Oklahoma City Slickers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Oklahoma City Slickers was an American soccer club based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that was a member of the American Soccer League. The club played in the ASL for the 1982 and 1983 seasons, reaching the league finals in its inaugural season before losing to the ASL incarnation of the Detroit Express. The team's best-known players were goalkeeper Phil Parkes (Wolves) and Jeff Bourne, both veterans of the NASL and FA Premier League. Home games were played at historical (but woefully narrow for soccer purposes) Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City.

After the ASL folded, the club joined the newly formed United Soccer League as the Oklahoma City Stampede. The club once again came tantalizingly close to a league championship, winning the regular-season title on point differential over the Ft. Lauderdale Sun but falling in the playoff semi-finals to the Houston Dynamos in a three-game series. This success, however, was short-lived. The club joined all but two of the league's nine teams in folding after the 1984 season. The Slickers were resurrected for several years in the early nineties as a member of the USISL. Brian Harvey coached the Slickers and the Stampede in each of their incarnations.