The 1975 Portland Timbers changed the landscape of Oregon sports, establishing professional soccer as a cornerstone event in a region which, across the United States, would become a hotbed for the world’s game. On Tuesday, the team was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, capping a legacy lives on in the Rose City’s love of soccer.
On this episode of Breaking Lines, four members of that NASL expansion team – Willy Anderson, Tony Betts, Mick Hoban and Nick Nicholas – talk about the Portland of the 1970s, how the game has grown, the ways in which the city has changed, and how their lives were forever different for their time green, white and gold.