SMU's Lamar Hunt Gets Soccer Award

[MrMustang1965]

CARSON, Calif. -- Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber presented the Commissioner's Award on Saturday to investor-operator Lamar Hunt, one of the league's founding fathers and a man who has championed soccer in the United States for nearly 40 years.

Hunt, who is the investor-operator of three MLS franchises - the Kansas City Wizards, Columbus Crew and FC Dallas - has spearheaded the push toward soccer-specific stadiums in the United States and has helped put the league on the road to becoming one of the country's major sports leagues.

"It's not often in life that we get to rub shoulders with someone who has been a part of creating history, to live and work alongside someone who had the vision to see what others could not and who believed when others did not. That singular perseverance and that commitment is what legends are made of," Garber said.

A native Arkansan, Hunt graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1956 and, four years later, made his first impact on the American sports scene, founding and organizing the American Football League at the tender age of 28. In 1967, Hunt made his first foray into professional soccer, beginning a decades-long commitment to the sport in the United States.

That year, Hunt became an investor in the North American Soccer League's Dallas Tornado Soccer Club, a team that built a strong fan base and helped make north Texas one of the country's premier areas for youth soccer, which it still is today.

In 1995, just after World Cup 1994, the first World Cup held in the United States, Hunt helped start another tradition by becoming a charter investor in MLS.

Through Hunt Sports Group, he became the investor-operator of the Wizards and Crew, and it wasn't long before he and one of his teams changed the course of history for soccer in the United States. In 1999, Hunt and the Crew opened Crew Stadium, the first ever stadium designed specifically for Division I soccer in the United States. The venue and the team thrived, blazing a trail for other cities like Carson, Calif. (Los Angeles Galaxy), Bridgeview, Ill. (Chicago Fire), Commerce City, Colo. (Colorado Rapids) and Harrison, N.J. (MetroStars) to develop their own soccer-specific stadiums.

Next year, Hunt will once again move soccer in the United States a step forward when he and FC Dallas open the Frisco Soccer and Entertainment Complex, which will have at its heart FC Dallas' new, state-of-the-art soccer-specific stadium. The stadium, which came to be through a revolutionary public-private partnership between the club, the city of Frisco, Texas, Collin County and the Frisco Independent School District, will be surrounded by 17 youth soccer fields, making the complex the largest of its kind in the nation.

If it weren't for Hunt, FC Dallas would not be in a position to open a new stadium. With the team -- then known as the Dallas Burn -- struggling without an investor-operator, Hunt took over control of the club from the league in January 2002. Since then, the organization has made significant progress, with the Frisco complex serving as the best evidence of the club's health.

Even outside of MLS, Hunt as been extremely influential in the past several years. He has been instrumental in bring U.S. women's national team games to Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium and has also convinced the U.S. Soccer Federation to play some of the U.S. men's World Cup qualifying matches at Arrowhead.

Hunt has been handsomely rewarded both on the field and off for his leadership and his contributions to soccer in the United States. In 2000, the Wizards claimed their first MLS Cup title and could win another on Sunday, and Hunt's teams have twice won the U.S. Open Cup, which coincidentally was renamed after Hunt in 1999. The Crew claimed the oldest team trophy in American sports history in 2002, while the Wizards captured the crown less than two months ago.

Hunt as also been honored twice by the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Hall in 1982 for his early contributions to the sport, and in 1999, the Hall's Medal of Honor was bestowed upon him for his continued help in growing the game. Hunt was the second person to be so honored.

[MrMustang1965]

(completing)

Hunt as also been honored twice by the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Hall in 1982 for his early contributions to the sport, and in 1999, the Hall's Medal of Honor was bestowed upon him for his continued help in growing the game. Hunt was the second person to be so honored.

[NavyCrimson]

watched a little of the mvc championship game from nebraska last nite -

nice stadium for sure -

any plans for smu to build a nice stadium for our soccer team like that or close to it?

i was wondering if that was part of the deal in order to get Schellas Hyndman to stay when he had that offer to coach the local soccer team awhile back?

anybody know out there?