Baltimore Bays
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- This article is about the original Baltimore Bays of the NPSL/NASL. For the second team to use the name in the ASL, see Baltimore Bays (ASL). For the third team to use the name in the USISL, see Baltimore Bays (USISL). There was also an ASL team called the Maryland Bays.
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| Full name | Baltimore Bays | ||
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| Founded | 1967 | ||
| Dissolved | 1969 | ||
| Ground | Memorial Stadium (50,000) Kirk Field (10,000) | ||
| Chairman | Jerold Hoffberger | ||
| Coach | Doug Millward (1967) Gordon Jago (1968–1969) | ||
| League | National Professional Soccer League (1967), North American Soccer League (1968–1969) | ||
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The first Baltimore Bays were a professional soccer team based out of Baltimore, Maryland. It was one of ten charter members of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967. The team would become a part of the North American Soccer League (NASL), which was the result of a merger between the NPSL and the rival United Soccer Association (USA). The owner was Jerold Hoffberger, who also held the same capacity with the National Brewing Company and Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles. The Bays played its home matches at Memorial Stadium during its first two seasons and Kirk Field, a high school football stadium in Baltimore, in 1969. The team wore National Brewing's colors of red and gold.
Following the 1968 NASL season, the league was in trouble with ten franchises having folded. The 1969 season was split into two halves. The first half was called the International Cup, a double round robin tournament in which the remaining NASL clubs were represented by teams imported from the United Kingdom. The Bays were represented by West Ham United F.C.. They were runners-up for the Cup with a 5–2–1 record. For the second half of the 1969 season, the teams returned to their normal rosters and played a 16-game schedule with no playoffs. Gordon Jago coached the Bays.
Year-by-year
| Year | League | W | L | T | Pts | Regular Season | Playoffs | Avg. Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | NPSL | 14 | 9 | 9 | 162 | 1st, Eastern Division | Runners-up (Oakland) | 5,838 |
| 1968 | NASL | 13 | 16 | 3 | 128 | 4th, Atlantic Division | Did Not Qualify | 4,628 |
| 1969 | NASL | 2 | 13 | 1 | 42 | 5th | Did Not Qualify | 1,238 |
Honors
Template:MultiColNPSL Championships
- 1967 -runners up
Division Titles
- 1967 Eastern Division
US Soccer Hall of Fame
- 1996 Gordon Bradley
- 2003 Clive Toye
Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame[1]
- 2013 Gordon Jago
| class="col-break " |
Rookie of the Year
- 1969 Siegfried Stritzl
All-Star First Team Selections
- 1967 Juan Santisteban
- 1967 Badu DaCruz
- 1967 Art Welch
- 1969 John Borodiak
- 1969 Art Welch
All-Star Second Team Selections
- 1968 Dennis Viollet
Coaches
Doug Millward (1967)- Gordon Jago (1968–69)
