When the Sounders marched alumni out onto the Lumen Field pitch on June 15, among them were men who never cashed a paycheck or played for any team playing under that name. They played for Football Club Seattle, arguably the most ‘Seattle’ team ever, stocked almost entirely of local players.

Yet FC Seattle is largely unknown to the average fan. It falls through the cracks between two Sounders iterations, the NASL and A-League. It never played before a home sellout crowd. It lasted just even seasons and was semipro, paying players for only two of those years.

Had FC Seattle adopted the Sounders name, it would fit neatly into the narrative. Instead, it opted for ‘Storm,’ developed the next wave of players for critical roles in two championship teams and kept the lights on around Puget Sound when most of American pro soccer was going dark.

Forty years ago, in 1984, when 11v11 professional soccer was in its death throes, FC Seattle was the future. It encompassed youth development plus women’s and men’s teams. It helped usher a new league. Without it, there would be an 11-year gap in our heritage and a few less trophies to squawk about.

What’s In a Name?

Stitching together a 50-year history in North American soccer ain’t easy. The graveyard of clubs since the first coast-to-coast league is littered with names ranging from obscure (Apollos) to flavorless (Team Hawaii) to iconic (Cosmos).

FC Seattle owner Bud Greer had at one time contemplated rescuing the NASL Sounders. After it folded and his new club took shape, he chose the name of his men’s premier league side. “The Sounders was a damaged name; it didn’t have a good reputation (in 1984),” noted Greer. A nickname was added after the second season.

“The Storm name was (coach) Jimmy Gabriel’s idea,” said Greer. “He had this fixation on naming teams after the weather. We had a strong women’s team called the Rain. FC Seattle served as part of the continuum from the Sounders which went away and then came back again.”

Two other MLS clubs celebrating golden anniversaries are Vancouver and San Jose. Like Seattle, there were interim brands in B.C. and the Bay Area. When Vancouver began its Canadian Soccer League era, it was as the 86ers. San Jose’s charter MLS franchise was the Clash for the first three campaigns (1996-98).

Simply the Best

A native of Bellevue, Chance Fry played for the Sounders, both NASL and A-League, and FC Seattle. Fry led the APSL West with 17 goals in 1990 and was both the Storm and league career scoring king. He also played for the Earthquakes and their Bay Area successor, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks. The Earthquakes included the Blackhawks alumni in their anniversary activations.

While some may discount the Western Soccer League and its semipro status, the Storm and Blackhawks were fielding teams stocked with strong players. Ricky Davis and Brent Goulet were U.S. Soccer Players of the Year in 1985 and ’87, respectively. The Blackhawks featured USMNT mainstays Marcelo Balboa, John Doyle and Dominic Kinnear.

“People talk about (the WSL) not being first division and that, but before MLS, all the players were playing in the MISL (indoor), WSL, APSL or whatever leagues were happening at the time,” said Fry. “Those were the first American MLS players, and the Blackhawks could’ve competed at the MLS level. When MLS started, the (A-League) Sounders were doing very well.”

Sounders Success Rooted in Storm

The reason the Sounders won three trophies in their first three A-League seasons must be attributed, at least in part, to FC Seattle. Although it was shuttered six years earlier, the Storm had developed key players or, at the very least, kept them from prematurely hanging up their boots.

“It bridged that timeframe when nothing was going on outdoors,” observed Peter Hattrup. “The ‘88 season (with FC Seattle) was huge for me as a player. I had just sat my ass on the bench for two years of indoor, and to come back out and play and regain some confidence and the joy of playing outdoor made a big difference.”

Fry and Hattrup won the 1988 championship with the Storm, then reunited in 1994 with Sounders. In fact, there were nine FC Seattle alumni who eventually played for the Sounders, among them Brian Schmetzer. When the Sounders claimed their first A-League championship in 1995, Wade Webber, Fry (9 goals) and Hattrup (11 goals, 8 assists) were vital contributors, with Hattrup earning league MVP.

“I was no better in ’95 than ’88, and Chance was still scoring goals,” Hattrup attested. “If FC Seattle was the backbone of the older group of A-League Sounders, Murphy’s Pub (1993 U.S. Amateur champions) was the backbone of the young part of the Sounders, with Marcus (Hahnemann), Jason and James Dunn and Jason Farrell. That was the nucleus.”

Fry said each stop along the way prepared him for that return. “I’d been a young kid with the first Sounders, just trying to make it,” he said. “With the Storm, I was a little bit older, and everything started coming together; by 1990 I played every minute of every game (scoring 17 goals), which is pretty rare for a striker.”

Fry won an A-League title with the Blackhawks, then returned home to win two more with the Sounders.

In the NASL era, Americans were typically deployed in supporting roles. Relying on local players, FC Seattle gave the likes of Hattrup and Fry to become the go-to guys in a league which supplied seven alumni to the 1990 U.S. World Cup squad.

“We had local players playing against good caliber players in those important positions, of attacking midfielder or forward, not just outside backs and a goalkeeper” Hattrup maintained. “We were playing all the important positions. When it came time, we were already established that way.”

Hattrup is not alone in that assessment.

“The nucleus of that Sounders team was able to keep playing competitively at a high level at FC Seattle,” said Peter Fewing.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

“FC Seattle was a great vehicle to bridge the gap until the A-League Sounders emerged on the other side,” said Bruce Raney, who played the first two seasons with the Storm. “It continued the development, to give people a semipro, serious opportunity with good coaching because they (ex-Sounders) were still around. It was a fantastic bridge between the original and the next stage which finally led to Major League Soccer.”

Our league had Kasey Keller, Chris Henderson, Chance Fry, Brent Goulet, Marcelo Balboa, Jim Gabarra; it was an impressive list,” recounted Eddie Henderson, who starred for FC Seattle from 1988-90 before focusing on an indoor career. “The quality was there.”

If Henderson had one wish, it would have been a return home to play for the Sounders. The crowds had audibly buzzed when he had the ball during his FC Seattle days, and with triple the number of fans, Henderson is left to only imagine the excitement that might have been stirred.

“People want to dismiss FC Seattle and the Western Soccer League because the money wasn’t there,” said Henderson. “We were playing because we loved the game. It wasn’t about the money; it was our lifelong dream.

“The Storm’s never been really recognized because we weren’t called the Sounders. That’s all. It wasn’t because of the quality of players. I would even argue that the FC Seattle team was as good as any of the A-League Sounders teams that won championships.”