Pelé conquers America

Sports fans – especially those my age – often look back fondly at defining moments of our fandom.

I can still remember Joe Namath wagging his right index finger after the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, 16-7, on January 12, 1969.

Nearly 11 months later, on December 6, 1969, I watched Texas rally to beat Arkansas, 15-14, in what was dubbed the “Game of the Century.” It was the first time I recall watching an entire college football game on TV.

And on September 19, 1970, my dad, brother and I were among 53,958 people who were in the stands when Alabama walloped Virginia Tech, 51-18, at Legion Field. I had never witnessed a live football game before that sweltering night in Birmingham.

Yet, while tackle football memories occupy much of my brain, 50 years ago today association football made an indelible mark. That’s when Pelé – born Edson Arantes do Nascimento – made his debut with the New York Cosmos.

Now, before I get to that, it’s important to note that soccer had actually entered my radar five years earlier. After getting bored watching the Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions playoff game on December 26, 1970 (Dallas won a snoozer, 5-0), I changed channels to ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

The program was showcasing the 1970 World Cup Final between Brazil and Italy. Led by Pelé, Brazil won in dominating fashion, 4-1.

I was mesmerized by the spectacle. Aside from the movement and the motion of the game itself – and  a magnificent performance by Pelé, who opened scoring in the 18^th minute  – the size of the crowd at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City (107,412) and the sounds were fascinating. It wasn’t long after that when I started reading everything I could about “The Beautiful Game.”

Other than occasional blips in the newspaper, however, soccer news was hard to come by for a kid in Alabama. And a match on TV? It was easier to spot a unicorn.

Pelé changed all that.

On June 15, 1975 – at 2:30 p.m., Central Standard Time – the Dallas Tornado squared off with the Cosmos at Downing Stadium in New York. It was broadcast as a “CBS Sports Special,” and I had been looking forward to it all week.

The New York Times reported on June 11 that Pelé had finalized a three-year, $4.7 million contract with Warner Communications, owners of the Cosmos franchise, on June 10. It was a personal services pact, and it made the 34-year-old the highest paid athlete in the world. He already had three World Cup crowns on his resume and tallied 1,091 goals while leading Santos to a staggering 21 Brazilian championships.

“You can say now to the world that soccer has finally arrived in the United States,” Pelé said after making the deal official at New York City’s 21 Club.

The North American Soccer League had been around since 1968, but not until Pelé signed with the Cosmos did it start to take off.

Although the match with the Tornado was merely a midseason friendly, that was just a minor detail to me. A player hailed by many as the greatest of all-time was suited up for a club repping the Big Apple, and the NASL had its grand ambassador.

Just seeing him play was a big deal – it didn’t matter to me how well he performed. It had been eight months since he’d been in a competitive match, and there was bound to be some rust.

And maybe there was, but he knocked it off long enough to score the game’s final goal – a beautiful header – in the Cosmos’ 2-2 draw played before an overflow crowd of 21,278.

It officially turned me into a Cosmos supporter, but more importantly, it laid the groundwork for soccer becoming my favorite sport. (A side note … it was also the first time I had seen Dallas’ standout Kyle Rote Jr. play. It was rare then for a U.S.-born athlete to excel at the game, so I became a big fan of his, too).

Anyway, I anxiously awaited the game’s account in Monday’s Birmingham News. While it didn’t make the front page of the sports section, the Associated Press story led page 2 – and even had a picture of Pelé.

“I had only planned to play 45 minutes,” Pelé said. “But I felt so good I decided to play the whole game.”

It was later revealed that 10 million people tuned in to the live broadcast, which was a record American TV audience for soccer.

“When we play a few more games together, we’ll get better,” Pelé told a United Press International reporter. “We did not make the ball do the work for us today. Most of the young players tried to pass to me too much, instead of going through and having a shot on goal.

“The standard of play is quite high and there is a lot of potential in this league.”

In three years with the Cosmos, Pelé scored 37 goals and registered 30 assists, helping New York’s NASL team become a box office juggernaut. During that time my room was adorned with his and Rote’s poster (courtesy of Sports Illustrated), and I became a subscriber to both Soccer America and later, Soccer Digest.

Of course, the NASL is no more, and the Cosmos franchise sits in limbo. But 50 years ago, one player, one club and one league had my undivided attention.

I’ll never forget it.