San Diego Sockers

YouTube continues to amaze me. Memories.

As a soccer player in my youth in San Diego, my favorite sports team was -- far and away -- the San Diego Sockers. During the 1985-86 Major Indoor Soccer League season, the Sockers were going for their 5th consecutive championship.

Coached by Ron Newman, the Sockers were a true dynasty in a sport that much of America did not pay attention to. But the Sockers sometimes packed the San Diego Sports Arena to the rafters.

The Sockers were loaded with some great international players, mainly recent immigrants to the USA: Kaz Deyna (a former Polish national team captain and one of the players in the movie Victory); speedy U.S. national team defender and hall-of-famer Fernando Clavijo; Hungarian born, Double-deuce, triple-E, the one-and-only Juli Veee; and U.S. midfielder/Northern Irishman Brian Quinn.

Given that it was the same time that the Chicago Bears emerged with the Super Bowl Shuffle, the Sockers did their own version. Ade Coker, Jean Willrich, Veee, Quinn, and company, with announcer Randy Hahn:



Unbelievable.