Tea Men Owner Ingo Kreig Reflects On Original Era Of Jacksonville Soccer

Bring up the Jacksonville Tea Men to Ingo Krieg and you are sure to get much more than reminiscing about soccer in the early 1980s. A passionate promoter of the Jacksonville sports scene, Krieg still remains proud of his investment years later.

A Jacksonville-based engineer and bio fuel entrepreneur, Krieg escaped from East Germany with his family when he was only three years old. In 1982, he joined a group of investors to bring Jacksonville its first professional soccer team in a move from New England.

Over 30 years later soccer is back with the Armada FC playing in their inaugural season, and Krieg is glad to see it carry on the tradition set forth by his Jacksonville Tea Men.

“Jake Godbold was the mayor in the early ’80s and he wanted to bring more teams into the city,” he said. “Lipton Tea, which owned the team, wanted to come down here because it was having trouble playing at the stadium in Foxborough, Mass., along with the New England Patriots. They had conflicts in schedule, so Lipton decided to find another place to play, and Jacksonville was where it decided to come.”

Krieg saw a real opportunity in the team and decided to investigate.

“Lipton didn’t want to come in unless it had local ownership. It had a couple of investors already, but it came out in the paper that it needed another investor to really close the deal. My father was always very athletic and even tried out for the Olympic team, so I thought this was a real chance for me get involved in sport. So I met with the people that I needed to, wrote them a check, and the rest was history and the team started playing in 1982.”

When Lipton decided to sell the team, Krieg saw another opportunity. The team had peaked in attendance at more than 18,000 people, and it was something that not only himself but the entire community clearly valued and decided to take a chance on.

“What really convinced me to go on my own after Lipton decided to back off and all the other investors started to leave was our game against the New York Cosmos,” he said. “It was a 1-1 tie that went to a two-round shootout, which we ended up winning. It was drizzling rain the whole time, and Arnie [Mausser] was our goalie. I had always been a good friend to Arnie, but I knew we had the best goalie in the league. I also knew we had something really special here. After that match, I felt like it was important to keep the team here. So I met with the vice president of marketing at Lipton and asked if I could continue to use the Tea Men name. He said yes and offered his continued support to the club. I had an opportunity to keep the team here, but I couldn’t afford to pay the NASL salaries on my own, so I approached the American Soccer League (ASL), and they accepted us.”

Jacksonville was able to keep its team, but the best was yet to come.

“I really enjoyed going to league meetings all around the country. I had a great general manager in Dick Kravitz and coach in Dennis Viollet. Dennis put together a really good team with some of the players from the NASL team, some new players and even one from Jacksonville University, Tony Novo. From there, we had an excellent season that year and won the ASL Championship in 1982 against the Pennsylvania Stoners. It was the first national championship the city had ever had. That allowed us to play in a CONCACAF tournament and play international. Dennis told me, ‘Ingo, this is what soccer is all about. Playing international.’ It was really awesome.”

Jacksonville now had a team that was competing on a global scale for the first time it its history.

“We flew down to Panama and won. Then they came back and played here at the Gator Bowl. We must have been too ‘nice’ and didn’t get the local fans riled up enough, so we lost that one. But I really enjoyed that part. That is when I realized that Dennis’ whole life had been about international play.”

On Saturday, the Armada FC will wear Throwback Tea Men jerseys and the memory the team that laid the foundation for soccer in Jacksonville will be honored, and Krieg is glad to see it.

“This is an incredibly nice gesture from Mark Frisch,” he said. “From the team to front office and even city leaders like Mayor Godbold, it took everyone to do it back then. But I think it was Dennis Viollet. He actually took all the equipment and did the training camps, which really got things going all around town.

“Honestly, I could see some more international play going here in Jacksonville. It is obviously a goal of the Armada’s, and we definitely have the city to do it.“