| Tourney Name: | North American Soccer League -1978 Skelly Invitational- |
| Other Titles: | Skelly Indoor Invitational |
| Dates: | March 4, 1978 – March 5, 1978 |
| Num Teams: | 4 |
| Champion Other: | Tulsa Roughnecks |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: | Minnesota Kicks |
| Matches: | 4 |
| Goals: | 57 |
| Attendance: | 3500 |
| Top Scorer: | Nino Zec (5 goals) Randy GarberMilan Dovedan |
| Player: | Nino Zec Tibor Molnár |
| Prevseason: | 1976 |
| Nextseason: | 1979 |
The 1978 NASL Skelly Invitational was a four-team indoor soccer tournament held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the Tulsa Assembly Center on the first weekend of March 1979.[1]
Four teams, all from the North American Soccer League, participated in the two-day event: the Houston Hurricane, the Minnesota Kicks, the Washington Diplomats, and the host Tulsa Roughnecks.
Matches were 60 minutes long and divided into three 20-minute periods, with an intermission between each period. Timed overtime periods, featuring a golden goal winner, would be used to decide any matches tied after 60 minutes. Each session consisted of two games (i.e. a doubleheader). The opening round of matches (Saturday evening's Session 1) would be semi-final games, with the Session 2 matches on Sunday afternoon serving as the third place match and Championship Final respectively. The first match of Session 1 was Minnesota's first time playing indoors.[2] The second match of Session 1, played on Saturday, March 4, 1978, between Tulsa and Houston, marked the first time the expansion Hurricane faced NASL competition,[1] and was only the Roughnecks third-ever game.[3] [4] [5]
Approximately 3,500 people attended the two sessions. Tulsa won both of its matches and was crowned champions of the Skelly Invitational. Roughnecks forward Nino Zec edged out both teammate Milan Dovedan and Washington's Randy Garber by one assist to lead the invitational in scoring with 5 goals and 2 assists. The tournament's co-MVPs were Zec and Tibor Molnár,[6] also of Tulsa.[7] The Kicks were runners-up in the invitational,[8] with the Dips defeating the Hurricane for 3rd place in the consolation match. The all-tournament squad included four Roughnecks: Zec, Molnar, Dovedan, and goalkeeper, Gary Allison.[7]
Session 1: Saturday, March 4, 1978
| style=font-size:85% align=center rowspan=3 width=15% | 7:00 PM CST | width=24% align=right | Minnesota Kicks | align=center width=13% | 8–7 (OT) | width=24% | Washington Diplomats | style=font-size:85% rowspan=3 valign=top | Attendance: 1,500 (est) |
| align=right valign=top | valign=top | align=left valign=top |
| style=font-size:85% align=center rowspan=3 width=15% | 9:00 PM CST | width=24% align=right | Tulsa Roughnecks | align=center width=13% | 12–3 | width=24% | Houston Hurricane | style=font-size:85% rowspan=3 valign=top | |
| align=right valign=top | valign=top | align=left valign=top |
| style=font-size:85% align=center rowspan=3 width=15% | 2:30 PM CST | width=24% align=right | Washington Diplomats | align=center width=13% | 8–5 | width=24% | Houston Hurricane | style=font-size:85% rowspan=3 valign=top | Attendance: 2,000 (est) |
| align=right valign=top | valign=top | align=left valign=top |
| style=font-size:85% align=center rowspan=3 width=15% | 4:30 PM CST | width=24% align=right | Tulsa Roughnecks | align=center width=13% | 9–5 | width=24% | Minnesota Kicks | style=font-size:85% rowspan=3 valign=top | |
| align=right valign=top | valign=top | align=left valign=top |
G = Games, W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential
| 1978 Skelly Indoor Invitational | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | G | W | L | GF | GA | GD | Position | |
| Tulsa Roughnecks | 2 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 8 | +13 | 1st place (champions) | |
| Minnesota Kicks | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 16 | –3 | 2nd place (runners-up) | |
| Washington Diplomats | 2 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 13 | +2 | 3rd place | |
| Houston Hurricane | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 20 | –12 | 4th place | |
Goals (worth 2 points), Assists (worth 1 point)[1] [7]
| Leading Scorers | Goals | Assists | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nino Zec (Tulsa) | 5 | 2 | 12 | |
| Randy Garber (Washington) | 5 | 1 | 11 | |
| Milan Dovedan (Tulsa) | 5 | 1 | 11 | |
| Mike Bakić (Washington) | 4 | 0 | 8 | |
| Ade Coker (Minnesota) | 4 | 0 | 8 | |
| Živorad Stamenković (Tulsa) | 3 | 2 | 8 | |
| Mark Moran (Minnesota) | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| Gerry Morielli (Houston) | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| Don O'Riordan (Tulsa) | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| Matt O'Sullivan (Houston) | 2 | 1 | 5 | |
| Jim Steele (Washington) | 2 | 1 | 5 |
GA = Goals Against, GAA = Goals Against Average, SV = Saves, SF = Shots Faced
| Leading Goalkeepers | Minutes | GA | GAA | SV | SF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darryl Wallace (Tulsa) | 60 | 3 | 3.00 | 25 | 30 | |
| Gary Allison (Tulsa) | 60 | 5 | 5.00 | unk | unk | |
| Bill Irwin (Washington) | 60 | 5 | 5.00 | 19 | 24 | |
| Kurt Kuykendall (Washington) | 63 | 8 | 7.875 | unk | unk |
These were not the only indoor matches played that winter. The four Skelly Invitational participants played a combined 12 additional matches. Since a full season of indoor soccer was still two years away,[9] NASL teams were free to do their own scheduling. There were reports of the league awarding an "NASL Cup" for the best team among those that participated in at least 16 indoor games.[10] Of the 24 teams in the league, 11 had indoor matches planned. The Tampa Bay Rowdies, for example played eight games. By contrast, the Chicago Sting signed on to play only two games at Washington, both of which were ultimately canceled because of scheduling conflicts with a boat show at the D.C. Armory.[11] In the end, no team played more than nine games in 1978, and only a handful played more than three.