh putting Suarez into the lineup and he responded by becoming the Lightnin’s leading scorer with 15 goals in 22 games. He made the 1981 ASL All-Star team, earned All-Star game MVP and rookie of the year.

“Story for the ages,” Marsh said.

Said McGillicuddy: ““You’ve got the environment, Rodney Marsh, not only a soccer superstar and a brilliant soccer mind, but basically an entertainer at heart and he becomes a coach and out of nowhere you get a local kid who scores goals like crazy and the team is winning.”
Suarez died in 2007.

The one who started it all 
Charlotte native Ed Young, a West Mecklenburg High and Western Carolina alumnus, became the first person to kick a soccer ball in Memorial Stadium in 1978. He was also the first Lightnin’ employee and inducted to the NCSHF. He served as vice-chair for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, now United Soccer Coaches Soccer Ambassadors program.

When Young returned home from Western Carolina during the summer in the 1970s, there were two teams: the Lawyers, consisting of mostly former Davidson College players and the Internationals, mostly comprised of international players.

“There were enough college guys coming back in the summer that I decided to organize a summer soccer league, which was the nexus for all soccer that is played now in Charlotte,” Young said.

The Lawyers and Internationals combined to create Charlotte Soccer Club, the city’s only side at the time. Young became the goalkeeper and manager. Then came the Press Box and Lowenbrau Soccer Club. Young expanded into the women’s side from his wife’s volleyball team in 1977, which broke new ground.

“By default, I started soccer in so many areas,” Young said.

Young was asked to join the Charlotte Sports Action Council, which featured key figures from all sports. Sports reporter Steve Goldberg and Gene Goldberg, his father, approached Young about putting on an exhibition at Memorial Stadium between the Minnesota Kicks and the Atlanta Chiefs in 1979. Steve Goldberg worked for the Chiefs at the time. Despite poor weather, the game attracted 3,472 fans. Local leaders looked at Young with suspicion when he suggested soccer at Memorial Stadium.

“They made me go out with two other players [to the field],” Young said. “I was the first person to ever kick a soccer ball at Memorial Stadium just to assure them a soccer ball and soccer players would not destroy the turf. After a lengthy vetting process, they approved the game, reluctantly.”

An indoor soccer tournament took place at the same time with colleges from the region and semipro teams at Grady Cole Center, then called Park Center.

“It was a cavalcade of soccer people who descended upon Park Center and Memorial Stadium,” Young said.  “I had to kick balls inside Park Center to make sure the shots wouldn’t break the seats.”

Professional soccer debut
Bob Benson and Rich Melvin, director of franchise development for the ASL, attended the game. Benson, the basketball representative on the Sports Action Council, played the sport at Clemson, and while he was eager to push basketball in Charlotte, he saw the value of soccer.

Benson was interested in buying an NASL team, which fell through. ASL came calling, and Benson was awarded a franchise in 1979, operating as Carolina Professional Soccer Ltd. until it became Carolina Lightnin’, a name selected through a contest.

They ran soccer camps to build community awareness and gave away cars and planes during games. Bobby Moore, who captained England’s 1966 World Cup-winning side, joined the team as an assistant coach and would be called into action as a player due to injuries. The Lightnin’ signed Sparky the Wonder Dog to a professional contract, brought in the Beach Boys to perform and captured hearts and minds.

ASL folded following the 1983 season.

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