In
the fall of 1968, the NASL flirted with extinction after its inaugural season.
The league, after a merger between the USA and the NPSL, failed to capture the
attention of the American sports fan as the owners had planned. Clubs drew less
than 5,000 fans a game collectively, which ultimately led to twelve of the
NASL’s seventeen teams to abandon the league all together. In the midst of this
turbulent atmosphere, Janusz Kowalik, along with Pepe Fernandez, netted a
league record thirty goals during the 1968 season. The record stood for a
decade until Giorgio Chinaglia scored thirty-four goals during the 1978 NASL
season. Due to the league’s popularity at the time of Chinaglia’s feat, the
press covered the Italian’s exploits extensively and his place within the
league’s history is unquestionable. Yet Janusz Kowalik is little more than a
footnote in the league’s history due to the leagues near insolvency in 1968.
Kowalik, like many of the NASL’s early players, remains a relative unknown, but
his path from amateur to NASL MVP is truly remarkable.
The Youngest to
Ever Play
Janusz
Kowalik had been a professional footballer for seven years by the time he
signed with the Chicago Mustangs in 1967. In 1960, he became the youngest
player to play in the Polish top flight when he suited up for K.S. Cracovia at
the age of sixteen. Janusz had been involved with the Polish team throughout
his childhood, as his father was one of the club’s youth coaches giving Jan
immediate access to the club. In addition to his achievements with the Cracovia
first team, Kowalik featured in the Polish Under-18 team that ultimately
lost the UEFA Under-18 championship to Portugal in 1961.
All
told, Janusz spent six years playing for Cracovia, though his
service for the club was not continuous. Due to the Poland Communist
government’s heavy affiliation with the sporting clubs throughout the country,
the government deemed all of the players in Poland amateurs, meaning the pay
was far less than professionals in the West. This proved somewhat problematic
to the young Kowalik. In October of 1962, due to his growing status within the
locker room, Kowalik vented his team’s frustrations at their meager pay. Consequently,
Cracovia’s management banned Kowalik for two years accusing him of trying to
blackmail the club out of money. In the end, Kowalik ended up serving a
nine-month suspension, before eventually returning to the first team.
Ultimately, his dissatisfaction with the professional atmosphere in Poland led
Kowalik to make drastic changes.
Kowalik’s
pedigree and penchant for goal eventually earned him a spot on the Polish
National Team. He made his international debut against Belgium in 1965, and earned six caps from 1965-66. He failed to score a goal in his six
appearances, but he came close hitting the post in the dying minutes of a 1-1
draw with England at Goodison Park in 1966.
Since the time of his nine-month
suspension, Kowalik had been looking for a way out of the country to play
abroad, despite his growing profile within Poland. After six years with Cracovia,
Kowalik played his last game with the club against LKS Lodz on November 27,
1966. At the time, only Kowalik knew that he would never play within Poland again.
Following the end of the season, Kowalik officially left Poland for an
offseason vacation. His true intentions were more elaborate.
Kowalik’s
vacation was a planned exodus from the country. From the time he planned his
“vacation,” Jan intended to play outside of Poland. At the time the Communist regime
within Poland and the Polish Football Association (PZPN), the governing body of
Polish soccer, did not allow players to transfer out of the country until after
their thirtieth birthday. Kowalik’s escape provided a way around that rule.
Because of his father’s connections within the Polish military, Kowalik was
able to obtain a passport and legally left the country on holiday at the age of
twenty-three. By the time he reached Belgium, en route to the United States,
officials within the Polish government became aware of his plan but were unable
to stop him.
Chicago Eagles
Once
in America, Janusz naturally made his way to Chicago, which had—and still has—the
largest concentrated Polish population outside of Warsaw. Jan had family in the
city and settled in with his cousin Leon. Upon establishing himself in Chicago,
Kowalik quickly found a club. The Pole arrived in the U.S. while the interest
in professional soccer was in its nascent stages. Two professional leagues debuted in the spring of 1967; the FIFA sanctioned United Soccer Association
(USA), which imported clubs from around the world to compete, and the CBS
televised National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). Despite his talent,
Kowalik did not sign with either league upon his arrival in the U.S. Due to his clandestine departure from Poland
and the ongoing formations of the new professional leagues, Kowalik could not
legally sign with another professional team without the authorization of
Cracovia and the PZPN.
Therefore,
Janusz took the road less traveled and signed with an amateur side, the Chicago
Eagles (AAC Eagles), a historic Polish club in Chicago’s National Soccer League (NSL). The NSL was one of the premier amateur leagues in the United States upon his arrival. The Eagles also happened to be one of the most potent
teams in the league during that period.
Once he signed, Kowalik exhibited his ability
at once. He and fellow Poles Hubert Miller and Walter Kaszubski made their
Eagles debut during the NSL’s indoor season. The Poles showed no apprehension
and took the indoor game naturally. In the end, the Polish trio displayed their
class in a 3-1 win against the Ukrainian Lions in early February 1967. Kowalik
served as the club’s playmaker while Miller booted in two goals in the trio’s
debut. Eventually, the Poles led the Eagles to the NSL’s 1967 indoor
championship in March. By the time the NSL opened its outdoor season, Kowalik
was a known quantity within Chicago’s soccer circles and his talent began to
draw considerable interest from the newly formed professional leagues.
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By
May 1967, the two newly formed soccer leagues were in direct competition for
players to fill their club rosters. Initially, the FIFA sanctioned USA intended
to begin play in the spring of 1968, but the renegade NPSL insisted on starting
in 1967 forcing the USA to abandon its plans. In order to get a jump on the
NPSL, the USA resorted to importing teams from around the world to compete in
its inaugural season, while the NSPL acquired semi-pro and amateur talent from
around the U.S. as well as foreign players. The owners of the USA planned to
import teams during its first season in order to legitimize its league and
attract fans, knowing that they would eventually build rosters by signing
individual players and draw their talent from the existing talent pool in the
U.S. In the end, Chicago ended up with two professional clubs; the NPSL’s
Chicago Spurs, and the USA’s Chicago Mustangs, represented by the Italian club
Cagliari Calcio. The creation of two professional teams in Chicago gave the
best players in the NSL an opportunity to turn pro. Chicago Mustangs and
Chicago White Sox owner, Arthur Allyn Jr. readily identified the talent in the
city’s amateur league and set about signing many of the NSL’s players in
preparation for the USA’s 1968 campaign. Kowalik was one of their main targets
and one of the club’s first signings.
As
with any transfer or signing, clubs have to address several legalities before
acquiring a player. Kowalik’s situation made his signing with the Chicago
Mustangs all the more unique and challenging. As the Eagles did not hold
Kowalik’s rights, the Mustangs Frank Meder had to negotiate directly with the
club that Kowalik abandoned just months earlier, Cracovia. In addition to
Cracovia, Meder and the Mustangs had to negotiate with both the PZPN and the
Polish government for Kowalik’s services. Negotiations between the parties
lasted weeks. Officially, the Mustangs paid around $20,000-$22,000 for
Kowalik, but as was customary when purchasing players from countries within the
Soviet Bloc, Cracovia, the PZPN, and the Polish government all received
substantial amounts of money under the table on top of Kowalik’s official
transfer fee. In addition to the extra fee the Mustangs paid for Kowalik, the
Polish triumvirate forbade any stories about Kowalik’s move for several years,
lest other players follow his example.
Spring Training
In
addition to Kowalik, the Mustangs plucked three other players from Chicago’s
National Soccer League in May 1967. Besides the Pole, the professional club was
able to pry Edward Murphy, Tomas Fotiatis, and Fotis Dakouvanos from the
amateur league. The Mustangs were also able to sign former Ajax midfielder
Werner Schaaphok and Norwegian goalkeeper Ray Olsen at the same time.
While
Meder was signing Kowalik, Caligari Calcio, disguised as the Chicago Mustangs, kicked
off the USA season on May 28 1967. The Mustangs never intended Kowalik and the
others to take part in the 1967 season, as Cagliari were already competing as
the Chicago Mustangs, but signed the four players for the following season. Consequently,
the quartet was part of a group of around forty players that the Mustangs
shipped to Sarasota, Florida to train under former U.S. National team coach
George Meyer during the summer. In essence, there were two different Chicago
Mustangs teams during the summer of 1967; the team that was taking part in the USA
season, Cagliari, and the group led by Kowalik, who were unheralded members of
the club and technically part of the following season’s team.
Sarasota
was the spring training home of Allyn’s Chicago White Sox and, due to the
owner’s stature in South Florida, the city became the home of the Mustangs in
June 1967. While Caligari was representing Chicago, Kowalik, and a group of
professional hopefuls, got to work.
Of about forty players, only a handful of
players were under contract for the 1968 season. The rest of the group was on
training contracts for the summer. Upon arrival, the club convinced local
residents to form a caravan to transport the players from the
Sarasota-Bradenton Airport to the Sarasota Motor Hotel, the player’s home for
the duration of the camp. The idea to house and train players in Sarasota was
Arthur Allyn’s intention as soon as the USA formed. The fact that he had to
import a team to compete in the league during its first season did not change
his plans, and Kowalik was the embodiment of his original idea of capturing the
best talent available in the U.S.
While
the Italians competed as the Mustangs in the USA, Meyer trained the future
Mustangs at a peewee football field in Sarasota until a soccer complex financed
by Allyn was completed. The initial camp lasted two months, from the beginning of June
until the end of July. The purpose of the camp was to identify players that
could represent Chicago professionally before the team returned to Florida for
its preseason camp in January 1968. Judging from the press covering the
Mustangs, soccer was an alien sport to the audience of Sarasota Journal. Despite the foreign nature of soccer to
Sarasotans, Kowalik stood out amongst the Mustangs within a week. The Pole’s ability
to score goals was unquestionable, and he quickly earned the praise of the
local press. By the end of June the Sarasota Journal deemed Kowalik soccer’s Joe DiMaggio. The press
continually highlighted his exploits for the duration of the camp. The climax
of the Mustangs first training camp was a series of games against the 1968 U.S.
Olympic Team, captained by future Mustang—and U.S. National team coach—Bob
Gansler. Other than the Olympic scrimmage, the camp proved to be of little
consequence to Kowalik’s place within the team, but signaled how important he
would be to the club moving forward.
By
the end of the camp, Kowalik and several of Chicago’s other signings were the
only Mustang team remaining. Cagliari finished the USA campaign with a record
of three wins, seven draws, and two losses and returned to Italy following the
short season. Despite their unimpressive record, Cagliari fielded the league’s
leading scorer Roberto Boninsegna, who finished the season with ten goals.
Predictably,
both the USA’s and NPSL’s seasons proved to be extremely underwhelming. The
leagues owners overestimated the pull the sport would have in the U.S. The
lackluster gate receipts and abysmal attendance figures eventually led to a
merger between the two leagues in December. The newly formed league took the
original name of the USA, and became the North American Soccer League (NASL).
Seventeen of the two leagues twenty-two teams signed on for the 1968 season. Of
the two Chicago franchises, the owners chose the Mustangs to represent the
Windy City, while the NPSL’s Spurs relocated to Kansas City. Much of the
wrangling between the two leagues proved irrelevant to Kowalik and the
Mustangs, as they continued to train throughout the calendar year. The group
even played a series of games in Chile, where they won over Chilean fans with their
professional level of play. Allyn used the Mustangs performance in South
America to tout not only his team’s abilities, but also to highlight the
success of the summer training camp. The team’s embarrassing 8-1 loss to Slavia
Prague in Chicago in late November did not figure into Allyn’s praise. Kowalik
again proved his worth in the club’s horrid showing scoring the lone goal for
the Mustangs.
In
January 1968, Kowalik and the Mustangs returned to Sarasota to prepare for the
first NASL season. The local press celebrated the club’s arrival and continued to
trumpet Kowalik’s obvious talent. The club intended to stay in Florida as long
as they could find competitive games, which proved a questionable endeavor. During
the course of January, Kowalik and the club played local teams, which proved
immensely inferior to the professional Mustangs. In their first training match,
the Mustangs annihilated New College, a local university, 17-2. Kowalik netted
six goals in the contest. Subsequently, the Mustangs rolled through several
other teams, including a side made up of circus performers and a
Mexican-American All-Star team comprised of migrant workers attending the
season’s crops. The only real competition that the Mustangs faced during their
preseason training camp was a four-game series against the NASL’s Houston Stars
franchise. The Stars proved a worthy opponent and won three of the four
contests. In the end, the Mustangs remained in Florida until the end of
February. The two-month training camp served as a tune-up for the club’s
legitimate preseason games against European competition.
While
several of the other NASL teams were playing preseason games against Caribbean
teams, Owner Allyn and Coach Meyer wanted to test their group prior to the
club’s NASL opener on April 14, 1968. The Mustangs embarked on a nine-game tour
of Europe during the month of March, scheduling games against the likes of
Athletic Bilbao and Red Star Belgrade. In their first game against Austrian
side FC Wacker, the Mustangs fell 5-2.
Kowalik netted both of Chicago’s goals, once again proving his
troublesome transfer was well worth it. The Mustangs then lost 4-0 to Red Star
Belgrade and 1-0 to FK Sloboda in their next two games. Chicago wrapped up
their preseason exhibitions with an 8-0 beating at the hands of Atletico Bilbao. Out of ten
games, the Mustangs won once, tied once, and lost eight times. On the face of
it, the tour was a disastrous undertaking, but the games provided an unseen
benefit. While most of the league were warming up against inferior teams, the
Mustangs, though losing handily in some games, competed against legitimate
competition. Kowalik and the Mustangs quickly forgot the embarrassing results
and turned their attention to the first NASL season. The season would prove fruitful
for Kowalik as the Pole continued his fine form and banged in a record number
of goals.
The Blond Bullet
After
nearly a year of training, the Chicago Mustangs kicked off their thirty-two
game 1968 NASL season on April 12, 1968 against division rivals the Cleveland
Stokers at Comiskey Park. In a stadium that could hold over 46,000 people, just
1,395 fans showed up to see the new more American Mustangs. Kowalik was absent
from the lineup, nursing an ankle injury he sustained during the club’s European
tour. Without the Pole, the Mustangs lacked a genuine goal-scoring threat and failed
to outscore their opponents, dropping their season opener 2-1. The Mustangs also lost their second game
5-2 to the Kansas City Spurs while Kowalik recovered. The club and fans alike
had until the Mustangs third game to witness the Pole’s ability firsthand. Once
he broke into the lineup, Kowalik proved his preseason goal-scoring prowess was
no fluke.
Fully
healed, Kowalik made his second professional debut against the Atlanta Chiefs
twelve days after the season opener on April 24. On a cold spring night in
front of just 336 fans, Kowalik led the Mustangs to a 4-1 win netting two goals
in the process. With the low attendance, Kowalik may have felt he was back
training in Florida, only this time the goals counted. In his second NASL
appearance, Kowalik scored another two goals in a 3-3 controversial draw
against the Boston Beacons. The Mustangs protested the result claiming that
Boston fielded two ineligible players including the scorer of the game-tying
goal, Tony Gulin. The protests proved futile, though as Kowalik’s four goals in
two games garnered significant attention from the Chicago press.
The
Pole quickly became the face of the franchise, earning the nickname the Blond
Bullet in the process. Just a week after the Boston game, Chicago’s
African-American newspaper, The Chicago
Daily Defender even did a profile on the Pole. The paper mentioned
Kowalik’s name alongside the city’s leading athletes of the day including the
legendary Bears running back Gale Sayers and one of the most celebrated Cubs of
all-time, Ernie Banks. The Defender
proclaimed that Kowalik as the man who was going to make professional soccer a
popular sport in the Windy City.
Kowalik
proved worthy of the admiration. After dropping their first two games without
Kowalik, the Mustangs went on a sixteen game unbeaten streak with the Pole in
the lineup. Following the draw with Boston, Chicago tied Vancouver 1-1, though
Kowalik failed to score. However, he proved a lifesaver
in Chicago’s next game netting the game-tying goal in the dying seconds of a
1-1 draw against the St. Louis Stars. Jan followed up his game-tying heroics
the following game with an incredible four-goal performance in a 6-1 victory
over the Dallas Tornado on May 17. Kowalik continued to rack up goals as the
Mustangs extended their unbeaten streak into the summer. His only challenge
throughout the season for the league’s scoring crown came from the San Diego
Toros forward Cirillo “Pepe” Fernandez, who would nearly match Kowalik goal for
goal and assist for assist by the end of the season. By the beginning of July,
Kowalik was on his way to being named to the NASL All-Star team and the
Mustangs were the hottest team in the league, though their status among the
league’s elite soon changed.
The
New York Generals, fresh off an exhibition win over Pele and the Santos eleven,
handed the Mustangs their first loss since the Chicago club’s second game of
the season, sans Kowalik. The loss proved to be the first in a series of losses
for the Mustangs. For all of Kowalik’s goals and the club’s unbeaten streak,
Chicago dropped its next four games jeopardizing the club’s chances for a spot
in the NASL playoffs. Within this series of losses, the Mustangs played perhaps
the most interesting game of the season on July 19, when Chicago faced the
formidable Gornik Zabrze of Poland at Hanson Field. It was Kowalik’s first game
against Polish competition since his defection. One can only imagine the
conversations between the Miners players and Kowalik while they were on the
field. Jan, no matter who the opponent, continued to score at will, netting
both of Chicago’s goals as the Mustangs fell to Gornik 3-2.
Despite
the club’s hot start and its lengthy unbeaten streak, Chicago’s losing streak
proved too much for the Mustangs to overcome. Chicago’s fourth consecutive loss
came at the hands of Cleveland as the two teams entered the game tied for the
division lead. The Stokers defeated the Mustangs 4-1 on July 30, taking sole
possession of the Lakes Division lead. Kowalik again provided Chicago’s only
goal, but left the game with a possible concussion. This injury resulted in the
Pole missing the next game. Though the Mustangs were quickly falling out of
playoff contention, Kowalik still led the league in points scored. The NASL
counted each goal as two points, and rewarded one point for each assist. At the
time of his injury, Kowalik led the league in points with a score of fifty-five
points netting twenty-five goals and dishing out five assists. Pepe Fernandez
trailed Kowalik with twenty-two goals and three assists, giving the Toros
forward forty-seven points. The rest of the season proved an uphill battle for
the Mustangs as the club unsuccessfully chased Cleveland for the division title
and a spot in the NASL playoffs loss.
The
loss against Cleveland proved to be the last chance that the Mustangs had at
winning their division. Following the loss, the Mustangs never seemed to find
their early season form and alternated between winning and losing the rest of
its games, never threatening the Stokers position atop the Lakes Division.
Ironically, Kowalik’s thirtieth and final goal came in a 2-1 loss to Cleveland on
September 4, 1968 that mathematically eliminated the Mustangs from the playoffs
and all but sounded the death knell for the Mustangs franchise. Chicago’s final
game against the Detroit proved to be the last the Mustangs would play as the
team, as well as the league, struggled to attract fans all season.
The
highlight of the season, of course, was Kowalik. Despite the club failing to
make the playoffs, Kowalik won the league scoring title and captured the
league’s first MVP award, earning a new Volkswagen in the process (unfortunately
the model of the car was not specified). Kowalik finished the season with
thirty goals and nine assists giving the Pole sixty-nine total points.
Fernandez, competing with Kowalik for the title throughout the season, finished
second in points with sixty-seven points with thirty goals and seven assists.
The thirty goals by both players set a league record that lasted for a decade,
as the league nearly collapsed following the 1968 season.
Due
to the league’s abysmal attendance figures, many of the club owners bled money
throughout the season. The NASL failed to attract enough fans for the owners to
break even, and one by one the clubs began to abandon the league. By the end of
1968, twelve of the seventeen teams ceased to exist, while the Chicago Mustangs
decided to join Chicago’s amateur National Soccer League. Kowalik, coming off
of his superb season, was forced to play elsewhere. He eventually signed with
the Oakland Clippers, joining Pepe Fernandez. Following the 1968 season, the
club changed their name to the California Clippers and declined to partake in
the 1969 NASL season. Instead, the Clippers decided to play only international
exhibitions hosting the likes of Dynamo Kiev, Fiorentina, and West Bromich
Albion, among others. The Clippers international experiment lasted a few months
before the club folded in the summer of 1969, leaving Kowalik without a club
once again. This time Kowalik was a free agent and was free to sign with any club without approval from Polish entities. From California, Kowalik signed
with Sparta Rotterdam of the Netherlands. The Pole spent several seasons in the
Eridivisie— the Dutch First Division—competing against Johann Cruyff for the league’s
golden boot, though he had not played his last game in the NASL.
Kowalik
returned to the U.S. and the NASL in the summer of 1976. He signed with the
Chicago Sting and had a decent season scoring nine goals. Kowalik also played
alongside Pele for Team America during the Bicentennial Cup, which was an
international series to celebrate America’s bicentennial. Team America lost each
of its games against the national teams of Italy, Brazil, and England.
Following the end of the NASL season Kowalik returned to Holland only to return
for one last campaign with the Sting a year later.
Though he went on to have a
very successful career in the Netherlands—and eventually returned to the NASL—
none of Kowalik’s NASL accomplishments ever compared to his record setting 1968
season. Although most soccer fans acknowledge Kowalik for scoring a league
record thirty goals and capturing the first NASL MVP, it is his
journey from the fields of Krakow to his eventual NASL debut that makes his
story all the more impressive.
I relied on numerous primary and secondary sources to write this article. As always I consulted numerous articles from The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Defender, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Tmes, The Sarasota Journal, and The Washington Post. In addition to newspapers, I referenced the American Soccer History Archives, a wonderful interview with Kowalik in Dziennik Polski, www.footballdatabase.eu, http://www.rsssf.com/, http://www.aaceagles.org/, and Vadim Furmanov's incredible piece on the 1967 Mustangs. Many thanks to all who helped me throughout the process, including Vadim. You can give his blog a follow here, and follow him on twitter here.
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