Oakland Clippers

Did You Know?

• The Clippers brought the first-ever national professional championship in any sport to the San Francisco Bay Area and the City of Oakland.
• General Manager Derek Liecty convinced owners to choose the new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum over San Francisco's old and windy Kezar Stadium.
• The Clippers brought to the United States for the first time a team from the Soviet Union, league club champion Dynamo Kiev.
• Just before ceasing operations, the Clippers defeated Italian league champion Fiorentina 4-2 in their final game.
• The team's owners lost $1.5 million while running the team and cited the dysfunctional relationship between governing bodies as a reason for folding.

Overview

The first national professional sports championship for both the San Francisco Bay Area and Oakland was secured by the Clippers. The team’s owners had initially intended to base the club in San Francisco, but General Manager Derek Liecty argued that the new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was a superior venue compared to Kezar Stadium, which was old and plagued by wind. Using contacts in Yugoslavia, the Clippers brought in Dr. Aleksandar Obradovic, who had previously managed Red Star of Belgrade. Obradovic arrived with Ivan Toplak, a former Yugoslav international and Red Star coach, along with six top-division players willing to compete in an unsanctioned league. By the 1967/1968 season, the squad included players from ten different nations.

In 1967, the Clippers claimed the NPSL Western Division title and the overall regular season championship. They then defeated the Baltimore Bays in the NPSL Final, winning the two-game, home-and-home series by an aggregate score of 4-2. The team also took the Commissioner’s Cup, beating the St. Louis Stars 6-3. After that season, the Clippers became part of the newly formed North American Soccer League (NASL), which resulted from a merger between the NPSL and the United Soccer Association (USA).

The following year, the Clippers finished with the same record as the Western Division champion San Diego Toros and had a better goal differential, but the Toros earned more league points. A controversial offside call by the referee in the final regular-season match against San Diego, which ended in a 3-3 tie, left the Clippers in second place and out of the playoffs. This unusual points system prevented them from defending their 1967 NPSL title in the merged 1968 league.

By September 1968, the NASL was on the verge of collapse. With no league opponents west of Dallas, Texas, the Clippers chose to keep the team alive by playing an independent schedule as the California Clippers, facing top foreign clubs. Among their efforts, they became the first to bring a Soviet team to the United States, hosting Dynamo Kiev, the league champion from the USSR. That three-game series ended with each side earning one win and one tie.