Tulsa’s First Pro Soccer Player Reflects on City’s Original Championship Franchise
TULSA, Okla. – Before the OKC Thunder won the NBA Finals in June,the first professional sports title in Oklahoma belonged too the soccer team that played its home games at University of Tulsa’s Skelly Field.
WATCH: Tulsa’s first pro soccer player reflects on city’s original championship franchise:
[Video Placeholder: Tulsa’s first pro soccer player reflects on city’s original championship franchise]
The Tulsa Roughnecks became the smallest market to win the North American Soccer League’s Soccer Bowl ’83 wiht a 2-0 triumph over the Toronto Blizzard before a crowd of 53,000 in Vancouver.
But before that championship, Charlie Mitchell became Tulsa’s first professional soccer player in 1978 when his employer, Team Hawaii, relocated to Tulsa.
“The fans, if you made a mistake, they didn’t know any difference,” Mitchell told 2 News via zoom on Nov. 22 before FC Tulsa’s USL Championship final match. “If you did something good, everybody cheered. So the Tulsa habitat was great.”
Mitchell was the only player retained from Team Hawaii as it moved to become the Roughnecks.
The Scotland native and former New York Cosmos teammate of all-time great Pele (Mitchell provided the assist to one of Pele’s greatest goals) soon became a player-coach with the squad.
[Image of Charlie Mitchell]
Charlie Mitchell
“That first year was just a great experience,” Mitchell said. “It was great for all of the Tulsa people to get the possibility to see professional soccer.”
He added he has followed FC Tulsa’s success in the 2025 USL Championship playoffs.
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