More than 70,000 fans are packed into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, cheering on their hometown club. But deep in the stadium tunnel, where the crowd roar is an echoing low drum, four Atlanta pioneers could hardly believe their eyes.
“When we started, if we got five or six thousand in Fulton County Stadium, we’d be lucky,” Alan Hamlyn says. “At that time, there was no backing because people in Atlanta didn’t know what soccer was.”
That “we” is the Atlanta Chiefs, the first ever professional soccer team in Atlanta. In 1968, they were the champions of the North American Soccer League, 50 years ago this year.