Throwback Thursday | Dallas Tornado World Tour

The Dallas Tornado weren’t rock stars, but they went on a world tour that may never be repeated.

From the summer of 1967 to March of 1968, the NASL Golden Era club made stops in five different continents over a seven-month-long trip.

One of the players involved was Mike Renshaw, who ultimately became one of the Tornado's longest serving employees in different roles. Renshaw and other players’ journey began simply by answering an advertisement.

"I was a young man," Renshaw told NASL.com. "At the time I was playing for Blackpool’s youth team, and there was an ad in the classified section of the Liverpool Echo wanting top young players to play professionally in the United States. I responded to the ad, had a meeting and an interview, and was offered a spot."

Although it was an NASL club, only one American - Bobby Moore - was on the roster. Along with Renshaw, there were seven other Englishmen, five Norwegians, two Swedes, and two Dutchmen to round out the squad.  

The club, which was founded by Lamar Hunt, encountered much more than soccer on its world tour.

Traveling to cities such as Saigon during the Vietnam War, it wasn’t a vacation that included soccer. Renshaw recounted an incident near the Pakistan-India border.

""It was a bit scary," he said. "Traveling on the bus, I remember it got surrounded by a bunch of locals, who started beating the bus with sticks."

Renshaw added: "One of the Norwegian guys, Per Larsen - we had a bunch of soccer balls - he had the idea to throw them out. So we did, and it seemed to appease them, and they became friendlier. It made me realize the global implications of the game itself."

Larsen was also involved in a near-riot in Singapore. With tensions already high, a foul by the Tornado player saw stones being hurled onto the pitch, and Larsen's bowing further incited the crowd.

Another incident was the team missing a plane to Cyprus. The flight, BEA CY284, was headed from Athens to Nicosia and exploded after a bomb was detonated mid-flight.

"Missing that plane was the best thing we ever did," Bill Crosbie, another member on the team told The Guardian in 2014.

Generally, Dallas enjoyed the experience with Renshaw saying that many of the players hoped the trip would never end. Many times, they played in front of crowds of 20-, 30-, or 40,000 people. 

While the results were not always positive on the field, Dallas drew Fenerbahce in Istanbul, which is one of Turkey’s premier clubs and a regular participant in the UEFA Champions League today.

For Renshaw, he was only able to play a small part in the game.

"That was 2-2 in Istanbul," he said. "I suffered a ruptured appendix when we were traveling to Oviedo in Northern Spain. I was in the hospital for six days and didn’t end up playing against Real Oviedo. We then traveled to Istanbul, and I was recovered by then but lost some fitness. I think I only played the last 15 minutes."

What started in August 1967 in Spain and stopped in places like Iran, the Phillipines, Australia, and Fiji - where the Tornado played shortened games due to the heat - ended in March, 1968 in South America.

The Tornado played professional clubs such as Saprissa in Costa Rica, Nicosia in Cyprus as well as the Japanese and Pakistani national teams or Best XIs such as their opponent in Manila. 

The club’s final game was a 2-1 loss to Olimpia in Honduras.

However, for a squad of young professionals to travel the world and play the game they loved, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It also helped shape the lives of the young men, who had a reunion in  2014.

"I didn’t go to university back in England. I consider it my formal education, just to travel around the world," Renshaw said.